Women’s Rugby in 60 secs – Jan 3-9

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Jan 3-9. We start with Spain’s announcement of “warm-up” matches against Italy and Colombia as they prepare for the European Championships, we review round 10 of Allianz Premier 15s and we look ahead to Ireland’s AIL semi-final matchups.

In more XVs news, Asia has rebranded their ‘Women’s Advisory Committee, to be the “Gender Equity Committee”, Hong Kong has suspended all rugby due to COVID, the semi-finals for Ireland’s AIL will take place this weekend and the matchups look fantastic with Blackrock vs Old Belvedere and Railway Union vs UL Bohemian.

Saracens took the top of the table in Allianz Premier 15s after Bristol lost to Gloucester-Hartpury and the Harlequins are in hot water over putting their women’s team in men’s kit and scheduling a hospitality lunch at the same time as the women’s kick-off.

We close out the week with 9 features and 1 media.

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tl;dr: Women’s Rugby in 60 secs for Jan 3-9 starts with Spain’s announcement of two “warm-up” matches before European Championships and we’re looking ahead to Ireland’s AIL semi-finals this weekend.

60 Second Video Update

Top Women’s Rugby Stories

XVs

International

• World Rugby released a long list of fascinating statistics for 2021
• Spain announced matches against Italy and Colombia
• Asia announced they’ve rebranded their ‘Women’s Advisory Committee, to the “Gender Equity Committee” as well as appointing Nahid Biyarjomandi as the new Chairperson

Domestic

• Back to action after the winter break, Gloucester-Hartpury, Exeter Chiefs and Saracens all recorded wins while Wasps v Loughborough Lightning and Harlequins v Worcester Warriors were postponed due to COVID
  • Saracens is on top of the table after Bristol was upset by Gloucester
  • Harlequins vs Wasps was a double header that was highly anticipated but was mired by ill fitting kit and a post match meal for hospitality ticket holders was served at the same time as kick-off of the women’s event
• Ireland’s AIL semi-finals are next weekend, we’re pumped about these matchups:
  • Top Four Round 1
    • Blackrock vs Old Belvedere
    • Railway Union vs UL Bohemian
  • Conference Round 1
    • Cooke vs Suttonians
    • Malone vs Ballincollig
    • Wicklow vs Galwegians
• Hong Kong has suspended all rugby activity due to COVID and is working with the government to understand when they can resume
  • The Premiership was expecting to begin the semi-finals on January 8:
    • Societe Generale Valley v DAC Kowloon
    • Kroll USRC Tigers v Gai Wu Falcons

Women’s Rugby Features

• Samoa’s Bella Milo is looking forward to pulling on her home country’s shirt and could face Hong Kong who she has coached before
• The Breakdown chatted with World Cup finalist and former England prop Katy Storie about a record breaking year and the work that still needs to be done
• Katie Sands shares an update on Welsh rugby’s progress on women’s rugby contracts
• Former England center Giselle Mather tells her story of being part of an iconic group of England players who lifted the World Cup trophy for the very first time
• The New York Times features recently passed USA great Kathy Flores
• For reaching the quarter-finals at the Olympics, the ‘Asia Rugby Women’s Rugby Development Award’ was presented to the China Women’s 7s Team
• Stella Mills writes for RugbyPass about the Harlequins kit debacle and how it’s unacceptable

Women’s Rugby Media

• Women’s Rugby Pod is back with episode 15 where they talk World Cup, Six Nations, Allianz Premier 15s and Nandi’s News and Global Game