Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Apr 12-18

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news for Apr 12-18! We’re picking up from last week where we talked about the Wales Rugby Union receiving lots of online criticism due to their team’s performance in the Six Nations. They responded by stating that they are “committed to developing the female game” but have indicated that the pandemic interrupted those plans. Is this true or is this another case of using the pandemic as a convenient excuse? We’ll have to keep our eye on this.

In XVs news, Russia celebrates their teams attendance at the Inaugural 1991 Women’s Rugby World Cup, we review Round 3 of the Six Nations which caused a small shake-up in the World Rugby rankings, we also look at Round 17 of Allianz Premier 15s who is getting closer to their playoffs, and the USA Rugby DI Elite semi-finals.

In 7s news, Canada has completed their probe into former head coach John Tait but won’t share findings until all parties are notified. Spain and Russia are in camp, Spain only a week for while Russia will go until the end of April. 

In “other news”, we learn the three candidates for the World Rugby Executive Committee, Guinness is working with Wikipedia to build profiles for players in the Six Nations and NIRA adds three more teams which gets them that much closer to the critical number of 40 NCAA rugby teams.

We wrap the week up with 11 player features and 16 media!

tl;dr: Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for Apr 12-18 begins with the WRU responding to criticism, and we cover Round 3 of the Six Nations.

Video Summary

Featured Women’s Rugby News

Last week we covered the criticism that the Wales Rugby Union has been receiving in adequately supporting their women’s teams. The WRU responded to the criticism but their response doesn’t really hold any water.

We also look at an article from RugbyPass who reinforces what kind of support is needed and another article from Kerin Lake’s partner sharing her rigorous schedule just to play for her country.

Weekly Women’s Rugby News

XVs

  • The celebration of the Inaugural 1991 Women’s Rugby World Cup continues with articles from USA and Russia
  • Round 3 of the Six Nations saw France defeated Ireland handily and Italy blasted Scotland setting up the Super Saturday Finals Day:
    • Final: England v France, Twickenham Stoop, London – Saturday 24th April, KO 2pm (BST)
    • Third/fourth-place play-off: Italy v Ireland, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma – Saturday 24th April, KO 12pm (BST)
    • Fifth/sixth-place play-off: Scotland v Wales, Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow – Saturday 24th April, KO 5pm (BST)
  • Spain overtook Wales in the World Rugby rankings
  • Round 17 of Allianz Premier 15s moves this competition closer to their semi-finals
  • Lindenwood and Life move on to the USA Rugby DI Elite Championship on May 1

7s

  • Canada has finished their probe into former head coach John Tait but won’t share any results until all parties are notified
  • Spain and Russia are in camp preparing for the summer 7s events
  • India has played their first 7s tournament of the year as they return to play

Other News

  • The World Rugby Executive Committee has an open seat and we learned that there are two females and one male applying
  • Guinness is making sure that the women’s Six Nations players have a presence on Wikipedia
  • Ugo Monye speaks about why he is an ally for women’s rugby and how rugby shouldn’t have a gender
  • NIRA adds three teams as they race to 40 teams for NCAA rugby

Women’s Rugby Player Features

  • BBC Sport England’s Shaunagh Brown explains why she is not worried about their final and how she will be spending her time off
  • Zimbabwe’s Rumbidzai Chabveka is relishing her new role as a ZRU National Panel referee
  • Talking Rugby Union talks with 19 year-old England’s Maud Muir about her journey and hopes
  • England’s Maggie Alphonsi talks with World Rugby about her successful broadcasting career
  • USA’s Lauren Doyle talks about switching from track to rugby and her Olympic dreams
  • England’s Sara Cox and Nikki O’Donnell share with World Rugby their rise in the referee ranks
  • Ireland’s Nora Stapleton chats about her challenge with retirement
  • Rugby Americas North hosts a Q&A with Cristina Flores Justic
  • Ireland’s Sene Naoupu talks with World Rugby about her recent appointment as Head of Strategic Projects and Research at International Rugby Players (IRP)
  • Wales’ Jasmine Joyce discusses life as a professional athlete, her hopes for the Games and juggling rugby commitments with World Rugby

Women’s Rugby Media/Podcasts/Videos

  • The Good, The Bad and the Rugby has England’s Shaunagh Brown on
  • RTE Rugby talks with Lynne Cantwell about her appointment in South Africa
  • Women’s Rugby Pod Wales’ Warren Abrahams and Ireland’s Jenny Murphy about the Six Nations so far
  • The Black Ferns visited HerStory, a new women’s rugby exhibition at the New Zealand Museum
  • Try Hards talks Six Nations with Danielle Waterman
  • BBC ScrumV has Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap on to talk about her disappointment in the match against Ireland
  • Michelle Hooper, tournament director for the 2022 Rugby World Cup, talks to Ashley Stanley in part two of LockerRoom’s video series, The Big Four
  • Women’s Six Nations gives insight into France’s Jessy Tremouliere journey
  • RugbyJoe talks with Zainab “Zee” Alema and her ambitions of becoming the first Muslim woman to play for England
  • USA’s Naya Tapper is featured by Team USA
  • Worcester Warriors’ quick chats with Elizabeth Shermer
  • Irish Rugby shares Kathryn Dane’s journey to the jersey
  • Ben Ryan has Dr Sherylle Calder about her work with Rugby World Cup teams
  • Royal London talks with England’s Maggie Alphonsi about a Women’s Lions team
  • Lao Rugby is featured by World Rugby and their Lao Unstoppables
  • Great Britain’s Celia Quansah shows how the 7s squad is practicing

