Women’s Rugby News for Apr 10-16

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Apr 10-16. Round 3 of the TikTok Six Nations saw England maintain the top spot in the standings followed by France and Wales, and Portugal continues to lead the European Trophy with a win over Germany 20-5.

In more XVs news, Round 1 of the WPL saw wins for Beantown, All Blues and the Gray Wolves, USA’s Club D1 saw no major changes while D2 crowned four Regional Champions, in Round 2 of the Super W, Western Force, Waratahs and Brumbies all won their matches, and we now know the four semi-finalists for Spain’s Iberdrola League which will be played this weekend.

In 7s news, the first stop of the World Rugby 7s Challenger Series is this weekend in Stellenbosch, South Africa while it was announced that Uruguay and the European Games will have Olympic Qualifying Tournaments on June 17-18 in Montevideo, Uruguay and June 25 and 27th in Krakow, Poland.

We close out the week with 30 features and 15 media.

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tl;dr: Women’s Rugby in 60 secs for Apr 10-16 saw England continue to lead the TikTok Six Nations and Portugal is still on top of the European Trophy.

60 Second Video Update

@yscrugby

Your #wrugby News in under 60 seconds for Apr 10-16 saw England continue to lead the TikTok Six Nations and Portugal is still on top of the European Trophy. Watch our video & read the entire update using the link in our bio! #womensrugby #wrugby #rugbyunion #rugbytok

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Top Women’s Rugby Stories

XVs

International

• Round 3 of the TikTok Six Nations saw France win over Scotland 55-0, Italy beat Ireland 24-7, and England defeated Wales 59-3
• Matchday 2 and 3 for the U18 Six Nations saw wins for Wales, Ireland, England, Italy, and France
• Portugal beat Germany 20-5 in the European Trophy and they maintained their top of the table with 20 points, Finland has 9 and Germany has 8
• We’ve got all the Internationals listed on our website and we circle back with results, check it out here

Domestic

• Round 1 of the WPL saw wins for Beantown, All Blues and Gray Wolves
• USA Club D1 saw no changes while D2 crowned Regional Championships and are moving on to their respective Super Regionals:
  • Capital – Severn River
  • True South – Knoxville Minx
  • Florida – Tampa Bay Krewe
  • Carolinas – Charlotte Hurricanes
• USA Club National Championships will be June 2-4 in St. Charles, MO
• The Crocodiles, Majadahonda, El Savador and Eibar RT have qualified for the Iberdrola semi-finals on April 22-23; winners will move on to the Championships on April 29
• Western Force, Waratahs and Brumbies all won their Round 2 matches in Super W; Waratahs  leads the table

7s

• Stellenbosch, South Africa, will play host to the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2023 on April 20-22 and April 28-30; the winner of the women’s competition will secure an automatic entry to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens World Series 2024:
  • Pool D: Colombia, Hong Kong, Paraguay, Poland
  • Pool E: Czechia, Madagascar, Mexico, South Africa
  • Pool F: Belgium, China, Papua New Guinea, Thailand
• Uruguay will host the South American Qualifying Tournament for the 2024 Olympic Games in Montevideo on June 17-18:
  • Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru and Costa Rica have been invited and must confirm participation
• The European Games will include rugby 7s for the first time ever this year and it will serve as a Qualifying Tournament for the Olympics; matches will take place on June 25 and 27th in Krakow, Poland
  • Participating teams include: Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Turkey
• The PR 7s Championships will take place at Audi field in Washington, D.C.
  • They also confirmed that CBS Sports will broadcast three tournaments while Fox Sports will air two, including the final

