RFUW calls for volunteers to make 2010 a World Cup to remember

Can you spare 2-3 hours per week to make the World Cup live on beyond 2010? If so the RFUW want to hear from you.

They will shortly be appointing 10 regional-based "Legacy Project Officers" (before you ask it looks like these will be kind-of RFU regions, so we become "London North" and there is no Thames Valley). Each LPO will be heading a team of volunteers charged with planning and delivering three projects that will promote the World Cup but also have a positive effect on the area involved. The projects should be based around four themes: More Players, More Volunteers, More Competition and More Sustainable Clubs. All the projects can be from a different theme or they can all be from the same one; whatever is best for the local situation.

Though there will be plenty of training and professional support, these will be voluntary posts. Post holders will get a budget to cover expenses (probably not vast!) plus (and I quote):

• Free branded clothing to wear whilst carrying out your role
• A chance to shape the rugby landscape in your area
• The opportunity to get involved with a once in a lifetime event
• The opportunity to become known to the RFUW and RFU
• Tickets to the Women’s Rugby World Cup
• A role that will look great on your CV and will be of interest to future employers, especially in Sports, Project Planning, Events Coordination and Management roles
• Great fun with a fantastic group of people

If you are interested you need to complete this application form and send it back to Holly Hart, RFUW, Rugby House, Rugby Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW1 1DS or email hollyhart@rfu.com. All applications will have to be supported by a member of RFUW/RFU staff, a CB committee or University (this can be arranged). If you have any questions at all please contact Holly on the email above or by calling 020 8831 7482.

The only snag is that while these posts were first advertised in June most people seemed to miss them (possibly because they do not seem to have found their way onto the RFUW website, though BUCS advertised the post). As a result there is not much time left to apply - like you have until Friday (17th).

U20s: Ouch!

Thanks again to Vincent for spotting this sequence from his photos. As his camera was steady (and presumably on some sort of motor drive) I've been able to put the images into an animated sequence. Basically the pictures feature England's Kimberley Davey (Richmond) running up against the USA's second row Brittany Rose:

Apparently a yellow card was awarded - the referee thinking that there being no real sign that this was deliberate - just a bit clumsy.

I dunno, forwards eh?

No damage done anyway - at least to Kimberley, who lasted the full 80 minutes.

On the other hand Brittany looked like this after the game (see right)...

U20s: So many pictures, its like being there!

Over 1,000 photographs (so far!) from the first two days of the U20 Nations Cup can now be downloaded - free - from girlsrugby.org.uk. All four matches played so far are included, as well as "off-field" shots of the crowd and sundry familiar-looking ne'er do wells found lurking amongst the spectators (see below).

The site - put together by Vincent - is (at his own admission) a bit raw and is currently unsorted or captioned (other than having separate galleries for each game) - but the pictures are chonological and, as taken in blocks, actually allow you to follow a move through - such as at the end of the England/Canada game (from where the picture to the right comes) where a 20-picture sequence shows Lizell initially running in strongly in support of an England attack, before receiving the ball and beating a couple of defenders herself (see full sequence animated below).

Vincent is happy for the photos to be used freely for personal use, and just asks for users to consider making a donation to The Nazareth Trust. Drop Vincent a line by clicking here if you have anything vaguely commercial in mind.

U20s: Spot Sasha!

Not a great bit of video this, but thus far its the only coverage of any sort (stills or video) that I have found of the England U20s in this current Nations Cup.

It comes from the USA's management, and features their try in their 42-7 defeat to England. Of rather more interest, however, is the fact that Sasha is in it (no. 17) - quite a lot in fact!

U20s: How to blow a game

USA v Wales last Thursday. Wales had gained a 3-0 lead early in the first half, and had defended like fury for the rest of the game. 79 minutes are now gone, the game is deep in USA territory, and - as you see - Wales even win a penalty.

How could they lose?

What should they have done differently?

Twickenham date for England - Black Ferns clash

New Zealand - The Black Ferns - will end their first ever tour of England at Twickenham as part of "double header" of England vs New Zealand internationals. Spectators will be able to watch both the women's and men's internationals back-to-back. The last time England played at Twickenham - against Italy in 2007 - the game took place after the men's international and the game was shown live by the BBC (via the "red button"), so live coverage of the game in November seems extremely likely.

