I thought it was going to be sunny ....

Even the higher authority (the Met Office, apparently) called upon to provide good weather at Reading on Sunday was unable to keep the rain away for the whole day, though it did seem to me that Wimbourne had brought the Dorset sun with them ... and took it back with them, as well!

The first game was a close affair between Reading and Wimbourne which saw the visitors do enough to gain the victory. Then it was Letchworth's turn. It turned out to be a day of mixed fortunes for the Letchworth girls who fought back in their first game (against Wimbourne) to earn a draw but then couldn't maintain that level in the second match which was comfortably won by the hosts.

I thought we might start off a few pics from the match with this one which, after looking at a photo of a grey-haired old guy on http://letchworthgirls.blogspot.com/2008/04/letchworth-lumirugbya.html, one might title "It's all in the genes!" -

And this could be titled "Ruby gets a warm Wimbourne welcome!" -

Then we have Sasha's try -

and Natalie's marathon try from just about on her own tryline ...

... just evading the Wimbourne defence ...

And finally, following John's suggestion, does anyone have a caption for this one?

It was a fine day's rugby marred only by the injury to Poppy - everyone at Letchworth sends their best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Many thanks to everyone at Reading and Wimbourne rugby clubs and good luck in the Divisional 10s this weekend!

Results :

Wimbourne 12 Letchworth 12

Letchworth scorers :

Tries : Sasha, Natalie

Conversion : Sasha

Reading 31 Letchworth 5

Letchworth scorer :

Try : Sasha

Thursday Training - Change to time

Will all players please note that training this Thursday will start 15 minutes earlier than usual at 5.45pm. Also, as the session will involve some tactical discussions, etc. please remember to bring some warm clothing to put on over your rugby playing kit.

Caption competition...

Just spotted this (quite amusing) one. No prizes as such, but I am wondering what the Wimborne defender (the one with her eyes closed!) is saying/thinking as Hayley closes in (having just run over a teammate!)...

Remembering sunny Reading...

I am sure Mike will shortly be publishing his illustrated match report, but in the meanwhile Phil has added a couple of dozen pictures to the Threlfall archive. You can browse the images or view them as a slideshow.

Of all the images I reckon this captures best the main memories most will have of the day. Doesn't include the thunder and lightning, of course, or the (occasional) outbursts of sunshine.

It is also no comfort to find that this weather seems reserved for us (and wasn't it interesting how it got worse after Wimborne left... taking the sun back home with them!). A common remark was that "well, its not as bad as it was at Lichfield", but it certainly looks like it was bright and sunny there yesterday for the National Knockout Final.

• On a less happy note we hear that Poppy (the Wimbourne girl injured in Hayley's tackle) has a broken humorus and will not play again this season. Our best wishes to her for the summer, and the hope that she will return fully fit again for next season.
  

Fantasy women's rugby XV (and guess what's 8th "most influential" rugby blog in the UK)!

Mike has passed on an interesting item - apparently this is the 8th most influential rugby union blog in the UK. Not just girls' rugby, or club rugby... any rugby union blog, including professional ones run by journalists. In fact we are also the 91st most influential blog on any sport. And when it comes to club - sites aimed just at one club - or junior sport blogs we are number one!

Quite how the people who run this - Wikio - work all this out I am not entirely sure - its something to do with how much a blog is quoted elsewhere I think - but overall its rather neat. Not to say ever so slightly scarey...

Looking at the other rugby blogs listed we are also probably one of the oldest. And there are some quite interesting blogs out there. I rather like this one - imaginatively called The Rugby Blog - and especially the latest article which tries to pick a fantasy rugby XV from sportsmen who never played rugby. There's some rather predictable picks - a current and present World's Strongest Man as props - but there is some nice ideas in there, including Muhammed Ali at outside centre, and Frankie Detorri as scrum-half.

Not only did I wonder if its possible to pick better XV, I also wondered about a women's XV. A shade more difficult, being as women's sport has nothing of the profile of men's sport, but what do you think? If not a full XV - how about a few choice picks for specific positions, for instance I might suggest (and at the same time indicate my age and sporting interests!):

• Kelly Holmes - centre?
• Victoria Pendleton - wing?
• Jane Smit (England wicket-keeper) - fly-half [will catch any pass, however bad!, and pretty accurate passing too]?
• Denise Annets (Australian batsman) - scrum half [short, but lightning fast. Brilliant hands]
• Fatima Whitbread (javelin gold-medalist) - hooker [no problem hitting the back of the lineout!]
  
• Mary Peters (pentathlon gold medalist) - prop
• Rachel Heyhoe-Flint (managed to overturn the MCC's all male-member policy - just think how useful someone like that would be in the women's game!) - Manager
  

I did wonder about all those former East German shot-putters as forwards, but presumably they'd be caught and banned for doping these days!


Any other ideas, anyone?

Or failing all that suggestions for a better men's XV?

Changes to girls section on main website

The main club website is continuing to be carefully redesigned to link better with the blog. Anyone using the website will notice that there is now one "Girls News" link rather than separate links for each age group team - there is one blog it is easier to have just one link on the main website, which will now be automatically populated with stories from the blog.

This means that there will be no duplication of effort that would otherwise be needed to update two sites, and also that whichever site you visit you will get all the latest news.

Letchworth Lumirugbya!

OK .... OK ... so it lacks a certain something compared to the Finnish version of snow rugby (like 30 degrees of frost, for example!) but last Sunday gave just a tiny notion of what Lumirugbya might be like ..........


Nikki practiced a couple of kicks which was not too bad considering she wasn't wearing boots and consequently kept slipping around ...

Not to be outdone, Mike, who was wearing boots (but not rugby boots) decided to show his prowess with an "up'n'under" neglecting to note a). how much snow was covering the ball and b). how inept he is at kicking. So here goes -

"Why is my leg so wet?", the old fool said followed by, "I'm sure it went up there somewhere!"

