Women’s Rugby Rundown for Oct 30-Nov 5

Women’s Rugby Rundown News

XVs

International

• England, with a statement victory over New Zealand, were crowned inaugural WXV 1 champions, while Canada pulled off an upset against France in a thrilling early game, and Australia secured a win against Wales [link]
• The World Rugby Awards were split into two separate events this year due to the ongoing women’s WXV tournament, with Tyla Nathan-Wong and Sofia Stefan celebrated at the main event in Paris, France on October 29, and Marlie Packer and Katelyn Vaha’akolo honored at the conclusion of the WXV 1 Tournament in New Zealand; however, World Rugby’s decision to hold separate venues for these events has drawn criticism for not providing the proper accolades to the 15s winners [link]
  • World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year: Marlie Packer England
  • World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year: Katelyn Vaha’akolo New Zealand
  • World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year: Tyla Nathan-Wong New Zealand
  • International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year: Sofia Stefan Italy (vs Ireland on 15 April)
  • World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year

Premier & Club

• UL Bohemian continues to lead Ireland’s Energia AIL table with Old Belvedere, Railway Union and Blackrock all in the chase [link]
• Llandaff North continues to lead the Welsh Premiership with Seven Sisters, Caereinion Obra and Pontyclun in the hunt [link]
• Watsonian continues to dominate Scotland’s Premiership with Stirling County, Corstorphine and Heriot’s Blues in the running [link]
• We saw lots of shift in USA’s Club D2 and only two moves in D1 [link]

7s

International

• The USA secured their first-ever Pan American Games gold by defeating Canada, the champions from 2015 and 2019, in the final, while Brazil claimed an unexpectedly dominant bronze medal with a resounding 45-0 victory over Colombia [link]

Women’s Rugby Rundown Features

• Tess Fuery shares how balancing her work as a pediatric nurse and competing for USA and Leicester is possible [link]
• England’s Ellie Kildunne shares how “rugby’s just one part of my life right now. For me, fashion is becoming something that’s got progressively more important because we’re in uniform a lot of the time” [link]
• Italy’s Betrice Rigoni makes a move to the PWR and Sales Sharks [link]
• Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant shares whether her leadership style has changed since World Cup win [link]
• Ex-Wales second row Rebecca Openshaw-Rowe banks on rugby resilience to create Antarctica history [link]
• Canada’s Jen Kish opens up about battling brain health issues, concussion education and that she will donate her brain to the Canadian Concussion Centre [link]
• Bristol’s Christiana Balogun opens up her experiences of racism, finding sisterhood, and how rugby helped her channel complex emotions [link]

Women’s Rugby Rundown Media

• Rachel Malcolm and Emma Wassell join the Official Scottish Rugby Podcast to chat all things WXV 2 [link]
• The 2023 Womens 15s Dream Team of the Year [link]
• England are crowned WXV1 Champions [link]
• The Good, The Scaz And The Rugby chat with Elma and Siwan Lillicrap to unpack their nail-biting win over Wales with 14 players [link]
• cotland’s Francesca McGhie says her dancing background has been a surprise benefit to helping her be nominated for the World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year award [link]
• Learn more about Leicester’s Caz Collie and her incredible career [link]
• Scotland’s Lisa Thomson reflected on their historic WXV 2 campaign [link]
• England’s Maud Muir shares that special feeling of making her debut [link]
• Wales’ Jasmine Joyce reflects on their experience in WXV 1 [link]

Rugby Jobs

• World Rugby is hiring for several roles associated with WXV and the 2025 Rugby World Cup [link]