Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Mar 22-28

Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Mar 22-28 begins with the announcement of the Women’s Six Nations fixtures and broadcast schedule finally being released. We’re pleased to see no overlapping start times but it’s difficult to build new fans and engagement with less than two weeks to go before the first kick-off.

In XVs news, Allianz Premier 15s is getting closer to their semi-finals with Wasps, Loughborough and an outside chance for newcomer Exeter to take their spots. Spain’s Iberdrola is off for the week but their Honor “B” division is playing their final league matches.

In 7s news, the Emirates Invitational 7s tournament will take place April 2-3 and 8-9 (back to back weekends). The Olympics have announced that overseas spectators won’t be allowed and Australia, Fiji and New Zealand are considering how to train ahead of the Olympics. New Zealand is even thinking about basing themselves in Australia while Fiji may not attend some HSBC 7s events!

In Other News, we announced that we’ve partnered with Patreon to bring you behind the scenes content! Canada has announced their 2020 Hall of Fame including three females and the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup team. 

We finish out the week with ten player features and fourteen media.

tl;dr: Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Mar 22-28 reveals the Women’s Six Nations fixtures & broadcast details. The Emirates Invitational 7s tournament is April 2-3 and 8-9 & the Oceania teams struggle to get games ahead of the Olympics.

Video Summary

Featured Women’s Rugby News

The big announcement this week was the reveal of the Women’s Six Nations fixtures and broadcast details. The tournament consists of two pools of three teams before concluding with Finals Day on  April 24. Pool A consists of England, Italy and Scotland while Pool B features France, Ireland and Wales.

Each team will play one home and one away fixture before facing the opposing ranked team from the other pool in a Super Saturday finals day. The Pool A teams – England, Italy and Scotland – will have home games for the finals.

Weekly Women’s Rugby News

XVs

  • Allianz Premier 15s already has two booked for the semi-finals in Saracens & Harlequins. Now we wait to see who the other two spots will go to…
  • Iberdrola is off for the week but the action remains in their Honor “B” as they close out their final league matches
  • Kenya’s 10s Festival sees Yamanshi Impala Saracens on top after Round 2
  • New Zealand is hopeful to play test matches before the rescheduled Rugby World Cup
  • The FIRST EVER Super Rugby Women’s match will be played May 1 between Blues and Waitomo Wahine

7s

  • Dubai is hosting the Emirates Invitational 7s tournament in back to back weekends April 2-3  and 8-9
  • Olympic organizers have announced there will be no overseas spectators allowed
  • Kenya is back in camp ahead of the Olympics
  • Fiji is considering skipping the Paris stop of the HSBC 7s Series
  • Australia is trying organize matches between some of the Oceania teams as they struggle for game time
  • New Zealand may move their base to Australia to train ahead of the Olympics

Other News

  • We’ve partnered with Patreon and are searching for our first supporters!
  • WRCRA is honoring administrators of the game ahead of the 2021 WRCRA Conference on April 9 & 11
  • Canada announces their 2020 Hall of Fame including the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup team and three other female pioneers
  • Stella shares what #RugbyTok is all about
  • Telegraph Sport looks at the “true scale of how women’s sport was left behind in the pandemic”
  • World Rugby Museum features The England Women’s Rugby Football Union

Women’s Rugby Player Features

  • The Rugby Blindside interviews Karen Hood, Head of the Injured Players Foundation
  • England’s Maggie Alphonsi touts that a Lions side is what the women’s game needs
  • Ireland’s Claire Molloy also agrees that having a women’s Lions team would be huge
  • Ireland’s Louise Galvin on retiring from International Rugby and continuing to train
  • New Zealand’s Kelly Brazier is aiming to be at the Olympics this summer and the Rugby World Cup next year
  • England’s Shaunagh Brown looks forward to a Lions cap and playing in the newly announced WXV competition
  • Zimbabwe’s Abigail Mnikwa is one of the two recipients of World Rugby’s Women’s Executive Leadership Scholarships together with Peris Mukoko of Kenya
  • Wales’ Gemma Rowland talks with Scrum Queens about new beginnings
  • Ireland’s Lynne Cantwell is excited about her appointment as South Africa’s new high-performance manager for the women’s game
  • South Africa’s Kheselina Nhlanhla Rens was awarded a scholarship to attend the newly opened Gauteng Women’s Rugby Institute (GWRI)