It had. 2 seconds later it landed on his nose.

Enough of kicking.

"Throw me a pass", he said to Nikki, "and I'll take a photo of it"

"It'll hit you!"

"No, no, no ... I'll take the picture and then catch it quickly"

"OK, here goes ..."

"Ouch!"

So what would Lumirugbya be like in England?

Too cold on the hands and too wet on the legs, I'd say, but I'd bet the ground was softer than on a frozen Finnish lake!

U18s at Reading on Sunday

A slight change of arrangements for our U18s games at Reading this Sunday. Firstly, the games will be 10-a-side in preparation for the Regional 10s tournament the following weekend and, secondly, the start time has been moved forward one hour.

So please meet at the Letchworth club by 10.30am on Sunday.

We can then travel to Reading for noon and get the first game underway by 1pm. According to the AA it is a journey of 68 miles and the Reading RFC website gives local directions to the club on http://www.readingrfc.co.uk/map.html.

I am reliably informed by Reading that they are having a word with those in high places to ensure that we avoid the snow and get good rugby weather this weekend ........ !

RFUW clarify Super League announcement

RFUW have now clarified the rather misleading article about the new U18 "Super League" which appeared in Touchline. It now appears that where the article said that the Super League will take place at the same time as the adult competition it meant the one that will take place at the end of this season on May 18th and 31st. I must confess that I never thought for a moment when I read the article that RFUW would be making such a significant change to the calendar at this late a date!

On the plus side this means that county rugby will be unaffected next season. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for club rugby as 18th May is a club date, and moreover the last of the season. Consequently it is a date for end-of-season tournaments (including Herts Sevens) and crucial league fixtures. This may not affect us as we have no TDG girls (though Hayley and/or Sasha might still be selected for these games if they perform well for East at the regional festival in Rugby) but it is causing all sorts of headaches for clubs that do have a significant TDG contingent.

This is because clubs (including us) have no idea at the moment whether or how many of our girls will be selected, and as most clubs have limited squads (our 18 or so girls makes us the biggest in the county!) the loss of one or two girls, or even more at some clubs - and moreover all the leading players - can have a big effect. This may be yet another factor that is restricting entries for Herts Sevens this season - and will hopefully not result in any withdrawals when the Super League teams are finally chosen.

It is unclear whether there will be a Super League for U18s next season - no dates for it appear in the current draft of next season's calendar (or at least not the one I have seen) - but that obviously does not mean that it will not be added. Hopefully the 2008/9 dates will be announced before clubs or tournament organisers have spent too much time working on their arrangements for the new season.

Herts Sevens: entries grow

The entry for Herts Sevens is slowly growing - though clearly the league clashes are taking more of a toll than expected. There are now seven teams in the U18 - us and...

• Reading
• Hertford
• Basford
• Pavworth Maoris
• Wisbech Grammar School
• Kettering R F C

Pavworth who? A little research reveals that this is Paviors and Tamworth combined (not sure about the Maoris though...), while Wisbech will be at the Nationals and are sensibly taking the chance to test the water at Herts Sevens first.

The U15s currently have eight entrants: Reading, Welwyn, London Irish, Hertford, Rochford Hundred, Tamworth, Kettering, and O A Saints. In both cases I think we can expect more entries yet.

RFUW add another tier to U18 rugby

Interesting news in the latest "Touchline" magazine. Following the success of the adult "Super League" (or "Super Fours" as it is sometimes called) - where the leading players are brought together to form four squads who play each other at the start of the season - a similar strategy is being adopted for U18 rugby.

Two U18 "Super League" squads are to be formed, including not only the TDG girls but also girls from beyond that elite group (there are only 30 girls in the TDG which is clearly not enough for two full squads). These teams will play each other twice at on the same dates (and presumably venues) as the adult Super League (no indication of any squad training session, but you'd think that logically there would have to be at least one!).

This actually sounds a good idea. To gather the leading girls together for just training sessions always struck me as an idea that seemed to miss something (you need a target - otherwise what are you training for?). The recent TDG game against the touring Canadian U19s was a welcome development, and there is a logic in building on that.

The only teeny tiny snag is that this "Super League" tier is being shoe-horned into what is already a pretty crowded - some would say over-crowded - calendar (see previous article). The county and regional tiers remain unchanged and there are some of us who have been saying for some time that it is stretching resources too far for a small game to run with two elite tiers. Now we will have three!

One positive - for clubs at least - is that Super League dates do not currently clash with the precious few remaining club dates in next year's packed calendar. They do, however, clash with the first half of the county season's dates which will make selecting and training U18 county squads a nice challenge for those involved. Numerically the loss of four or five girls (which is what, on past form, Hertfordshire might be faced with) would not make sessions impossible - but they will be the leading players so the loss will be out or proportion to numbers (and numbers in some county U18 squads may be a bit tight next season anyway). It may mean that some girls get county call-ups when they might not otherwise do so - but will they then get pushed out when the SL stars return in November? Not great for team-building that.

Wimbourne & Reading to the rescue!

I seem to have had to write quite a few 'sorry but our game has been cancelled' notices over the last few weeks, so it's very pleasing to be able to report that Wimbourne and Reading have stepped in to fill the void in our calendar with an U18s fixture at Reading on Sunday April 13th!

We will be meeting at Reading at 1pm for 2pm kick-off of the first match. Travel arrangements/meeting time at Letchworth will be posted next week.

Sunday 6th April

Unfortunately, Dorking are not able to join us this Sunday so there will be U18s training from 10 am at Letchworth.