Needless to say RFUW are delighted by the high profile this will give the game, Rosie Williams saying that:

"This is another very exciting development for the women's game in England. We have seen in cricket how a successful Women's World Cup campaign can add to the men's game rather than compete with it* and we are looking to make a similar statement in Rugby. Playing the current World Champions at the home of English Rugby is not only a fantastic opportunity for the players but also for the profile of the game."

Unlike the Italian game (which was a barely advertised "extra") both matches will be marketed as the Investec Challenge Double Header "giving fans the chance to witness some of the game's best male and female rugby players at one sporting venue".

Venues for the "first test" on the 14th and the "A" international on the 17th have yet to be annonced. The irony of an England world cup warm-up game being allowed to take place at Twickenham when the best the actual world cup itself is being offered is The Stoop has also gone without comment.

[*The recent cricket 20:20 world cup included women's and men's semi-finals and finals at the same venues, resulting in live TV coverage for the winners - England - which has in turn been followed up by dramatically improved news coverage of the women's game throughout the season].

Play sevens the England way

A couple of practical lessons in sevens rugby from last weekends tournament are now available, courtesy of Germanrugbytv and the England women's team.

Lesson 1: The semi-final v Germany. Or how to blow away a reasonably talented opposition (in this case ranked top eight in Europe before a tournament where they finished 4th):

Lesson 2: The final v Spain. Or how to win against very good opposition, coming from behind in a close game:

England's Super Sunday

Sunday was a brilliant day of double success for England.

This morning dawned in Hanover with the England sevens team looking back in satisfaction at their group stage performance yesterday where they had demolished all that had been put in front of them. Five wins from five, 87 points scored (15 tries) and a single try conceded put them into the at the European Sevens semi-final against the host team, Germany.

Meanwhile in west London England U20s awoke knowing that, after Thursday's comprehensive win over Canada (Rugby Canada report now available) - which a recount seems to have raised to 47-0 - a similar performance today against the USA should seem into next week's final.

The sevens team were first on the field. While the U20s were having breakfast, England's Sevens team were having Germany for lunch. A 42-0 eight-try win saw them into the afternoon's final, where they would face Spain - who they had already beaten 24-0 in the group stage.

While they relaxed, the U20s took the field against the USA - and blew them away. With Lizell in the starting XV for the first time, it took only eight minutes for England to take the lead. Seven more tries followed, Lizell's being the last after 64 minutes. A consolation try for USA six minutes later changed little as the scoreboard read 40-7 (RFUW match report) and a guaranteed place in Saturday's final. With Wales beating Canada 16-11 (Rugby Canada report)the identity of their opponents is still in some doubt - USA need to beat Canada on Wednesday to make sure of their place, but failing that Wales could still make it with a good performance against England. Canada are out of the competition - their "preparation" now appearing an object lesson in how not to get ready for a major international tournament.

As the U20s left the field, the Sevens team were in action in their final - and a rather tougher game it was with the team coming back from 10-12 down in the second half to win 20-12 (RFUW sevens report) and retain their European crown.

So, one international trophy and one international final - not a bad day's work.

Euro Sevens: England aim to leave WC disappoinment behind

The senior England sevens team will be aiming to put World Cup disappointment behind them this weekend when they attempt to retain their European Sevens crown in Hanover.

This will be the sixth women's European championship , and England have never failed to reach the final. They did not enter the first tournament in 2003 (which was won by Spain), but did enter the next event in 2005 beating Spain 14-0 in the final of an event they totally dominated, conceding one try over a weekend of six games.

England were similarly dominant in 2006, with a total shutout until the final when Wales shocked them, winning a dramatic final 10-7.

2007 was far tougher, with England losing to France in their group, sneaking through the final with a two point win over Spain, and then losing the final comprehensively 19-5 to France. Last year, however, saw a much more dominent performance, with England strolling to the title with a 52-0 win over Netherlands in the final.

So - a place in the final is the minimum that England will be aiming at - particularly after the World Cup failure (for such it was - for a team that were Number 1 seeds and red hot favourites to only reach the quarter finals was a severe disappointment, especially when the tournament had been given priority over the Six Nations defence) - but they are in a tough group.

