Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for May 17-23

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news for May 17-23. We begin with the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals where the Harlequins and Saracens defeated Wasps and Loughborough putting them in the Championship in Kingsholm on May 30th. We also look at Round three of South Africa’s Premier Division where Border Ladies and DHL Western are dominating the division with three wins in a row, and New Zealand announced the draw for the Dr Farah Palmer Cup with matches starting July 16.

In 7s news, Premier Rugby 7s will debut in the US this fall featuring North America’s top athletes along with equal pay for both genders! New Zealand took four out of five matches against Australia in the first round of the Trans-Tasman tournament and Colombia dominated Life U 7s in Atlanta.

In Other News, the BBC & ITV confirmed they will broadcast the Women’s Six Nations for the next four years, France will allow transgender women to continue playing rugby while Canada announced several female additions to their Board.

We wrap up the week with 11 player features and 10 media.

tl;dr: Under the Posts – Women’s Rugby News for May 17-23 begins with the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals, the draw for the Dr Farah Palmer Cup and Premier Rugby 7s will debut in the US with top North American talent and equal pay.

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Video Summary

Weekly Women’s Rugby News

XVs

  • Harlequins and Saracens are on their way back to the Allianz Premier Finals after defeating Wasps and Loughborough
  • Round 3 of South Africa’s Premier Division saw Border Ladies and DHL Western cruise to their third wins in a row while Boland Dames got their first win
  • The Dr Farah Palmer Cup schedule was released with matches starting July 16
  • Uganda held a camp in Junja where they focused on transitioning from 10s to XVs
  • Zambia will take part in a two nations Battle of Zambezi tour from June 2 to 6

7s

  • Premier Rugby 7s is the newest competition in the US, debuting with North America’s top athletes and equal pay
  • New Zealand won four out of five matches in the first round of the Trans-Tasman clash
  • Colombia swept the field at Life U 7s
  • Spain was back in camp again in Pepe Rojo, Valladolid

Other News

  • Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist joins calls for more female specific research in contact sports
  • BBC commits to broadcasting the Women’s Six Nations along with the Men’s and Under-20s
  • France came out in support of allowing transgender rugby players to play
  • Canada announces their first female Chair of the Board and appoints other females to the Board

Women’s Rugby Player Features

  • Learn more about South Africa’s Zinhle Ndawonde as featured by News24
  • Scotland’s Rhona Lloyd returned to the pitch for Great Britain 7s and scored a blistering six tries
  • Loughborough’s Emma Wassell talks about moving south, taking exams, and big-game excitement
  • York City Knight’s Ashleigh Hyde gave birth seven weeks ago and is already back on a rugby pitch
  • Ivory Coasts’ Andréa Dirabou Kouassi shares her journey in rugby
  • England’s Jodie Ounsley is featured by Girls Rugby Club
  • Harlequin’s Abbie Ward and husband Dave on a chance first meeting, practicing lineouts at home and their ‘dream partnership’
  • Wales’ Teleri Wyn Davies reveals her complicated past with rugby and why she wants to play
  • Ireland’s Ruth Wood-Martin shares how the evolution of performance nutrition within the IRFU’s high performance framework has accelerated
  • Brian Moore enjoyed watching the Allianz Premier 15s semi-final more than the match between Toulouse and La Rochelle 

Women’s Rugby Media/Podcasts/Videos

  • Happiness is Egg Shaped talks with Scotland’s Christine Belisle about her performance in the Six Nations
  • Fill Your Boots has Barkers Butts coaches Corrine & Emma on the great things going on at their club
  • The Black Ferns share highlights from the first round of Trans-Tasman 7s
  • Greaux Rugby Show chats with Karimah Prince of Prairie View A&M Rugby Women
  • Women’s Rugby Pod covers the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals
  • The Loose Head wraps up their series talking with 18 rugby coaches
  • Eagles Overseas has USA’s Naya Tapper on
  • Try Hards talks Great Britain 7s and has tips on how to NOT be that wedding guest
  • The Rugby Network features the Blood, Sweat & Beers Podcast
  • The Womens Rugby Show also looks at the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals
Women's Rugby News

XVs

https://twitter.com/Premier15s/status/1396178043853549571

Both Harlequins and Saracens booked their places in the Allianz Premier 15s Final at Kingsholm next Sunday afternoon thanks to their wins over Wasps and Loughborough Lightning.