No Superteams for us this year

It appears that there will not be a Superteams this year - at least not in the same format, or (crucially) on the same date. The organiser - Herts Association for Young People - appear to have decided to not only expand the "Highland Games" concept (so rather fewer multi-sport and "fun" events) but also have brought the date forward six weeks to 27th April, when we are likely to still be a bit busy. Teams sizes have also doubled from four to eight for the upper age band and you now HAVE to include 4 boys and 4 girls.

All in all a pity as its been a fun - and rather profitable - event for us over the past three years.

*If anyone is involved in any other youth clubs, and are free on 27th April, it still looks like a great day out. You will need to find a team of either fourteen 11-13 year olds, or eight 14-16 year olds (even split of boys and girls). More details from stuart.pittman@hertscc.gov.uk. Closing date for entries 21st April.

A little light training ...

Unfortunately, our friends from Ampthill were unable to be with us on Sunday, so we ran a 7s training match for the U18s which certainly seemed to get everyone in the mood for the forthcoming tournaments.

Now here's an unconventional tackle by Katie on Carla who gives a great offload to Natalie -

Nikki escapes the clutches of Sasha -

but gets demolished by Georgie -

Natalie makes a determined attempt to catch Georgie -

and Carla lines up a big tackle on Charlie -

And then there's Hayley's version of 'head down and charge!' -

Finally, many thanks to MBDA in Stevenage for the set of balls they kindly donated -

Match opportunity for U15s - and U12s!

There is going to be an tournament for U12 and U15 players at Welwyn on Sunday 27th April - and any U12s and U15s from across the county can take part (that is school years 5-10!).

U15s: With the top regional U15s away training the tournament is being organised specifically to give club U15 girls - who can normally miss-out on games at this time of year - a chance to play. A Hertfordshire team will be formed from any girls attending, and will play against similar combinations representing Eastern Counties, Kent, and Middlesex.

This is a great opportunity for any U15s, but most especially those who may not have played county rugby before and might like to get a taste for rugby at the next level. This will be the second time that a weekend like this has been arranged after a very successful afternoon in February, and based on that event I am certain that ANY of our U15s would be more than capable of holding their own - and really benefiting - from taking part.

If you are interested please contact the U15 county manager - Peter McCullough - at peter.mccullough@ntlworld.com. Teams will meet at 12.15 for a 1.00 kick-off.

U12s: On the same afternoon there will also be a U12 match between Hertfordshire and Eastern Counties. If you are interested in playing in this please let John Birch know asap.

There will also be a U12 event at the Dorking Sevens on 11th May... though in that case it clashes with Herts Sevens. However, HYG is a U11 event so there may be enough girls left from Year 7s to form a team - and as our U18s are going pooled transport should be possible. So if you can play in this please let John know.

Worcester & Welwyn/Basford to contest U18s National Cup Final

Congratulations to Worcester and Welwyn/Basford on winning their second round ties in the National Cup last Sunday. Unfortunately for us, that means that our match against Basford on 13th April will have to be cancelled as they are contesting the National Cup final on that day.

So we will meet at Letchworth on April 13th for a little more training before we finish off the season with quite an arduous set of 10s and 7s tournaments :

April

6th : U15/U18 : (H) Dorking
13th : U15/U18 : (H) Training
20th : U18 : Divisional 10s (Mellish RFC, Nottingham)
27th : U15/U18 : (H) Training

May

4th : U15/U18 : (A) Worthing 10s
5th : U18 : (A) National 10s (Lichfield RFC) (if qualified)
11th : U15/U18 : (A) Dorking 7s
18th : U15/U18 : (A) Herts 7s (Tabard RFC)
24th : U18 : (A) National 7s (Leighton Buzzard RFC)

Incidentally, entries for the National 7s are now fully subscribed with the following U18s teams entered :

Aylestone St. James
Basingstoke
Basford
Darlington Mowden Park
Dorking
East Norfolk
Exeter Saracens
Letchworth Garden City
Lichfield
Reading
Tynedale Raiders
Waterloo/Tydesley Cluster
Welwyn Warriors
Wimbourne
Wisbech Grammar School
Worcester

Should be a great competition!

International U18 news

Though not an official team, an England U18 "development team" took on the Canada U19s yesterday. As a team name it smacks of a certain pedentry as it would have been made up of this year's TDG girls - the cream of the age group - but RFUW field no official sides below U20 level so "development team" it was.

The game was played at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire, where the TDG group train, and it sounds like it was a terrific match (though the weather was far from perfect!). Canada had thumped an "official" Scotland U18 team 53-0 earlier in the week and quickly built up a 14-0 lead. But "England" fought back with two tries - both unconverted - and it would be problems with the boot that would be their downfall. Always on the Candians' heels England eventually lost out out 19-15 - three tries each, but two conversions to nil.

Canadian age group teams seem to be touring Europe and North America every holiday now - there seems to be a huge long-term effort to build a strong national team over there (and, one must conclude, a fair bit of money as well). Canada are probably well ahead of the USA now (despite losing the Hong Kong Sevens to their North American rivals last weekend), and probably France too. It is likely that the girls who played at Heythrop this week will be seeing quite a bit of each other in the future!

Arrangements for Sunday 30th March

Please note that, due to pitch availability problems at Ampthill, we have moved Sundays U18 and U15 7s games to the Letchworth ground.

Can players please meet at the Letchworth club by 1.45pm for a 2.30pm kick-off.

Why not could come along at 1.00pm to support the Colts in their Cup quarter-final against Fullerians?

Thursday training

Following your lazy, rugby-free Easter Sunday, we need a full turnout for Thursday training ahead of our visit to Ampthill for 7s matches this Sunday (March 30th).

Training will start at 6.00 pm this Thursday.

Rugby-huligaanit kohtasivat!

I'm not entirely sure what the above headline means, but I am guessing that it is not a million miles from "certifiable lunatics play rugby on frozen Finnish lake...".