England will open the tournament at 10am with a pretty easy game against Portugal, before 80 minutes later they face a significant banana skin - Sweden - the shock winner of a place at the 15s World Cup thanks to wins over Italy and Spain. England have never been troubled by Sweden at any level, but never before has Swedish rugby been on such a high. Two hours after that it will be women's sevens specialists Spain (whose record in the tournament is second only to Englands) before finishing a long day at 3.50pm against France.

On Sunday - if the tournament follows the seeding - England are due to play Russia (but might equally be faced with Italy or Netherlands) in the morning before the final at 4pm.

The English team is very different to the side that dominated last year's tournament with several new faces. Overall England should reach their target and retain the title - but tomorrow will be a long day crucial and slip-ups are possible!

News on news

Every summer, it seems, someone has the bright idea of producing an independent newspaper (or electronic newspaper) devoted to women's rugby. And a good idea it is too - there is a staggering amount of largely unreported and really quite interesting news out there, not to mention the mountain of totally unused opportunities to question those in authority about what the heck they think they are doing with the women's game. For anyone with a modicum of journalistic ability the game is an untapped goldmine of opportunities (and with a potential audience approaching 10% of all rugby players worldwide - and 25% in some of countries).

The only snag is that, to date, nothing has ever come of various schemes. The plan to launch a printed magazine a couple of years ago faded into nothing, and last year an e-magazine got as far as a swish and technically clever website but never seemed to find anything to put on it (beyond a few recycled RFUW press releases).

And now there is a new attempt - and possibly the best yet. Launched to co-incide with the World Cup build up, Scrum Queens will be a website (www.scrumqueens.com) aiming to:

"offer the best in news, features and results for the sport across the international game".

The draft homepage design appears to the left. Each nation (well, those nations in the World Cup, not yet all 70+ active countries) will also have a home page of their own.

The site will only cover international rugby (15s and 7s) including:

"in-depth coverage of international competitions such as the Six Nations, the European Championships and the Women’s World Cup"

which will be great as the only place this year to give full coverage to all of the above was, well, this blog!

The author is Alison Donnelly, a journalist and ex-PRO for the Irish Women's Team, and with experience of working for the IRB. As a result she does say a few worrying things, like:

"The IRB's website already offers an excellent resource and snapshot of news from the global game"

That might be about right if you interpret "snapshot" as something very small and random, but "excellent resource"? The site that lists every men's international since the dawn of time but cannot list women's internationals that took place two months ago? No.

However, Alison has assured me that she is:

"certainly not looking to be a mouthpiece for the bodies but of course I will be in touch with the IRB and all of the unions for news and stories and interviews over time, so there will be a fair bit of collaboration between us.

I've already met the RFUW as it's important for me to have a relationship with them for when I'm after interviews/pictures/clips etc but I'll be reporting from the games myself at the 6 Nations/home friendlies and the WC so it will be very much independent opinion."

She also assures me that she will not be simply republishing press releases (which is the sum total of all the BBC do, for example!).

Launch date should be some time in September (just in time for the Asian qualifiers I suspect) - so watch this space, and if anyone wants to contribute Alison would be delighted to hear from you.

U20s: Lizell scores in massive England win

U20 Nations Cup - Round 1:

England 47, Canada 0

USA 7, Wales 3

Lizell and Sasha both began the opening round of the Nations Cup on the bench, and both came on together halfway through the second half. Despite that there was still time for Lizell to score her second try in two internationals.

However, this game was rather more one-sided than the visit to play Wales at Colwyn Bay in the spring as England scored seven unanswered tries in their largest win in a U20 international, and their largest win in any age group game since they beat Canada 48-0 in at U19 level in 2004. Sounds like the last minute replacement of the entire Canadian coaching team (see earlier post) was a brilliantly effective strategy - for their opponents ! Click here for full match report (from RFUW).

With USA sneaking home 7-3 against Wales thanks to a try from the final play of the game (see reports from USA rugby and Welsh RFU), England look extremely well placed to retain the title. In fact USA could be England's biggest barrier - and you can follow their campaign from the inside via the USA's team blog. Learn all about their visit to the Olde Country, from their first English culinary experiences (the Full English Breakfast - which may account for why they could only beat Wales by four points) to their views on the luxuary accommodation they have been given for the tournament (aka "The Orphanage").

