RFUW: A Brief History
RFUW Mission Statement
The RFUW aims to:
- Promote and govern rugby union for women in England
- Develop the game for the benefit and enjoyment of its participants at all levels
- Be world leaders through excellence in every aspect of the elite game
Where it all began...
Women’s Rugby was first played seriously in Great Britain in the late 1970’s. Early teams were established through the student network and included Keele University, University College of London, Imperial College, York University and St Mary’s Hospital.
Until May 1994 Women’s’ Rugby was run by the Women’s’ Rugby Football Union (WRFU), formed in 1983. The WRFU was responsible for rugby in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. When the WRFU was formed there were 12 founder teams as members in the first year. These teams included: Leicester Polytechnic, Sheffield University, UCL, University of Keele, Warwick University, Imperial College, Leeds University, Magor Maidens, York University and Loughborough University.
In 1994 the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in England with each of the Home Nations governing their own countries. The RFUW currently has over 288 Clubs comprising of 187 Senior teams, 54 student sides, 110 Under 18’s sides, 125 Under 15’s sides.
These clubs are slotted into regions, these being: North, Midlands, London North & South, South and South West.
Top men’s clubs, which now have women’s teams, include: Wasps, Saracens, Worcester, Rosslyn Park, London Welsh, Waterloo, Richmond, Blackheath and Harlequins.
Structure
Grant funding through Sport England primarily fund the RFUW. England Women’s Rugby is purely funded through the National Lottery Fund administered and overseen by Sport England. Gilbert, Maximuscle, OPRO and Polar sponsor the RFUW and England Women’s Rugby.
Major funding was obtained from the Sports Council in 1995 and this allowed the appointment of the first paid and full time member of the RFUW. The position of National Development Officer was created in September 1996 with the aim of developing rugby at all levels, but with emphasis during the early stages of developing Youth Rugby.
Since this time further funding has allowed the RFUW to expand its operation to include a Development and Performance Directorate, which is underpinned by an administrative structure to support both paid and volunteer officers in running the game, its competitions, membership services and development and performance initiatives.
The Head of Development and Head of Performance are responsible for delivering against the targets set in national plans, which include the development of grass roots, youth, coaching and officials, volunteers as well as talent identification, raising standards, player development and the national squads.
The Managing Director, who reports to the RFUW Board of Directors, oversees the operation of all departments. There are currently ten elected RFUW Board Members, all of whom are volunteers.
The RFUW is an Associate of the Rugby Football Union and Women’s Rugby is recognised as part of the mainstream game by the International Rugby Board.
Competitions
The RFUW currently organises a Divisional programme at three age groups, a Super Fours competition, International fixtures and three Cup Competitions – the Rugby World National Cup the North/South Cup and the Student cup. Additionally it administers twenty-two leagues featuring the National Premier League and Championship North and South.
The split below the National leagues divides into the National Challenge Leagues One and Two split into North, Midlands, South East and South West. There are then 12 leagues below these which are run on a regional basis.
Talent Identification and Player Development
Constituent Body rugby has an integral role in providing opportunities for talented players to participate at higher levels. Most Constituent Bodies now run Senior, Under 18 and Under 15 teams, and participate in the RFUW CB Competition. Players are then nominated to go to divisional trials to take part in the Divisional Programme, part of the RFUWs Talent ID and player development programmes. Divisional rugby consists of 4 Divisions – North, Midlands, London and South East and South West across three age groups U15s, U18s and Senior and consists of training, matches, camps and a festival for the U15s and U18s. The delivery of the Divisional programme is overseen nationally by the RFUW Player Development Manager (PDM) and divisionally by RFUW Divisional Talent Development Officers (DTDOs). With the aim of providing a challenging, high quality, performance environment within each Division which enables effective individual player development and provides players who have potential, ambition and commitment to become the best they can be.
Potential England players identified at Divisional, progress onto various National Programmes within the player pathway. This includes the U15 and U18 National Talent Development Camps, U20 trials to form the England U20 squad and also for the Super Fours competition, which forms part of the England Elite Player Squad selection process which all happen on an annual basis. Players are selected into 4 squads and play games against other potential England players alongside current Elite Player Squad (EPS) players. Following the completion of the games the England Elite Coaches will then select the EPS for the following 12 months.
With sevens rugby now on the Olympic agenda, and set to make its debut in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Games, the sport is going from strength to strength. There are plans to establish an IRB Women’s Sevens World Series in time for the start of the 2012/13 season. With this in mind open trials were introduced in 2011 to unearth potential England Sevens players with huge amounts of talent that have not been seen before. Players outside of our current system not on the player pathway may only just have started playing at University or College, but have the potential to become fantastic players. Players selected into the Elite Player Squad or Sevens development pathway, receive strength and conditioning training, one-on-one coaching and the opportunity to train with England’s top sevens coaches.