Its March, your north of the Arctic circle, its more sub-zero than anyone with any sanity might wish to become acquainted, so what do you do? Stay warm and snug by the fire... or play rugby?

Faced with that choice earlier this month Jyväskylä Rugby Club, about 200 miles north of Helsinki (or anywhere else, come to that) decided to run a rugby tournament. Lumirugbya is what they called it - Snow Rugby apparently - and some real Lumis from as far away as Luxembourg leapt onto whatever the appropriate transport was in order to get there.

Exactly what then happened is best left to this in-depth report and your own abilities at reading Finnish - though an Italian enthusiast I know with a smattering of the language tells me that the home team came out as winners, beating Helsinki Warriors in the final.

Entries for Herts Sevens growing... slowly

After a slow start, I hear that the number of entries for this year's Herts Sevens is picking up - but then it was a last minute rush the past two years as well. So far in the U18s we are joined by Reading, Hertford and Basford, while the U15s feature Welwyn, Reading, London Irish, Rochford, and Hertford.

So there is still plenty of room for extra teams in what has been a great event for the past two years. Herts Sevens is a great place for teams preparing for National Sevens - but is also a competition that any team can enter, especially new clubs who my find the idea of the Nationals a bit daunting. So come on not only Worcester and Kettering but also Swaffham, Ampthill, and the East Anglian clusters - this is YOUR day... you only need eight or nine girls (and teams have even got by with seven in the past!) - contact Laura at tabardminis@hotmail.co.uk for details.

One probem is that at U18 level I understand that South East league fixtures may be keeping some teams - like Welwyn and leading London/Surrey/Kent teams - away which hopefully is not a sign of things to come (though with the expansion of the county and regional programme next year at the expense of club and league dates I suspect it could be).

Rugby and What it Means to You

The RFU are calling for players, parents, and supporters to let them know their views on rugby and what the game means to them. In the last ten years the game has undergone a great deal of change with the success of England’s national teams and recruitment campaigns, and the RFU is now conducting an online survey to widen the debate - see http://www.rfusurvey.co.uk/.

Has to be said that most of the first five questions are a bit ... theoretical ... and not wildly relevent to the challenges of the female game, but sixth question is wonderful open-ended invitation from the RFU that might be used to tell them exactly how you think that some traditional "values" of the game "assist" with the development of girls' or women's rugby. Enjoy.

RFUW summer conference at Hatfield

The RFUW will be holding four "Divisional Club Conferences" to provide a training and development opportunity for club volunteers in June. These excellent conferences include a variety of sessions for everyone, from players to officials to helpers and administrators - and this year one of them is right on our doorstep, as the South East and London will be at at Herts Sports Village in Hatfield on 28th June

Further details will be sent out during April, but the costs are low - and anyway chances are we'll happily pay for any parents or players interested in attending. So if you are interested in going please let me or Mike know asap, or for more info about the day contact Gemma Ryan at the RFUW on 020 8831 6788 or at gemmaryan@rfu.com.

RFUW announce "Club Development Toolkit Fund"

The RFUW has announced the creation of a £7,500 of "Club Development Toolkit Fund" for clubs begining of developing girls or women's sections. Clubs are asked to apply directly through a bidding process to receive funding. It is a one-off opportunity, so the messahe is to grab it while you can!

Two funding pots are available:

• 8 x pots of £500
• 14 x pots of £250

Each club applying for the Club Development Toolkit Funding must meet the following criteria:

• The club must be affiliated to the RFUW
• The club must have in place, or is working towards, a Club Development Plan that includes an Action Plan for the Women and/or Girls Section (which will be signed off by the RDO/WRDM)
• The club must be attending a Women & Girls Forum in their area

Applications should comprise of a project, event or resources which aims to recruit and/or retain players and/or volunteers and therefore improve the sustainability of the club. Examples may include:

• Develop coaches and volunteers (welfare training, First Aid courses etc.)
• Purchase new equipment to further develop and enhance current training opportunities
• Contribute to coaching expenses for delivery hours in a local school / FE and HE institutions to create and sustain club/school links
• Marketing and advertising the club in the local community.

Heritage Foundation sports grants

Letchworth Garden City Hertitage Foundation's latest report (issued to all homes in the Garden City this weekend) includes mention of new grants from the Foundation to support "sporting excellence".

For many years the Foundation has supported the provision of facilities and equipment in the town - we have benefited outselves, with the Foundation contributing to our initial equipment costs back in 2004, as well as being lead sponsors for both the Herts Sevens in 2006 and Canada Day last season.

Now they are offering up to 100% grants to support coaches gaining advanced qualifications (Level 2 and above), as well as 50% grants towards the coaching costs of talented atheletes, and up to £1,000 in equipment costs. Anyone who lives in Letchworth OR who participates in sport in the town is eligible - see the LGCHF site for details.

Is this the best online guide to playing rugby ever?

Take a look at this.

A couple of US students - Lyci Hillman and Catherine Foo - have produced a staggeringly brilliant guide to playing rugby - and moreover a guide for specifically girls and women playing rugby - that for simplicity and clarity knocks anything else dead. The actual writing is a bit ho-hum, but the combination of photographs and computer-generated images used to cover pretty much all the basics - from what to wear to how to tackle, form a scrum, and basic tactics - is amazing.

Its astonishing - to the extent that you wonder why its not been done before. I know there some good illustrations in various official coaching guides, but these are invariably a) buried away inside expensive printed resources, and b) tend to feature exclusively large, muscular and - above all - male athletes. This guide uses - in its photos and excellent computer-generated diagrams - exclusively female figures, something that I cannot recall seeing anywhere else before.

