{"id":76807,"date":"2025-08-18T06:43:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/76807\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:43:17","slug":"the-history-of-the-womens-rugby-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/76807\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of the Women’s Rugby World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the beginning, women had to do it for themselves.<\/p>\n

As whispers of a possible global international women\u2019s rugby tournament grew louder, England players were eager that it be hosted close to home to save on travel costs.<\/p>\n

The logical solution? To organise it themselves.<\/p>\n

Deborah Griffin, who recently became the first woman to be president of England\u2019s Rugby Football Union<\/a>, volunteered to take the lead. She was supported by her Richmond team-mates Alice Cooper, Sue Dorrington and Mary Forsyth.<\/p>\n

Rugby\u2019s global governing body – the International Rugby Board (IRB) – was not pleased.<\/p>\n

It was organising a men\u2019s World Cup for later that year and, concerned it might affect that tournament, refused to officially recognise the women\u2019s equivalent.<\/p>\n

Griffin and her gang went ahead nevertheless, securing Cardiff as the host city. Chaos and joy ensued.<\/p>\n

A Soviet Union team took part and, unable to leave their communist homeland with money, travelled with goods to trade which apparently ranged from caviar to Soviet champagne.<\/p>\n

It is said that when they tried to sell vodka on the steps of Cardiff\u2019s City Hall, Griffin was woken by customs officers at her door.<\/p>\n

France had confirmed they would compete just minutes before the draw took place and New Zealand – then known as the \u2018Gal Blacks\u2019 – were embroiled in a debate about whether women should perform the Haka with a wide-legged stance.<\/p>\n

For some newspapers, women playing rugby was a novelty. A piece in the Sunday Mirror before the tournament began was headlined \u2018Scrumptious\u2019, with England players posing in evening gowns described as \u201cno macho machine\u201d and \u201csupremely feminine\u201d.<\/p>\n

The players responded on the pitch and England, playing under their own women\u2019s union co-founded by Griffin and so wearing a different rose on their shirts to the men\u2019s team, flew into the final.<\/p>\n

With the big game against the United States approaching, they found their hotel rooms had been double booked and had to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of a conference room.<\/p>\n

The United States, with \u201clocks from hell\u201d and \u201cturbo props\u201d, came out on top, winning 19-6 in front of around 3,000 fans.<\/p>\n

Another World Cup was due to take place in 1994, brought forward by a year to avoid clashing with the men\u2019s version.<\/p>\n

It was left without a home after disagreements with the IRB led to the Netherlands pulling out as hosts three months before the tournament was due to start.<\/p>\n

Scotland wing Sue Brodie and her team-mates had been training for their World Cup debut in Edinburgh and gathered at a pub in Leith after hearing the news.<\/p>\n

Brodie convinced the others they could host the World Cup themselves, although they would call it a World Championships to appease the IRB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, \u2018let\u2019s just invite the teams here and see what happens,\u2019\u201d Brodie told BBC Scotland News<\/a> in 2024. <\/p>\n

Players and staff had to cover travel and accommodation costs themselves. The organisers balanced full-time work or studies and families with training and, now, organising an international rugby tournament at short notice.<\/p>\n

Spain dropped out at the last minute and a Scottish Universities team stepped in to fill their group.<\/p>\n

Brodie and her team pulled it together with support from the Edinburgh rugby community, finishing second in their group to England, but losing 8-0 to Wales in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n

The United States and England set up a repeat of the 1991 final – their fifth match in 18 days in a much more condensed tournament than the modern edition.<\/p>\n

Karen Almond captained England at Raeburn Place and a crowd of around 5,000 flooded the pitch as her side claimed the World Cup with a 38-23 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a step forward in media coverage, highlights of the win were later shown on the BBC\u2019s sports programme Grandstand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the beginning, women had to do it for themselves. As whispers of a possible global international women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-76807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}