Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Agitation behind first World Cup revealed as England gear up for NZ

By PA
Victorious USA players celebrate with a pint of Guinness each after the Womens Rugby Union World Cup Semi-Final victory against New Zealand played at Cardiff Arms Park on April 12th, 1991 in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. (Photo by Howard Boylan/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)

The first women’s Rugby World Cup, remembers Deborah Griffin, would not have happened without a healthy mix of agitation and inexperience.

ADVERTISEMENT

England’s Griffin was fundamental in organising that inaugural tournament in Wales, which was contested over a two-week period in April 1991.

This week, Griffin and fellow organisers and pioneers Sue Dorrington, Mary Forsyth and Alice Cooper were inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame for their contributions to the game.

Video Spacer

“I wanna take their heads off, but I’m proud of them” Ruby Tui and Kendra Cocksedge on the WC final | Rugby World Cup 2021

Video Spacer

“I wanna take their heads off, but I’m proud of them” Ruby Tui and Kendra Cocksedge on the WC final | Rugby World Cup 2021

“It was naivete of youth,” Griffin, who was press officer at the Women’s Rugby Football Union at the time, told the PA news agency.

“We really didn’t know what we couldn’t do and we really didn’t know what we shouldn’t be doing. You can’t say, ‘well, we’ve tried that and it won’t work’. We just thought it was a great idea, so we were going to make sure it happened.”

By January of that year the naivete had begun to wear off, replaced by cold reality for Griffin and her team, all players at Richmond in London. They could not find a sponsor and the International Rugby Board (IRB) refused to sanction the tournament.

“Great credit to all the countries,” Griffin said. “We wrote to them to say we’ve not been able to get any sponsorship and you’re going to have to pay for your accommodation. We were looking at cancelling it.

ADVERTISEMENT

“They all wrote back and said, ‘no, we’re still coming’ and damn,” she said, laughing at the memory, “we didn’t think that at all.”

Logistical headaches compounded the financial ones. In the age before email, Griffin’s fax machine became a fast companion. Printing programmes and team sheets, handling requests from a sometimes sceptical media, and a Russian team who arrived with vodka and caviar but no funds were amongst the myriad challenges.

Then, three days before the final, the hotel England were staying in realised they had made a double-booking. The team, after much persuasion, slept on sleeping bags on the conference room floor.

Dorrington played hooker for England in the title clash, which they lost 19-6 to the Americans. The following year they got their own back, beating USA 38–23 to lift the trophy in Scotland.

ADVERTISEMENT

The women’s hard-fought battle for legitimacy and dogged persistence had made inroads by 1998, when World Rugby predecessor the IRB officially sanctioned the tournament.

The cup itself, however, was lost for 15 years before it was finally discovered in a former administrator’s attic. This year, the winners of those two “unofficial” tournaments were engraved on the current trophy.

Griffin, Dorrington, Forsyth and Cooper had one descriptor frequently and lovingly levelled at them during the Hall of Fame induction: agitators.

On Saturday, the Red Roses will carry on their legacy in front of 40,000 ticket-holders who have come to watch England take on New Zealand in the World Cup final.

Which Red Roses or Black Ferns could be the successors to the pioneers of 1991? Who are the chief agitators for the next era of women’s rugby?

“I don’t think we know now,” said Griffin, who still serves on the World Rugby and RFU councils.

“What is really amazing is the number of people who played in that first World Cup who went on to be administrators in their unions and push things forward. I still keep hearing about people, and that’s fantastic.

“I don’t think we know right now. They probably don’t know themselves. At the moment they’re playing, they have to focus on being role models for a whole generation.

“But I have no doubt that amongst the people playing in this tournament there are quite a number of future disruptors.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

T
Tom 5 hours ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

2 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian? Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian?
Search