But it doesn't end there. Whereas the illustrations in official guides are invariably surrounded with all sorts of copyright restrictions, the two authors - who have now gone on to bigger and (persumably) better things - have also allowed anyone to use their images for non-commercial purposes. So if anyone ever needs an illustration to cover a specific coaching point then this would seem to be the perfect place to start.

Season's greetings from Letchworth!

A day for a different sort of egg-chasing...

Passing the time...

In all honesty I am not wildly sure how much interest you all have in the wilder world of girls' and women's rugby, but assuming that I am not alone in being in a household where the next two weeks stretch ahead into the far distance, and where there are indeed limits to how much revision you can do and chocolate you can eat, I thought I'd pass details of a few mildly diverting websites on.

Of course the fact that the author of Ruckosphere describes our blog as "one of my all-time faves" has no influence whatsoever in my highlighting it because its a great starting place as the site reviews the leading girls' and women's blogs, worldwide. The author (and site) is actually based in Bremen in Germany, but the site is almost entirely in English.

The author is also a leading contributor to probably the best news and discussion forum for women's rugby. Run by FIRA - the Paris-based Federation of European Rugby Associations - it is very effectively moderated, a lack of which was the downfall of a similar service run by the IRB.

The FIRA service is also far easier to use than the official RFUW forum which both looks dated and is very fiddly to use (and is therefore not used much) - avoiding the need to moderate by adopting a fiendishly complex log-in procedure. Rather oddly it also tends to list discussion items with the most recent contributions first, which makes reading a thread a bit strange sometimes. On the other hand it is a bit more down to earth than the more internationalist FIRA discussion

Anyway all this goes to show that, despite the lack of media coverage, this is a significant international sport that you are playing.

While the coach is away ..... ....

While Simon took a break from rugby for a long weekend in Prague, Wonky kindly stepped in to take the regular Thursday training session for the girls. So on a cold and windy evening under the Letchworth floodlights, I wandered down to capture the event on camera.

First off, I found Wonky describing the drill that the girls were to follow ...

... meanwhile Randy demonstrated her darts technique?! Anyway, they started off with some tackle bag work ...

... which Wonky explained and then demonstrated ...

After the tackle bags, the girls were doing a complex passing drill which apparently goes by several different names depending on which part of the planet you originate from. (Anyway, it didn't matter to me because I didn't know any of them). The whole thing was very intricate - almost like a dance - and here we see Jess apparently preparing to go dos-a-dos with the coach ...

... but it did seem to keep the girls on their toes ...

Thanks, Wonky!

The worldwide readership

Just in case anyone doubted the worldwide readership for this site, take glance at the bottom of the right-hand column. This shows the last ten or so people to log on (and where thay are from, and what they were reading) as well as a map showing the last fifty or so "hits".

At the time of writing most of northern Europe is bright red, as is central and eastern USA, with additional interest from places as far apart as Turkey, New Zealand, India and Argentina!

Happy Easter!

With snow now forecast for Sunday it couldn't be a better time to have weekend off. And it may even soften the ground up a bit for the usual hectic final few weeks so that the sevens don't take place on concrete this year!

Meanwhile apparently the main Letchworth rugby website have now set up a "feed" so that anything on here automatically now appears there as well. At the minute I am not entirely sure how we can reciprocate as there is isn't an obvious feed from there for this site to tap into, so all I can suggest is that is you want to keep in touch with anything the wider club is doing or planning then remember to drop by http://www.letchworthrugby.com/ every now and again.

Letchworth U15 girls at Hertford

Although matches seemed to be being cancelled all over the East due to water-logged pitches, Laura and Josephine braved the awful weather to play for Ampthill at Hertford in a three-way U15s meeting which also involved Old Albanians. As it turned out the pitches were in very good condition (at least, considering the amount of rain we'd had!) but the wind was of the strong, rapier-like style that chills everyone to the core in just a few minutes. So conditions were not too good, but the rugby was excellent!

Three matches were played so each side played against the other two. Ampthill's first game was against the home side and both Letchworth girls were soon heavily involved. Unfortunately, after a strong run through the Hertford defence, Josephine suffered a twisted knee and, though she tried to carry on, it ultimately meant that she had to leave the field and could take no further part in proceedings.

Ultimately, Hertford proved too strong for the visitors, running out worthy winners by 25-0, though it was a much closer contest than that scoreline suggests.

In the second game (against Old Albanians), Ampthill showed great determination and turned in a much improved performance. Like the rest of her Ampthill teammates, Laura was soon getting to grips with the opposition -

- and went from strength to strength during the game. In the second half Laura was denied a try only by a fine last-ditch tackle that saw her bundled into touch at the corner. The match was finely balanced and well-contested throughout so that even when Ampthill started to open up a lead in the second half OAs staged a spirited comeback and almost snatched a draw : Ampthill eventually winning by 20-15.

All in all a fine afternoon's rugby despite the rough weather!

England win the Grand Slam

And there was you thinking it was some other team...

Needless to say this is the Women's Six Nations, rather than the other one. In practice England did seem to make hard going of it - beating Ireland only 17-7 (comfortably their closest result since the World Cup) to win the title, and moreover they managed to conceed three tries this season (compared to one in 2007). Still, three Grand Slams in succession is a first (since the championship expanded anyway) though I am not holding my breath about the average rugby journalist noticing. Ireland finished 4th, by the way, with France 3rd and Wales 2nd. More info here.

RFUW National Sevens: the opposition (so far)

Entries are flying in for this year's National Sevens (see here for the latest). So far we have entered a U18 team, and that side will be up against some familiar names including (so far)...

• Aylestone St James
• Basingstoke
• Darlington Mowden Park
• Exeter Saracens
• Lichfield
• Reading
• Tynedale Raiders
• Waterloo/Tydesley
• Welwyn Warriors
• Wimborne
• Worcester

We are still hoping to enter a joint U15 team with Ampthill (and could even still enter a combined U18 team as well) - but that is still being discussed with our Bedfordshire friends. Hopefully we will be able to sort something out before the entries are all taken up!