Women’s Rugby Media/Podcasts/Videos

  • England’s Maggie Alphonsi speaks with Royal London about their partnership with the Women’s Lion program
  • World Rugby’s Ugo Monye talks with New Zealand’s Eloise Blackwell about the launch of WXV
  • USA’s Abby Gustais features on the premiere of The American Rugby Show
  • Broken Trophy talks with England’s Zainab “Zee” Alema about her aim to become the first black Muslim to play for England
  • The Sprinbok women wrapped their XVs camp with a quick video
  • Rugby Wrap Up chat about World Rugby’s WXV
  • Off The Ball talks with Scrum Queen’s Ali Donnelly what pay-per-view men’s rugby might mean for the women’s game
  • Canada’s Brianna Miller from sat down with CTV News Ottawa about WXV
  • England’s Amber Reed talks with BT Sport about her battles with mental health
  • Allianz Premier 15s highlights Round 15
  • Women’s Rugby Pod has World Rugby Competitions Manager Alison Hughes on
  • England’s Abi Burton is on Gain Line and talking about being back in Great Britain 7s camp
  • Jangles ScienceLad releases ‘Trans Women in Sport: A Response to Hilton & Lundberg’ with over 75 sources
  • USA’s Alice Sall is featured by the Greaux Rugby Show

 

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Featured News

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374373993302519809

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374435909198770178

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1374363956303822851

https://twitter.com/Scotlandteam/status/1375039809643806722

https://twitter.com/EnglandRugby/status/1375387267037073409

https://twitter.com/FranceRugby/status/1374370950955687939

https://twitter.com/WelshRugbyUnion/status/1375109726619504644

https://twitter.com/Federugby/status/1376879408313683968

12 days before the Six Nations Tournament and we finally know the fixtures. Venue information is trickling in from player’s on social media and slowly being updated on their site. 

The shortened format persists but we did have better kick-off times (not overlapping) and new ground has been broken in broadcasting with matches on all games will be available in one place in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Italy, with the BBC, RTÉ and Eurosport carrying all nine matches on a mix of terrestrial and digital services. No luck for those of us in the USA, get your VPN ready…

A bonus announcement was that England will travel to Lille to take on France in an extra fixture on April 30. That match will be shown on BBC iPlayer.

Women's Rugby News

XVs

https://twitter.com/Premier15s/status/1376224437238968323

Round 16 of Allianz Premier 15s saw Wasps crush Sale 50-0, Saracens & Harlequins had the first draw of the season 17-7, DMP Durham missed out to Gloucester-Hartpury 38-7, Exeter upset Loughborough 17-12 and Worcester tripped up Bristol 29-21. 

Barring any major mistakes Wasps and Loughborough should sew up the final two semi-final spots this week. Wasps has three matches left against DMP Durham, Glouceseter and Bristol. Loughborough has two matches left against Saracens and Sale. 

Exeter will need to win their matches against Sale and Gloucester and will need to win both while hoping for mistakes in the teams above them.

There are no matches in Spain’s Iberdrola this weekend but Sant Cugat, Getxo, BUC and El Salvador will play the final league matches in the Division of Honor “B”.

Yamanashi Impala Saracens remain top of the Kenya Rugby Union Women’s 10-a-side festival after round two action on 14 March at the Impala Club.

Action continues with the third round at the RFUEA Ground on Sunday 28 March 2021.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374405740442447880

With the delay of the 2021 Rugby World Cup, New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson is looking for fixtures for his women’s side. 

https://twitter.com/BluesRugbyTeam/status/1376311517344190466

New Zealand has announced the FIRST EVER Super Rugby Women’s match will be played on Saturday 1st of May, 4:35pm at Eden Park between the nib Blues Women and Waitomo Wahine Chiefs!

