Under the Posts – May 25-Jun 14

Usually we start our women’s rugby digest with a featured video of the week. But the world as we know it changed (again) on May 25, 2020 with the brutal murder of George Floyd. Floyd isn’t the only victim of police brutality but his death reignited the BLM movement.

After reflection and consultation with a few trusted rugby folk we decided to fully and completely support the Black Lives Matter movement. Our site has been solely dedicated to the advancement of women’s rugby but we’ve stayed out of larger societal issues. The time has come that this isn’t acceptable anymore.

Some have asked what this has to do with rugby…and to us, it’s simple. Rugby is a sport for all and when ANY of our community is under attack, we must respond. For more about this, read our post on ‘Standing Up’.

Of course we’re not alone in our effort to support the movement, we’ve highlighted a few other brands that are also standing up including Maggie Alphonsi, XV Foundation, the Rugby Union Weekly podcast and World Rugby 7s. 

Since we went dark for a few days and focused solely on Black Live Matters, this post will serve as a catchup of news up to June 14. 

Featured News

We’re focusing on women’s sport and how the  pandemic continues to affect it. The top WPL team in the US has had their program cut by the  City of Glendale, Tyrrells Premier won’t renew their sponsorship in England and Maggie Alphonsi speaks with the Telegraph about the  consequences of not sticking up for women’s sports. 

Women’s Rugby News

Lots of women’s rugby news in the last few weeks but we’ve picked the biggest ones. Rugby Europe canceled their 2021 WRWC qualification process along with Africa and Asia. This is putting  immense pressure on the global calendar as all of these matches would need to be completed ahead of the WRWC.

The Farah Palmer Cup is baaaack and will feature 13 teams starting in August. They are the first women’s rugby competition to return to play.

The Major League Rugby organization announced Dallas as their newest team (in 2021) and our friend Elaine Vassie was tapped as General Manager and Assistant Coach. Congrats!

Player Features

Clubs continue to highlight players and this week we’re looking at Canada’s Charity Williams and Bianca Farella, England’s Emily Scarratt and Hong Kong’s Doris Chow who was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Media 

We really enjoyed Joy Neville’s interview with World Rugby as well as Rupert Cox chatting about the state of the women’s game. Give them all a listen!

Can’t wait a week? Join us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram as we will be posting daily. We have a bit more dialogue on Twitter if you’d like to join in.