Under 18 Regional Festival Litchfield RFC

A hugely successful weekend for East Region Girls Rugby was capped with the Under 18's winning the Regional Festival at Litchfield RFC on Sunday.

The East U18 Squad of 22 included 11 Herts Players who their first National Regional Title since 2004.

East U18 finished top of their Group by beating Osprey's, the Wales Regional Representatives, 7-0 (scorers: Hannah Gallagher Herts Tx1; Emily Scott Essex Cx1) and South East 7 - 0 (scorers: Francesca Jordon Essex Tx1; Hannah Gallagher Herts Cx1).

In the Semi-Final South West South were beaten on 19-5 (scorers: Emily Scott Essex Tx1, Cx2; Alex Robertson Herts Tx1; Georgia Peedle Herts Tx1).

In the Final against South, East won a fierce game 15-3 (scorers: Megan Williams Herts Tx1; Alex Robertson Herts Tx1; Emily Scott Essex Cx1; Px1).

Under 15 Regional Festival Litchfield RFC

On Saturday, East Under 15 took a squad of 20, including 12 Herts Players, to the Regional Festival at Litchfield RFC. They matched their best ever performance, in 2006, by finishing Runners-up out of 12 Teams.

East U15 finished top of their Group by beating South West South 10 - 7 (scorers: Abbie Cook Essex Tx1; Amber King Herts Tx1), and North East 27 - 0 (scorers: Lotte Clapp Herts Tx2; Charlie Fallona Herts Tx1; Maddy Lockwood Essex Tx1; Sidney Nurthern Herts Tx1; Lucie Wood Essex Cx1).

In the Semi-Final South West North were beaten on 31-0 (scorers: Lotte Clapp Herts Tx2; Courtney Arberry Herts Tx1; Abbie Cook Essex Tx2; Abbie Maxwell Herts Cx3).

In the Final against Wales Regional Winners Cardiff Blues, East were 0-10 down within 5 minutes, but clawed back to level at 10-10 with Tries from Amber King Herts and Courtney Arberry Herts before conceding a converted try in the last minute.

National 7s returns to Hertfordshire

After two years away in Bedfordshire, the National Sevens will be returning "home" to Harpenden RFC this season.

The tournament will include U18 and U15 Sevens on Saturday 23rd May, followed by a senior sevens the following day. The return to Harpenden also mean a return of the popular senior camp and party on Sunday evening.

Entries are restricted to 16 for each junior event, and 32 for the seniors - first come, first served. Closing date for entries is 8th April.

Click here for the entry form.

Women's team included in new rugby TV show

A new TV programme - The Big Tackle - starts this month on ITV that will feature Austin Healey "trying to help amateur rugby clubs to fulfill their potential" - and one of the five teams it will feature will be a women's club. 

The programme will be shown on ITV4 on Sundays from 15th March at 7.15pm, and will be repeated midweek on ITV1. The producers have circulated the above preview, which gives some idea about what the six programme series will cover.

RFU Activate newsletter looks at girls' rugby

Counties Lead the Way West Mids has played host to the same county sides every year as far as girls U15s and U18s has been concerned. However, this year, thanks to the work of the North Mids W & G forum, both Shropshire and Greater Birmingham have managed to ensure that youth activity has provided them with players for county activity. Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Gtr Birmingham and Shropshire all put girls forward for the tournament that took place on 14th December 08 at Southam RFC. The tournament was the result of the hard work of volunteer Nadine Attwell (Warwickshire female ref) and Matt Smith from Southam RFC who organised everything about the day. All girls and volunteers found the day to be a huge success – if a little cold and wet and are already looking forward to the next event in Dec 09. Seniors Follow in Youth Team Footsteps With the success of the youth CB work led by Ken James (Paviors) and Mick Kemp (North Hykeham), Claire McGinley (Derby) decided to pull together the first ever NLD senior Ladies side. Thanks to support from the W & G forum and from the NLD CBRDP, Claire enlisted the support of coach Simon Jones (Staffs) and they both managed and coached a squad of 30+ senior players from the NLD area to their first triangular tournament, where they drew with Staffs seniors and beat Leicestershire seniors. This programme – thanks to Claire and Simon’s hard work – is set to continue again from September ’09. This electronic Community Rugby newsletter is produced by the Rugby Volunteerimg Department at the Rugby Football Union. The purpose is to give information to all Rugby Volunteers recorded on RFU RugbyFirst System about developments within the four themes of the Community game "More People, Better Places, Access for All and Enjoyment"t"