7s

Emirates Dubai 7s will host the Emirates Invitational 7s, a competitive training camp including two tournament weekends for some of the best rugby sevens teams in the world on April 2-3 and 8-9 in supporting the teams in their preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.

Organizers have confirmed there will not be a broadcast or stream to watch but they will provide updates through the two weekends.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1373997908018741258

The IOC has confirmed that the Olympics will not have overseas spectators. 

“Currently, the COVID-19 situation in Japan and many other countries around the world is still very challenging and a number of variant strains have emerged, whilst international travel remains severely restricted globally. Based on the present situation of the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that entry into Japan will be guaranteed this summer for people from overseas.”

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374360353598009346

Kenya is in camp after Madrid 7s and is looking towards the Olympics this summer.

“Our rest and recovery protocols need to be very thorough going forward because it plays a big role in our performance. As a technical team, we have a player-centered approach where the players give suggestions on what they consider to work best for them on the pitch and the management team does the same, we then compare and go with what can be actualized more efficiently.” – Kenya Head Coach Felix Oloo

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374043413910274051

The Fiji women’s sevens team might skip the upcoming World Series events in Paris because of fears their players could contract Covid-19.

“The risks are too high for us to travel so we are serious considering the possibility of not sending our Fijiana team,”

“Although there is two tournaments one after another the issue we have is someone has Covid or catches Covid-19 they won’t be allowed to travel back home and they return back home in quarantine.” – Fiji Rugby CEO John O’Connor

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374843492254507011

Australia has been struggling for matches as they try to prepare for the Olympics this summer. Games are being organized between Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in June, but nothing has been locked in. Meanwhile, several Aussies will take part in the upcoming Aon Uni 7s Series.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375206004124712968

New Zealand’s Olympic sevens teams could be based in Australia ahead of chasing a first gold medal at the Tokyo Games in July. Hopes of the trans-Tasman bubble opening up could include matches against Australia, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. 

Other News

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375542795277058055

Who will be our first Patreon contributor? Join us for only $3 a month as a general “with you” supporter or do a little more at $5 a month and you’ll get exclusive content!

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374048065078894596

WRCRA shares the early organizers of the women’s game in the USA. It all started with “Jello” in 1977!

Honoring administrators is a focus of the 2021 WRCRA Conference on April 9 and 11.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374073536780832776

Rugby Canada has announced their 2020 Hall of Fame Inductees including the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup Team as well as three other females, Leslie Cripps, Josée Lacasse and Moira Shiels.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374118810005950467

Stella shares what’s happening over on TikTok and with #RugbyTok hashtag. We’re new users of TikTok so this peak into that world was awesome!

The Telegraph shares how women’s sport “has lost 664 more days than men’s during the pandemic.” They compiled data on how long each major women’s sport was shut down because of Covid compared to the male equivalents.

“Elite women’s sport was out of action for a total of 2,191 days, while men’s sport lost 982 days across the comparable leagues and teams during the pandemic.”

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374722679052382211

World Rugby Museum is reviewing six influential governing bodies and their roles in the history and development of England Rugby Union (RFU). They are featuring the Women’s Rugby Football Union and their involvement in growing women’s rugby.

Player Features

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374768132007596036

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375568442116427777

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375930641389383684

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1374798442006974466

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375447518226567171

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375809886290903042

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375160562821312525

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1375523044559626249

Media

https://twitter.com/ugomonye/status/1374458637612032003

https://twitter.com/BleavPodcasts/status/1374457004048011265

https://twitter.com/TheBrokenTrophy/status/1374986419983282176

https://twitter.com/RugbyCanada/status/1374466024263708674

https://twitter.com/WomenBoks/status/1376244512398438402

https://twitter.com/podwomensrugby/status/1374472823452749827

https://twitter.com/GainLinePodcast/status/1375036599705206786

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1376217599218946051

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