It is amazing how much this tournament has grown in the past couple of years... and also how the adult tournment seems to have reduced in size. Barely 10 adult clubs have entered so far for their event.

RFUW National 7s

Everyone please note that the RFUW Junior National 7s tournament at Leighton Buzzard RFC is confirmed to be on Saturday, 24th May
(and is NOT on Sunday, 25th May as I erroneously wrote on the fixture list! ). Sorry for the confusion.

Extra U15 match arranged for this Sunday

An extra match has been added to the U15 fixture list. This Sunday (16th March) we now have a game at Hertford for the U15 girls between Hertford, Letchworth/Ampthill and Old Albanians, which will kick off at 1pm. Depending on the number of girls that each team will bring it will either be a little three way match or single game by combining the three clibs into two teams.

Players will have to come ready to play as changing facilities will not be available until later in the afternoon.

Hertford ladies will also be playing in the afternoon after the girls match and the players are invited to stay and watch.

The lull before the storm .....

With just a few more training weekends left, the season is building towards the usual frenetic conclusion with a host of 10s and 7s tournaments in April and May.

The remaining fixtures look like this :

March

16th : U15 : (A) Hertford
16th : U18 : (H) Training
30th : U15/U18 : (A) Ampthill (7s)


April

6th : U15/U18 : (H) Dorking
13th : U18 : (A) Basford
20th : U18 : Divisional 10s (Mellish RFC, Nottingham)
27th : U15/U18 : (H) Training


May

4th : U15/U18 : (A) Worthing 10s
5th : U18 : (A) National 10s (Lichfield RFC) (if qualified)
11th : U15/U18 : (A) Dorking 7s
18th : U15/U18 : (A) Herts 7s (Tabard RFC)
24th : U15/U18 : (A) National 7s (Leighton Buzzard RFC)

Blog visitors grow and grow

A year ago, when this blog celebrated its first birthday, we were slightly bowled over by it having 11,400 hits.

Today, with the second year almost up, that actually seems quite unimpressive because over the past year we've just over another 25,000 hits - twice as many as last year! That's just shy of 37,000 hits in two years. And, at the moment, that means round 70-100 hits every single day. And all this for what is - by and large - a site that concentrates on the activities of one relatively small junior girls rugby team. Okay occasionally it does stray a bit, but even so.

One effect of this is that, when you talk to coaches and managers at other clubs, you invariably find that they know us rather well - even if we've rarely or never played them before. Whether this is good or bad I'm not sure, but it is unnerving at times! And I've given up counting the number of these coaches who have say that they turn to us first to find the latest news (ie. before turning to official sources like the RFUW!)

Which is very flattering - but worrying though, but the fact is that finding out what is going on can been astonishingly hard. What with the enormous media coverage the game gets (NOT!) everyone relies on the 'net, but even here there are very few outlets for information about the adult game never mind junior girls rugby. The main source (RFUW) seem to suffer from an not only an overstretched HQ staff, but also from having to use the RFU's system -which was probably was the latest thing about three-four years ago but now seems very inflexible. In the world of blogs and wikis is ever so slightly old hat (it doesn't even have an newsfeed!).

I've no idea how our site compares with others. In global terms Saturday's a Rugby Day and Your Scrumhalf Connection will be far more popular - but they are adult women's sites, and US based too. There are a growing number of UK blogs starting up, especially in the last year - but if any other girls rugby sites (other than maybe the RFUW!) in the UK that gets anything like the traffic we do then I'd be fascinated to who they are...

PS: I notice that Your Scrumhalf Connection - a blog run by Wendy Young, who is now the scrumhalf for the US national team - started in the same month as us. Interesting article up at the moment that shows that its not just in the UK that the game suffers from rampant media bias...

Women's rugby.... in 1928!

I recently came across this.

Rugby : Cercle Femina Paris 1928
by Frederic

Its buried away a bit on a rugby history blog. Apparently women's rugby - or at least a version of rugby - was quite popular in northern France in the 20s.

You do wonder what happened to the game - it was a significant spectator sport, it seems - enough to warrant large posters advertising games on the sides of buildings (see left).

There again women's football in England was also a very popular spectator sport at this time, so much so that the FA banned it! Maybe women's rugby in France suffered in a similar way?

The blog suggests that the game filmed may be a version of rugby that the French called "barette", which theoretically did not allow full tackling but only "blocking" - it has been compared to touch rugby - but if that is so then going by this video it seems quite vigorous blocking. In fact, looking at the rules for barette, I think the blog is wrong and what is in the video is actually proper rugby, all be it not 15-a-side (nothing changes, then!).

East Region goes from website to blog

In a slightly unpublicised move (well, I missed it) East Region have switched from using the RFU's official database-driven website to using a blog instead. And having wrestled with the maddening, overly complex, infuriating nightmare that is that RFU system I do not blame Phil and his team for taking that step!!

Actually I came close to doing this last season - I quickly gave up with the "official" system! - but in the end thought it better and more efficient to simply work through the county blogs as that way dupilication could be avoided and readers would not have to look into two places. But things in the world of blogs have moved on and now, with the ability to incorporate newsfeeds from one blog in the design of another, this is no longer a problem. So its a big welcome East Region Blog!

Granted that, in any practical sense at the moment, the number of our players actually interested in the activities of East Region can be counted on the fingers of one hand (and moreover with the majority of digits to spare!) but in the future it is possible that our representation may rise again, so its something to keep an eye on.

As a result the newsfeed from the East Blog appears in the column to the left below the Herts County blog feed. As with the county feed you will see links to the latest five articles on the East Blog, automatically updated when new articles appear. The link on the left under "Official rugby websites" has also now been changed to the new site.