Youngsters secure funding for Oxfordshire Girls Rugby Players from the U18 Oxfordshire Girls Cluster team have made a successful application to the Youth Opportunities Fund (YOF). Girls rugby in Oxfordshire has been on a rapid rise in terms of the numbers of girls playing the game, the number of matches being arranged and the number of clubs offering rugby for girls. Much of this is down to the hard work of the club volunteers who work closely together to make sure there are regular fixtures for the girls at club or County level. The U18 players decided it was time to do some work themselves and held a meeting to work on a project plan to access funding from YOF. The announcement the England will host the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup has generated much excitement and the girls saw this as the perfect target to work towards. Knowing that the profile of the World Cup will raise interest in the game, the girls have planned for meeting the demand for Girls Rugby in season 2010-2011. The plan includes providing kit and equipment to run effective sessions, putting more people on coaching courses, ensuring volunteers are trained in First Aid, and accessing other courses such as Business or Management Skills. Oxfordshire County Council was on hand at Witney RFC to present a cheque for £3,000 to fund the project. Wasps and England A Captain, Claire Purdy was invited to attend and she congratulated the girls on their achievement and wished them success with the project. Claire then offered some coaching guidance to the players before watching the two cluster matches RFUW Toolkit Success In 2008 the RFUW made £7,500 available for clubs through the Club Development Toolkit Fund. 60 clubs applied for the funding and the RFUW was delighted to award 8 clubs with £500 each and 14 with £250 each. The successful clubs have been working hard to put their money to good use and many projects have now been completed. Newquay RFC was awarded £500 to increase the numbers of U15 girls at the club by introducing girls to U12’s rugby initially. They have been running mini’s training sessions on Friday nights with 2 coaches, a first aider and a manager present. They have been training with the U11 boys and have just begun playing matches with them. They were going to set up their own team, but have become such an integral part of the boys’ side that they didn’t want to let them go! The girls will be introduced to U15s training at the end of this season to prepare them for the step up the following season. This project has also been taken out into local schools, with the lead coach doing sessions to prepare them for the Emerging Schools competition. Hampstead RFC was given an award of £250 to improve the recruitment and retention of Senior players. The 15 new players they have recruited surpassed their aim of 10 in their original application. They have been innovative in their approach; they have created their own website, ensured weekly emails are sent out and have used some of the Toolkit Fund to produce fliers advertising their club. Their new recruits have commented on the new resources and feel that this had enhanced the approachability of the club. They have also employed a new coach for one of their weekly training sessions and paid for a fitness coach to work with the players in pre-season. This obviously paid off as they are currently sitting 2nd in their league, following their promotion last season! Awards Galore! The RFUW was pleased to award the first annual Sue Garnett Volunteer of the Year award in October to Peter McCullough from Herts and Welwyn Girls. Peter won his award for his outstanding contribution to improving the standards and levels of participation in women and girls sport. Peter received his award from RFU President Brian Williams at the RFU Constituent Body Leaders Conference. The contribution of 2 further volunteers was also recognised as Paula Brotherhood (Leicestershire) and Steve Lumb (Barnsley) were presented with Outstanding Volunteer awards. Clubs have also been getting in on the action with Paviors U15 girls being named the Junior Club Team of the Year at the Gelding Borough Sports Awards. The girls only started playing together in the 2007/08 season and played 13 matches with ten wins and one draw. They entered the RFUW National Competition and won the Midlands section. This season has also started well for them winning all five games played so far, with three wins out of three in the Notts, Lincs & Derby Cluster League and also two wins in two friendly matches. Youth Cluster League off to a Flying Start! Due to the hard work of the club volunteers in the Notts, Lincs and Derby area, the Women and Girls forum decided that it would be beneficial for the clubs with girls youth sections in the area to participate in a friendly merit table. In this way, the teams could guarantee fixtures for many of their match weekends and a small trophy could be played for. Thanks to the commitment of volunteers such as Ken James (Paviors), Claire McGinley (Chair of W & G committee and Derby player) and Melvyn Ashton (NLD RFU youth volunteer and member of W & G forum), the friendly league is now 3 matches in with 4 to play. All club volunteers work hard to ensure the fixtures are honoured and Melvyn Ashton keeps a record of the results. 7 teams at both age-groups from across the Midlands East region are benefiting from these fixtures and enjoying the experience.