Women rugby in Victorian Times

from Rugby Pioneers:

Let me be honest, I’m not 100% sure (understatement…) that women rugby started to develop as early as 1895 when these colourful die-cuts were printed…

Yet, I remember of Irish-born Emily Valentine who played rugby in 1887 in Royal Portora School in Enniskillen where her father had been headmaster (please check this BBC video on scrumqueens.com and read the whole story uncovered by John Birch on his website)

Or we could also think of the cigarette card series – the very same rugby kit imho – published in 1895 by Thomas Ogden of Liverpool to promote his “Otto de Rose” perfumed cigarettes for women. Possibly the rarest (and the most expensive…) of all rugby cigarette cards sets !

BTW I’m quite sure that the same artist (from Liverpool ??) did the artwork for this cigarette cards and my die-cuts… wonderful rugby kit!

Post-Scriptum : there was some international women rugby last week-end in Paris. While France was (logically… ?) defeated by England 3-15, the French U20 girls spectacularly “crushed” their young English opponents 50-0 !! (click for match reports on scrumqueens.com)