PS: North East Region have also launched a website. Okay, we don't have anyone with any practical interest in that region at all (unless you can qualify for a region by parental birthplace!) but its still interesting to see how the game is developing elsewhere - especially in a major centre of the game like the North East.

Katie wins RFU Young Volunteer award

At a surprise presentation during today's practice, club chairman David Sharp presented Katie with the RFU's Young Volunteer Award - which she can been seen proudly modelling below.

The award - which Joe also won last year - has been awarded by the RFU in recognition not only of Katie's contribution on the field and within the section, but also for her work with the girls at Highfield and with the U12 tag team last season.

With the latter in mind it is therefore perhaps worth winding the clock back a a bit four years to the days when Katie herself was an U14 tag player, representing North Hertfordshire in the 2004 Herts Youth Games in a team that also included Hayley and Ruby.

About half of the girls came from Hitchin RFC - and they promptly disappeared to who knows where after returning to Hitchin (a great pity as there were two or three VERY good players amongst them).

The Letchworth contingent, on the other hand - reinforced by the odd friend and (at the time) smaller sister - came back to Legends Lane in September to form their own team. On that first day we had eight girls - with Katie forming the entire U17 team on her own - but within six weeks the squad had doubled in size, Milton Keynes were put to the sword... and the rest is history!

Sunday 2nd March

Aylesbury and Bucks Jesters have cancelled our U15 and U18 matches for this Sunday so all please meet at the Letchworth club for training at 10am.

Herts 7s announcement too

Herts 7s venue has also now been confirmed. The tournament will be at Tabard RFC in Radlett on 18th May, with a closing date of 30th March.

In fact that closing date will I suspect be irrelevent. Our little county sevens is now a major national event (well, southern half of England) and there are only 16 places in each of the U18 and U15 events these are going to go. This will be first come, first served.

We are hoping to enter a U18 Letchworth team, a U15 Ampthill/Letchworth team, and maybe a mixed U18 Amptill/Letchworth "B" team as well so as to ensure that everyone gets a game and will be trying to get this finalised with our Beds colleagues asap.

10s venue announcements... a long trip wherever we go!

The venues for the regional rounds of the National 10s have been announced - and its a tricky choice, and a long trip, whatever we do.

The number of tounaments for 20th April have been severely slimmed down from ten last year to three - one in the North (Morpeth), one in the Midlands (Mellish, nr. Nottingham), and one in the South (Petersfield, Hampshire).

Last year we had a fantastic day in at Jimmies in Leicester for the East Midlands heat and ideally I think we wanted to go back again. Mellish would offer the same advanages (new opposition), but is another 30-40 minutes. Not out of the question.

But it does open the question of the southern heat which, by including theoretically everything from Essex and Kent to Cornwall, has its attractions too as its maybe slightly nearer and will also feature some new faces alongside some old ones (theoretically).

I reckon that Nottingham is still the more interesting venue - but its not for me to say. We have to get the entry in by 7th April to decide - so what do you all think?

Update on Six Nations

To update the entry below, England won again - 31-0 (their largest ever win in France) - to pretty much wrap up a third Grand Slam. Okay, still Scotland and Wales to play but rarely was there ever a more foregone conclusion, especially in the former game where the Scottish women seem to be vying with their men to see who can produce the worst results!

Incidentally, those members of the club with dual national qualifications who were somewhat disparaging about the strength of teams from the Emerald Isle might care to take a glance at the current standings...

The other Six Nations

While this weekend all attention will be focused on Paris for the [men's] Six Nations, Britain's most successful international rugby team will be continuing to generate about as much press coverage as Icelandic water ski-ing.

So for those who have missed it so far, England's women's team tomorrow face their biggest challenge in their bid to win their third successive Grand Slam when they meet France in town of St. Gratien on the outskirts of Paris. So far they have followed a 55-0 win over Wales with a 76-6 win over Italy. France, on the other hand, started with a fairly comfortable 43-15 victory in Edinburgh but then struggled to beat Ireland (historically the weakest Home Nation) at home, winning only 26-17.

England are therefore firm favourites to continue with a three year run of success that has seen them lose only one game - the 2006 World Cup Final against New Zealand - in the past three years. Since that game England have scored over 300 points in seven Six Nations games, conceding 18, and have also beaten USA (ranked five in the world) 34-0. Such is England's strength in depth that their "A" team is also unbeaten in internationals, despite playing almost exclusively against other countries' full-strength teams.

This all makes the media's near blackout of coverage of such a success story all the more remarkable. I don't think anyone is expecting live TV coverage, but it is not too much to expect for "expert" rugby commentators to at least a mention what this team is achieving (even if only to contrast this with the recent performances of the men's team!). This would be the situation in any other sport that I can think of - but not, it seems, rugby where our media experts seem to willfully ignore the women's team. Finding out whether or not the England team's run of success has continued on Saturday may require the utilisation of some high-powered magnifying glasses on Sunday morning.

Ludicrusly simple "Spot the Ball" competition...

EDF Energy - who sponsor the Anglo-Welsh Cup - are running this "Spot the Ball" competition to win tickets for the final. Its a nice idea, shame that it could not be made even mildly more challenging (a clue, should you need it,is to look at the shadows...)

If anyone fancies entering you can enter here. 250 tickets up for grabs, closing date 14th March.

Anyway I just mention it because, given our vast photographic archive, its a rather neat idea I thought that we could maybe execute a little better than EDF should we need a fundraiser, or even just for the fun of it.

So, for instance see below. With our entire coaching staff are cup-tied this Sunday you have the weekend off and a bit of spare time, so anyone care to guess which square the centre of the ball is in?

[Looking through the archives is cheating!]