Women’s Rugby Features

• Western Force wingers Manasa and Martha Mataele are Super Rugby’s first husband and wife to play together
• Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team Head Coach, Kevin Rouet, has signed a contract extension that will keep Rouet at the helm of the program until the end of the 2025 Rugby World Cup cycle
• The IRFU are still stuck in a vicious cycle of their own making when it comes to women’s game
• WPL’s Beantown: New Staff, New Faces, Same Desire
• US Rugby Foundation Grants College Scholarships to 17 Athletes for 2022-23
• CBS Sports and Fox Sports FS1 have picked up PR 7s primary broadcast rights for the upcoming season
• International Day of Human Space Flight: The USA rugby players making history in space
• How Rotorua and Tauranga may help the China Women’s Sevens get to the Olympics
• Wales’ Alisha Butchers World Cup dream was cut short five days into the tournament after suffering an ACL rupture
• WPL Preview: New York Enjoys Solid Pre-Season
• Wales’ professionalism is ‘good for everyone’
• Brumbie’s Lydia Kavoa destined for rugby greatness
• Waratahs young gun Caitlyn Halse has designs on Wallaroos jersey
• Alice Soper weighs in on the Black Ferns new assistant coaches
• New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has announced an experienced coaching trio of Tony Christie, Steve Jackson and Mike Delany will join Black Ferns Director of Rugby Allan Bunting
• ‘It’s time to talk about black rugby players’ hair’, Sadia Kabeya in her first BBC column
• ‘#IGiveAF—‘ trends on social media after Telegraph investigation into Irish rugby
• Phrasing is important – It’s imperative McWilliams can be a pillar for real, meaningful change for Ireland
• USA Rugby Referee & Laws Committee announce WPL Match Officials ahead of 2023 Kickoff
• Greg McWilliams’ side Ireland took on Italy in Parma but was shrouded by a cloud of tension, with the head coach needing to deny there’s a sexist culture
• Nadine Roos keen to see local support in Challenger Series
• Emma Orr’s journey from chasing rare sheep to getting Scotland call
• Forget closer kicks, these are the changes the women’s game should make
• Irish rugby likened to ‘old boys club’ with sexism commonplace
  Ireland’s men are the best team in their world – but their women’s side face an uphill battle
• Katy Daley-Mclean disagrees with goal-kicking rule change idea
• Wales’ Keira Bevan: ‘Taking our kicks closer to the posts was a bizarre suggestion’
• Success at top does not mean rugby is healthy, warns New Zealand players’ chief
• WPL’s Chicago North Shore: Don’t Sleep On Us
• The Japan Rugby Football Union (Chairman: Masato Tsuchida, Minato-ku, Tokyo) has formulated the “Women’s Rugby Medium- to Long-term Strategic Plan”
• Former Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap has spent no time looking to the past and reflecting on her career, instead putting her sole focus on the future

Women’s Rugby Media

• Rugby Union Weekly covers England’s win over Wales
• The Rugby Sevens Rollercoaster talked with USA’s Naya Tapper
• TW2 talked about why they give a f*ck about women’s rugby including inequality within Ireland, Wales’ period tracking and support and Middleton’s kicking comments
• Scotland’s Jade Konkel is on The Open Side where she chatted about the tough sides of both of her professions
• The Jack’s Rangers Show talked with USA and Harlequin Jenny Kronish
• England’s O2 Inside Line talked with Tatyana Heard
• HSBC’s World of Opportunity talked with Ima and Nathan, two of the Team Liaison Officers who volunteered their time at Singapore 7s
• That Rugby Girl did a series on the history of women’s rugby last year, it’s available now in one video
• The Scrum Down had USA’s Kristi Kirshe on to take about the World Series and the 2024 Olympics
• England’s Sarah Bonar was on The Good, The Scaz and The Rugby talking about how she fell in love with the game
• Youth Unstoppables is back with more incredible stories from our young girls taking up rugby around the world
• USA’s Richard Ashfield and Summer Harris-Jones was on Eagles Overseas USA Rugby Happy Hour
• World Rugby released a cool video of kickers landing sideline conversions at the 2021 Rugby World Cup
• Corren Grant joined the official Scottish Rugby Podcast to chat about life on and off the pitch