If you went to today's games, what did you make of it? Any photos? The official photographer for the event seems to be Scrumpix - but nothing is currently available on their site.

U20 Nations Cup: Be part of it

A real last minute appeal this, but the RFUW have sent out an urgent request for any junior players who might be interested in being be Ball Girls at the U20 Nations Cup, starting tomorrow.

They are looking for 6 Ball Girls at each Game - so you do not have to commit to every day, and the offer is open for any games up to and including the 18th July. Its a bit first-come-first-served but if you are interested contact James Fisher at the RFUW JamesFisher@rfu.com now!

You will receive some ‘stash’ (free kit) as a thank you.

For your summer reading list...

The latest edition of the RFU's free Touchline magazine in now out. Available both electronically and as a glossy paper magazine (contact gameinvestment@therfu.com for copies) it is in some ways a model of how rugby journals should be. Okay, it is an "official" journal and therefore everything in the garden is always rosy, the sun is always shining, and heaven forbid that anything even slightly controversial should ever be so much as hinted at in its pages - but that aside its real plus point is that every issue gives a very fair coverage of the girls' and women's game.

Seven out of 50-60 stories in the latest issue are about women's or girls' rugby, and around a quarter of the photographs include female faces - most of them as active players - a far higher level of coverage than the women's game gets anywhere else (about 8% of the country's players are women or girls, so its actually very good coverage indeed). And one of the photos in the latest issue will be particularly familiar to you all (see the bottom of this page (click here) or the back page of the printed copy). Unfortunately in the printed issue its not a very clear image as, for some reason, the editor did not use the higher quality image sent to them but rather the one off the RFUW's website. Never mind - its the "thought that counts"!

(On the subject of which its also the second time in as many years that an article that is - at least partly - about a Worcester RFC triumph has been illustrated by a photo of Letchworth RFC so I'm not entirely sure what "thoughts" the Warriors have about it...).

There is also an interesting article in there that should send you checking you family trees. Its a men's rugby story, but still with some possible relevance to you. Apparently a teenage player from Yorkshire will now been travelling the world (or at least bits of it) thanks to the discovery that one of his grandparents is from Latvia. A chance meeting between his father and some Latvian rugby officials has lead to his being on a plane to Moscow to play for Latvia in the Eastern European Sevens.

If rugby gets into the Olympics there could be quite a few countries scouting around for talented players with the right ancestors - and especially in the women's game where there will be, let us say, a smaller pool of talent. So if any of you do have any non-UK born grandparents now might be a good time to drop a line to the appropriate RFU...

Finally I have come across what is possibly the only commercial book on women's rugby to have ever been published anywhere. Unfortunately the book (Des Filles En Ovalie by Jacques Cortie, Atlantica, 2005, ISBN 9782843949043) - the story of the first 40 years of women's rugby as an official sport in France - is in French so I am totally unqualified to say anything more about it (even if I had a copy, which I do not). But if there are any French linguists out there who fancy a bit of practice over the summer it might be mildly more interesting than the usual works in that language that you may be given to read.

The title translates directly as "Girls in rugby", incidentally, as "Ovalie" is a French synonym for rugby union, which I find interesting. For some reason.

U20 Nations Cup ready to go

The biggest-ever U20 women's international rugby is nearly here. The 2009 Nations Cup starts at Brunel University in North London on Thursday with arguably the four strongest international teams - England, Canada, Wales and the USA - playing each other over the next week for a place in the final on the 18th.

As highlighted a couple of weeks ago there will be a number of familiar names in the England team - not only Lizell and Sasha, but also players from half-a-dozen or more teams that our U18s have got to know very well in recent years as many of the players were still playing "junior" rugby this season. It is therefore quite a young U20 squad - though it has a core of experienced players, such as OA Saints and Hertfordshire's Sarah McKenna who seems to have been playing age group rugby for England since we began playing at Letchworth.