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Featured News

https://twitter.com/runteachtravel/status/1381713259699580929

https://twitter.com/RugbyPass/status/1381648181415514121

We covered the online criticism that Wales received last week and it hasn’t stopped. The WRU has responded to the criticism their women’s team has received claiming to be “committed to developing the female game” but conveniently blame everything on COVID. We’re seeing this across the board, when a team doesn’t perform it’s easier to blame COVID rather then take a real look at the issues. Wales has been falling behind for quite some time now. 

Jess at RugbyPass makes that point effortlessly and we also look at article from Kerin Lake’s partner where he shares the reality of playing international rugby while balancing a career and motherhood. 

Women's Rugby News

XVs

The celebration of the Inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup continues. It’s well known that USA won that first event but Russian rugby has provided a rare window into their team’s presence at the event as well.

https://twitter.com/Womens6Nations/status/1383490647596802058

Round 3 of the Six Nations had closer scoring lines as France defeated Ireland 56-15 and Italy bested Scotland 41-20. This sets up the Super Saturday Finals Day next week.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1382015891295113216

Wales poor performance in the Six Nations causes them to drop to 10th in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings, with Spain replacing them in ninth. This is the lowest-ever position for Wales since August 2017.

Round 17 is in the books! It started with a monumental first win of the 2020/21 season for DMP Durham Sharks over Bristol Bears, a hard fought win for Wasps on the road to Gloucester-Hartpury, Harlequins are a step closer to a home semi final after beating Worcester Warriors, Loughborough Lightning came off second best in their top four encounter with Saracens and Sale Sharks ended their final home game of the season with a victory over Exeter Chiefs.

At the USA Rugby DI Elite semi-finals, Lindenwood defeated BYU 74-7  and Life squeaked past  Central Washington University 29-20. Lindenwood and Life now look to the May 1 final in St. Charles, MO.

Watch the final 7 p.m. CT on May 1 on FTFnext.com.

7s

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383420202717642766

The investigation into a complaint from members of the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team has been completed. But Rugby Canada says it is “still in the process of sharing the confidential findings with the involved parties.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1381673676651831296

With Spain’s Iberdrola league on a break, 19 of their 7s players are participating in a week long camp. 

https://twitter.com/RugbyRussia/status/1382560603089346561

Russia is also in camp from April 11-30 with 19 players attending. They are preparing for the 1st stage of the European Championship set to take place in mid-June.

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1381970566287085569

Rugby India has finally played their first rugby match in over a year, the tournament took place at the picturesque Srinagar. India is one of the countries badly hit by the Coronavirus, but despite the difficulties they were able to push through and organize a 7s tournament.

Other News

An opening on the World Rugby’s Executive Committee has sparked interest all over. Scrum Queens confirmed that there are 3 candidates:
  • Cristina Flores (Rugby Americas North)
  • Ada Milby (Asia Rugby)
  • Jonathan Webb (Rugby Football Union)
ExCo members must be already on World Rugby’s Council to be nominated, while Council members get to vote. Of 11 current members, there’s just one woman on the group – Angela Ruggiero, the former ice-hockey Olympian. https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383103054803841032 Guinness has partnered with Wikimedia UK to ensure that every member of the Women’s Six Nations is properly recorded on the site viewed 18 billion times globally every month – adding over 135,000 words to their profiles. https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383133121667866624 “It’s really simple for me, I love rugby and I don’t think rugby has a gender.” Ugo isn’t just being a fantastic ally to the women’s game he’s also taking racism and inequality on full charge. More of this! NIRA continues their sprint to 40 colleges adding University of New Haven, Lander University and Adrian College. All three programs will look to kick off in the fall of 2021.
Player Features

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1381683664451407872

https://twitter.com/RugbyAfrique/status/1381939474037411840

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1382816069929340929

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383540789360300037

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383178527244173313

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383827737912090624

https://twitter.com/WorldRugby/status/1381542572481462273

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1382091267773972484

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383465587158913024

Media

https://twitter.com/BlackFerns/status/1381473212098248705

https://twitter.com/GoodBadRugby/status/1381574709343567872

https://twitter.com/TheTryHardsPod/status/1382954772953767936

https://twitter.com/RoyalLondon/status/1381525046276030464

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1382016989816836096

https://twitter.com/WorcsWarriorsW/status/1382294350890209283

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383057639618326529

https://twitter.com/BBCScrumV/status/1382409067856072711

https://twitter.com/Womens6Nations/status/1382760382280847362

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1383827737912090624

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