The Women’s Six Nations Championship is an international rugby competition between the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. It was established in 1996 and is played annually. The final of this year’s tournament was held on 27 April in Bordeaux. In front of a sold-out crowd of 28,000, England beat the home team 42-21. The team’s captain, Marlie Packer, stressed the importance of team spirit after the game: “we’ve been building as a group on and off the pitch,” she stated. The English team, commonly nicknamed the Red Roses, won all their matches in this year’s tournament, a feat known as the Grand Slam. The Red Roses have dominated the Six Nations Championship since its inception, winning 18 of the 29 Championships held so far. This year’s title is England’s sixth in a row.

Women’s rugby has a long history. Its origins can be traced back to the late 18th century when the game of rugby was still in its infancy and mostly played in the British Isles. The first official matches between women’s teams were held in the 1880s. Not all saw this favourably because, at the time, there was public opposition to women playing contact sports. Some official matches were boycotted, while others provoked even harsher reactions from male crowds. The Nottinghamshire Guardian reported that during a game played between England and Scotland in Glasgow on 16 May 1881 the spectators first jeered at the female players, then broke onto the pitch. The players had to “take refuge in the omnibus which had conveyed them to the ground […] but for the presence of the police some bodily injury to the females might have occurred.”

Times have changed, and today women’s rugby is played around the world, drawing large and enthusiastic crowds. Its global popularity began taking off in the 1990s, with the inaugural women’s Rugby World Cup held in 1991, only four years after the first edition of the men’s World Cup.

(Carlo Dellonte)
(Image: wavebreakmediamicro, 123rf.com)