England start tomorrow with probably their toughest game - against Canada. They too have a young squad - not to mention a completely new coaching team who appear to have had no part in its selection. Remarkably it seems that the squad was selected and trained by a different set of coaches who only learnt that they would not be travelling to England with the team this month when they attended the final training camp a few weeks ago. Whether this will have an effect on the Canadians' performance we will see, but it sounds less than an ideal means of team preparation.

On Sunday England meet Wales, whom they have beaten three times in the last 18 months, including 26-8 in April. In fact the Welsh have yet to record a win since international age group rugby moved up from U19 to U20 a year or two ago, but it must only be a matter of time as their record as a U19 team was pretty impressive - including several wins over England. What is more the strength of their junior regional teams has improved dramatically over the past year so an England win cannot be taken for granted.

Finally next Wednesday England round off with a game against the tournament's "mystery" team - the USA. A mystery because they were not at the Nation's Cup last season, and have only ever played two U20 internationals - both last year in a tour of South Africa. As their opponents on that tour have also never played anyone else it is difficult to know what to make of that tour's 1-1 draw.

The USA do have a long record at U19 level (if not a very successful one - ie. no wins in 11 games before the South African tour) and many players from former U19 squads return to the colours this week. In fact whereas Canada and England have lent towards youth, the USA have gone for experience with only nine of the 25 player squad lacking international caps. They also had a pretty tough "warm-up" last month when they took part in the national U23 regional tournament (an event entitled, with typical American modesty, the "Women’s U23 All-Star Championships") where they battled through to win the "Tier II" event, recording some significant wins over theoretically bigger and stronger opposition - so they will lack nothing in preparation.

I know that several people are going down to Brunel to cheer on the girls, so have a great time - and let's have a few pictures and reports!

And finally good luck to the England team, and most especially ex-Legend "all-stars" Sasha and Lizell!

Report to highlight barriers faced by women and girls in sport

The Times today reports that the Commission on the Future of Women's Sport (set up last year, and chaired by Tanni Grey-Thompson) will publish their findings tomorrow (Tuesday).

The main conclusion seems to be that women and girls face major barriers when they come to play sport - especially traditionally male-dominated sports like rugby - due to the way many of these sports are run by "Old Boy networks" of former (invariably male) players. It highlights the way in which the governing bodies of a quarter of the 46 sports studied - including rugby - currently have no female members. The report will say that "we’re trapped by our history in sport of old-school committees and members’ clubs".

The result is governing bodies that are "out of touch with half the population and risk compromising elite performance" due to an in-built conservatism and resistance to change. Such sports, the report will say, are often charaterised by a "macho culture inhospitable to working mothers, a lack of champions at the top and discrimination at the grassroots through stereotyping and inadequate facilities". These are barriers to both female participation and women landing the most senior jobs in sport.

Sue Tibballs of the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation is quoted as saying that "more women want to play sport but the way sport is led means it is failing to capitalise on the opportunity to grow grassroots participation and enjoy greater elite success". This is echoed by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, who said that “things have to change. I do not believe there are not the qualified women out there. Some sports are trying to change but others have more entrenched views.”

These appear to be just the first findings of the Commission - but the real question is less about what its final conclusions will be but rather more what (if anything) will be done. Though the Commission was established with the support of government, it is not a government report - and even if it was it difficult to see what government would do. Legislation is unlikely, but (on the other hand) are these "old boys networks" really likely to voluntarily change just by being shown the error of their ways?

"Confident players with good skills having a really good time"

Believe it or not, but the above statement (which would look great on any promotional posters/leaflets anyone is planning methinks) refers you.

And its not the words of someone from the club, or even someone that knows you - but a rugby follower from Australia who has put together a website of the best sources of information on rugby and - as well as highlighting this blog - has watched the video (top right) and been very impressed by what he has seen.

Okay, the video is a couple of years old now and many of the girls featured have moved on - but those of you moving into their places are more than capable of playing as well as these girls did. Bear in mind that most of the girls in those clips had not picked up a ball much more than two years before!

International rugby in August

I know its just turned July, but news of a bumper August of international rugby has come my way and - as some of it might even count as another world "exclusive" for the blog - so I thought I'd post the details now.