Thursday Training

This Thursday (21st Feb), training for both U15s and U18s will start at 5.30pm.
Please make sure you bring your mouthguards.

Kettering take the honours

It was a very frosty morning but the pitches were well thawed out and the weather could not have been better for the afternoon matches at Kettering today.

The U15 match was between Kettering and Ampthill (with Letchworth's Laura playing for Ampthill) and the U18s match was between Kettering and Letchworth with 3 Ampthill U18s shared between the sides.

The U15s match was well contested with Kettering running out winners by 35-20. Letchworth's Laura had a good match for Ampthill contributing to the scoreline with a hat-trick of tries.

The U18s game was a very close match with Letchworth leading for most of the game thanks to a try in each half by Hayley but they were denied a commanding lead by a succession of last ditch, try-saving tackles by Kettering. It was a good all round performance by the Letchworth girls, however, a late flurry of tries by Kettering saw them run out deserved winners by 20-10. Nikki was named Letchworth Player of the Match.

As you can see from the photos, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon as Simon supervised the warm-up -

and when things got started Sasha was soon in the thick of the action -

and Mel followed suit, only being dispossessed 20 metres out from the try line -

When Nikki charged down a Kettering clearing kick the ball rebounded just over the dead-ball line -

Sasha continued to carve her way through the midfield -

and Nikki was denied a try by a matter of inches when this attack was stopped by a last ditch tackle -

Jess was also making breaks in midfield -

and was prevented from scoring by a fine tackle some 10 metres short of the line -

Meanwhile, in the forwards, Enily was capturing lineout ball -

Charlie was getting used to a different position -

and all of them were supporting each other -

Hayley's second try caused some consternation to her team-mates when, having crossed the try line in the corner, she proceeded to run through the Kettering defence a second time in order to ground the ball under the posts!

Letchworth scorers : U15

Tries : Laura (3)

Letchworth scorers : U18

Tries : Hayley (2)

Kettering : Sunday 17th February

The U18s away match at Kettering this Sunday is due to kick-off at 2pm and we will be meeting at Letchworth club at noon before heading north. If you have not already done so, please confirm your availability to Simon or Mike as soon as possible.

Kettering have also kindly offered an U15s fixture and we have invited Ampthill to join in that game. We need to let Kettering know how many players we can bring so please let Simon or Mike know as soon as possible if you can play.

Directions to the Kettering ground can be found on http://www.ketteringrugbyclub.co.uk/about/howtofindus.html.
Please let us know if you intend to travel directly there rather than calling at the Letchworth club en route.

Better off out?

Some may regret our not being in the National Cup this season, but from the bits and pieces that have been reaching me from here and there this year's competition is already causing considerable amounts of angst in some quarters... and it hasn't even kicked off yet.

The official letter, mentioned a week or so ago, does not seem to have calmed things. One has to be reasonably circumspect here, but suffice to say that in the section we might well have be playing in at least at least one club have - since that letter - complained to RFUW about the intentions of two other clubs to combine forces which they interpreted as being against both the letter and spirit of the competition rules. RFUW have rejected the complaint, as a result of which I reckon I can guess who will win not only that section but also probably the entire event as, on paper, this team makes Leo's look positively weak!

I will refrain from saying here where my views lie on this - and, come to that, the clubs involved - as I'd rather avoid having 200 multi-page emails to answer when I come back next week but if we get all this fuss from one cup competition played over only a couple of weekends then I dread to think what would happen if we were all in leagues (as has been suggested in some quarters)!

One huge advantage of a season largely based on friendly fixtures is that it avoids all this... nonsense. Clubs - if short of players - can combine and recombine in different ways each weekend as the need arises with the priority being only to ensure that as many girls - of all ages and abilities - get to play as much rugby as possible. New players can get on the field because, in the end, experience and team development is more important than the final result (you doubt that? I can think of several games we have lost, but have enjoyed, and even some we have won but without any great joy in the victory). But once you get into a situation where there is promotion and relegation and silverware to worry about each and every weekend then that cannot be possible. In a desparate hunt for points winning is all that matters and where then would there be room for new girls like, say, Georgie to join the game, or even players returning from a lengthly injury like Megan? It may be co-incidence that we now have more U18s than any other club in the county, but I like to think that it is because anyone can join this club, regardless of previous experience, and know that they will be welcomed and get a game!

I hope for all clubs in the National Cup that this fuss dies down, but its clear that events last year still rankle with many and you have to ask whether - as things stand - the Cup causes more harm than good.

Upcoming fixture and training reminder

Regional weekend so its a training this weekend at home at 10.00 for all bar one. Then usual training next Thursday, before separate games for U18s and (hopefully) U15s on the 17th.

U18s will be at Kettering, and U15s are due to have a game at Witney. For the latter we are going to need the support of Ampthill so watch this space.

Looking ahead a bit hopefully the Canadian school team will be visiting us around 9th March, but if that does not go ahead an interesting alternative may be a Development Day for non-regional players (it being a regional weekend) which is being run... by East Midlands. This will include both U15 and U18 players and it might be interesting to join Ampthill for the day and work with players on the other side of the border.

Be nice to your officials: RFUW

RFUW have issued Official Guidance on how to treat match officials (see the Herts blog). Quite what may have prompted it is impossible to say - the little electronic contretemps regarding a recent fixture of ours?

Probably not, because apparently the female game generally is developing a poor reputation in this area - which is odd considering that the only major headline concerning referees and female teams had been rather the other way...

Anyway - take a look at the guidance. It actually says very little that most players should not have known already, but its good to see it written down.

Sunday 3rd Feb : Matches cancelled

Everyone please note that the matches at Ampthill on Sunday have been cancelled.

As Simon is away this weekend, there will be no training tomorrow but we will resume our usual schedule on Thursday 7th February.

Sorry for any inconvenience.