  • Harlequins 25 Wasps 14
  • Saracens 28 Loughborough 24

Saracens and Harlequins will face off at Kingsholm, the home of Gloucester Rugby, on Sunday 30 May afternoon. You can watch the final live at premier15s.com or on BT Sport 1.

https://twitter.com/WomenBoks/status/1396102222916853761

Border Ladies and DHL Western Province continued to stamp their authority in South Africa’s Premier Division on Saturday as they cruised to their third wins a row, while the Boland Dames registered their first victory of the season in an exciting third round.

https://twitter.com/Thomas_Wheelock/status/1395749490791944204

Uganda was in camp in Jinja where they played a few 14 side matches as they transition from 10s to XVs. 

“Our focus was to see where the girls are in their transition from the recently completed regional 10s format to 15s game of competition.”- Coach Leonard Lubambula

https://twitter.com/BlackFerns/status/1394369320805752835

The Dr Farah Palmer Cup presented by Bunnings Warehouse will kick off the provincial rugby season on July 16. The nine-week season will take on extra importance as players stake a claim for Black Ferns berths ahead of the much-anticipated Rugby World Cup 2021, delayed to 2022.

Zambia will take part in a two nations Rugby Tournament dubbed Battle of the Zambezi tour to be staged in Harare, Zimbabwe. The tournament will run from June 2nd to 6th, 2021.

7s

Scheduled to debut in the fall of 2021, Premier Rugby Sevens (PR7s) will showcase North America’s top male and female athletes through the highly entertaining sport of rugby sevens. The league will provide equal pay and high-performance access under one league umbrella and will adopt a touring format in cities across the United States and Canada.

https://twitter.com/BlackFerns/status/1396355331488325633

New Zealand and Australia hosted a Trans-Tasman 7s clash over the weekend. New Zealand came out strong, taking four of the five matches. Round 2 to come!

https://twitter.com/fecorugby/status/1394079590302298114

Colombia was at Life University over the weekend playing in the annual Life U 7s tournament. Eight squads took part in the tournament, the Running Eagles hosting three of their own teams with Life Black, Life Green, and Just Tanks to go along with Lindenwood bringing a Gold and Black team, the Colombian Women’s National Team, Penn State, and a Life U alumni squad called the Fiesty Viejas.

Colombia captured the championship, going undefeated over the two days to edge out the varsity squads of both Lindenwood (LW) and Life U.

https://twitter.com/ferugby/status/1394744516507230210

Spain continues their preparation for the 7s European Championship and held another camp over the weekend in Pepe Rojo, Valladolid. 

Other News

Willie Stewart, a consultant neuropathologist, calls for action on potential links between concussion and dementia in women’s rugby.

“Research published recently demonstrated that where the rules are comparable – such as in football or rugby – female athletes are about twice the risk of concussion that male athletes are, for reasons that aren’t terribly clear.”

 

Six Nations Rugby today confirmed that it has entered into exclusive discussions with BBC and ITV after an agreement in principle was reached relating to all three Six Nations Championships (Men’s Guinness Six Nations, Women’s Six Nations and Men’s Under-20’s).

France came out in support of transgender rugby players on World Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. 

“Rugby is an inclusive sport, of sharing, without distinction of sex, gender, origin, religion. The FFR is intractable against all forms of discrimination and works daily so that everyone can exercise their free will in rugby without constraint . Indeed, it is important to allow all of our licensees to practice their passion while respecting everyone’s rights. ” – Serge Simon, vice-president of the FFR 

https://twitter.com/RugbyCanada/status/1394348790887428098

Rugby Canada is proud to announce the re-election of Sally Dennis (Vancouver, BC) to its Board of Directors and her appointment as the first female Chair of the Board in Union history. She was vice-chair of the board during her previous term.

In addition to the new president, David Fortier (Toronto, ON), Isabelle Oliva (Montreal, QC) and Phil Otto (Halifax, NS) were elected as new members of the Rugby Canada board for a three-year term.

Player Features

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1394291731760300034

https://twitter.com/ScotsmanSport/status/1394354806379225092

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1394337230932557828

https://twitter.com/CIVrugby/status/1394960433132576768

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1395091954875215877

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1395765557119553539

Media

https://twitter.com/happyeggshaped/status/1394213305527455745

https://twitter.com/fyb_rugby/status/1394997161931202570

https://twitter.com/BlackFerns/status/1396159913261297664

https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1395786484494516230

https://twitter.com/podwomensrugby/status/1394723032007069696

https://twitter.com/EaglesOverseas/status/1395759578801913858

https://twitter.com/TheTryHardsPod/status/1394927108388966406

https://twitter.com/therugbynetwork/status/1395408669546893318

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