To begin with that "exclusive", as mentioned last week they England off to Canada to defend the Nations Cup that they won in the tournament in Esher last year. Full fixtures have not been published yet, but partial details have appeared on US and Canadian websites from which the full details can be worked out.

The tournament will include five teams this year - England, Canada, France, USA, and South Africa - so that is the teams finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th at the last World Cup so its not a bad lineup. It will also feature South Africa in 15-a-side action for the first time since the World Cup - have they developed as well as their U20 side seems to indicate, or will they still be only competing for the wooden spoon - and France's first games against non-European opposition since 2006.

The tournament will be played in and around Torono as a single round-robin for the five teams - no final, though the top two seeds (England and Canada) have been set-up to play on the final day. The fixtures are:

August 10: USA v England, France v South Africa (both 6.30pm local time)
August 13: England v France, South Africa v Canada (3.00 & 4.00pm)
August 16: USA v South Africa, France v Canada (3.00 & 4.00pm)
August 19: USA v Canada, England v South Africa (both 6.30pm)
August 22: USA v France, Canada v England (3.00 & 4.00pm)

A more detailed preview will appear nearer the event.

These will not be the only internationals during the month. In Africa the continents second and third-ranked teams (Uganda and Kenya) will be playing their annual home-and-away tournament for the Elgon Cup.

However the most important fixture of the summer will be taking place far away in the South Seas where, on 7th August 2009, Samoa take on Australia on a one-off winner-take-all qualifier for the World Cup the result of which is almost impossible to predict.

In connection with this news has come out that this should have been a four way event also involving Fiji and Papua New Guinea (no news about Tonga). However Papua - who have never previously played any international rugby - pulled out for financial reasons, while the Fijian rejected the invitation to take part... without (from what I hear) even consulting their women's team. The reason may financial as well, but its a shame that they do not seem to have even given their women a chance to do a bit of fundraising.

After this, we will know 11 of the 12 teams for 2010 and all we will be waiting for will be the Asian qualifier.

Countdown clock

Though I say so myself, I'm rather pleased with this season's countdown clock (see above). Its based on some free clocks that can be downloaded from http://www.ohiok.com/. However, their designs were all based on US sports - but with a bit of tinkering I've found a more appropriate image.

If you want to include this on you own site or home page or whatever then the HTML appears below. You can also change the picture by changing the highlighted text - but if you do note that the image needs to be 300 x 200 pixels.

To use the code first type a

<

then immediately after that enter/paste in the following:

embed src="http://www.ohiok.com/sports-countdown-clocks/show.swf?clickURL=http://www.ohiok.com/&clickLABEL=Sports Countdown Clock Generator&

flashLABEL=Letchworth Girls Rugby&

skin=http://johnlbirch.googlepages.com/untitled3.jpg&

text=Start%20of%20the%20season&untilColor=6724095&textColor=0&

datesColor=0&year=2009&month=8&day=6&hour=10&minute=0&second=0&x=6&y=77"

quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="300" height="200"

name="countdown" align="middle" wmode="transparent"

type="application/x-shockwave-flash"

pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />

Plans for next season

Mike has confirmed the arrangements with Saracens for next season. Basically both clubs will be registering separate teams at both U15 and U18 level, and the intention is to have as many independent fixtures as possible, but current player numbers (at both clubs) are such that such games are unlikely to be full sized, at least at the start of the season.

As a result a "cluster" with Saracens - likely to be called "Letchworth/Saracens" (much as last season Welwyn and OA Saints combined to play as "Welwyn Saints") - has also been registered. This will allow us to field combined teams (U15 and U18) in the Thames Valley league (which Saracens have been playing in for the past two seasons) as well possibly other competitions which either club, on its own, could not currently enter.

The problem with clusters is that they can quickly become "clubs" in their own right, but by keeping our own separate fixtures alongside the clustered games we will be able to keep our own identities. At the same time it will allow everyone to take part in any competitions next season without having to wait while the clubs build up their squads - and, because we are at opposite ends of the county, we will not be competing for the same players, which can be a problem with clusters of neighbouring teams.

So 2009-10 looks like being one of the most exciting, and varied, seasons so far with a full fixture list of games for both age groups. And if you are wondering how far away the new season is... see above (the clock is currently counting down to the first Sunday of September - when the season officially begins).