At uni or college next year? You could play for Great Britain!

Its not a well publicised fact, but not all national rugby teams are selected by the RFUW.

The England Colleges rugby team has been mentioned on here before. Its the representative team for students at sixth form and FE colleges, and is based on trials that take place every autumn. Unlike the teams organised by the RFUW you do not need to be nominated for these trials - though, on the downside, they have never been well publicised in the past! If you are interested then there is a website (click here). However one problem is that your college does need to be a member of British Colleges Sport, so your best bet might be to start with your college's sport department.

Universities and other HE institutions have a different association - British Universities and Colleges Sport. BUCS enter a Great Britain team in annual World University Championships in a wide variety of sports - including women's rugby sevens, where the championships this year are in Porto in July.

Again RFUW are not involved, so you do not need to be nominated by any region or TDG coach. Its all based on self-nomination, and if you want to be considered for the British team you just fill in this form and go from there. Chances are if you are at uni now its a bit late to get into the 2010 team, but its worth remembering to put yourself forward for 2011 as soon as the next academic year starts (nominations seem to open in October).