General Thread

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Just a general women's rugby thread.

Scottish Rugby announces pro contracts for 28 women

Scottish Rugby announce 11-month professional contracts for 28 female players.

www.bbc.com

Scotland giving out 28 professional contracts. Not much more information but should be a step towards making the 6N more competitive.

 

[Which Tyler]

Good news, IIRC that leaves Ireland as the only 6N team without properly professional contracts

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Looks like Premier 15s are dropping to 8 sides from next season,
Sale not making the cut is a bit ****, no pro sides in the North now

Club Statement - Sale Sharks Women | Sale Sharks

Sale Sharks notes the RFU decision to reject the club’s application for a women’s team to be part of the Premier 15s from the 2023/24 season onwards. In response, Sale Sharks CEO Sid Sutton said: “We felt our submission fulfilled the criteria laid out by the RFU and demonstrated the commitment...

www.salesharks.com

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Leicester and Ealing to join women's Premier 15s

Leicester are set to become the latest men's Premiership club to field a side in the women's Premier 15s, with Ealing also offered a place in the league.

www.bbc.com

BBC says the league still wants 10. Durham and Worcester dropping out makes sense cause of financial difficulties. I thought Wasps women were part of the Wasps amateur side not the troubled side? Sale dropping out sucks. I get they haven't been good but they should have the financial backing of a men's premiership side. You'd think having a pathway in Manchester would be important to the RFU.

 

[Which Tyler]

From the Bath statement; it looks like it's going to be a 10 team league, 8 teams confirmed at this stage; everyone else with more hoops to jump through

Club Statement: Application to join 2023/24 Premier 15s unsuccessful at tender stage

Bath Rugby's application to join the 202/24 Allianz Premier 15s is not successful at tender stage

www.bathrugby.com

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Munster win interpros with clinching win this week. Tight win over leinster happened on second matchday. Can only find replays on youtube which is a shame. I think this comp could do well with proper marketing.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Premier 15s: Sale Sharks & Worcester Warriors offered places for 2023-24
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/64486901

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Reading rugby player wins compensation over revenge tackle

Dani Czernuszka suffered a permanent spinal injury when her opponent executed a "red mist" tackle.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

British and Irish Lions: Best & Bowe back Women's Lions tour

Former British and Irish Lions Rory Best and Tommy Bowe say a Women's Lions tour would help to further grow the women's game.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

'I nearly died' - the Olympian wrongly sectioned for 26 days

British Olympian Abi Burton was wrongly sectioned for 26 days and spent 25 days in an induced coma; this is her story.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Which Tyler]

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Mitchell set to become England’s women’s coach.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Mitchell set to become England’s women’s coach.

How does he keep falling upwards?

Think this could end in tears considering his.......abrasive.....coaching style

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Mitchell confirmed.

Might be lively but a bit of a coup for the Red Roses. Presumably lack of Leicester links ruled him out of the running for the men’s team.

 

[Arcturus]

Good first half against Exeter. Just need to retain composure

 

[retired9]

British and Irish Lions: Best & Bowe back Women's Lions tour

Former British and Irish Lions Rory Best and Tommy Bowe say a Women's Lions tour would help to further grow the women's game.

www.bbc.co.uk

This would be awesome, pity the "Lionesses" tag is already claimed but what a massive vehicle this would be for the womens game.

On top of that, for the Home Nations the experience of pooling talent and coaches from all 4 countries would be great. It may be a little England heavy for a while but that's not unfair given their performance.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

BIL is unpopular here but I think it would be good for the other home nations.

Idk how it would grow the game but I know a great advertisement for women’s rugby would be some england vs NZ test tours. It should be a great rivalry and would make people see how great women’s rugby can be when players are professional.

Edit: just also saw Worcester pulled out of the premiership which is quite a blow.

 

[Which Tyler]

Just spotted, Hartpury v Exeter live on TNT1 now.

Looks like it's not the only one this weekend

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Just grazing through the Saracens website I noticed that heights / weights are shown for the male players but not the women.

So I looked a bit further (by no means at all) and saw Tigers and Bath (for women's 7s) do likewise.

Some may say that the reasons are obvious, but isn't that an over simplification as plenty of males, even alpha rugby playing types (perhaps especially those) suffer from body insecurities too? Maybe in a different way and are less prepared to talk about them, but I find it an odd inconsistency - they're either relevant to publish for a rugby player or they're not.

I guess hats off to Bristol where the details aren't published for either and Exeter who publish details for both, for at least being consistent.

(And I'm not entirely clear whether from a Data Protection perspective you'd need explicit consent to disclose weight anyway - looks like it may fall under biometric data for some purposes……although you'd assume all those kinds of implications would have been properly considered and addressed).

Just something that caught my eye and got me wondering.

 

[Seeker]

Just wanted to share this great tackle from the 2025 Women's 7s tour. Click the Instagram logo.