Scotland crowned European champions; Rugby Union
Lewis Stuart
SCOTLAND are champions of Europe in at least one sport. The women's rugby team carried off the trophy, beating Spain 15-3 on Saturday in the final in Lille, France, emerging from the competition without conceding a try.
After the nailbiting semifinal win over France, the previous holders, the final was a less tense affair, with the Scots taking an early lead as Jenny Dickson, the wing, slid round the blind side of a ruck to go over, and they extended it with Rimma Petlevannaya, the centre, battering her way to the line.
Paula Chalmers, the scrum half, who won the player of the tournament award, added a conversion and a late penalty, and although the Spanish threw everything into rescuing the game, the Scotland defence held firm.
"It was a tight match but we dominated the field position for most of the game and stuck it out to the end," Chalmers said yesterday. "We came on a mission to win and achieved just that. When the Spanish did manage to attack, they met a wall of blue that shut them out."
Apart from the heady enthusiasm at their triumph, there was also a considerable amount of satisfaction that they had proved a point to the managers of the National Lottery, who stopped funding for the side last year.
"Fortunately, the Scottish Rugby Union stepped in with aid, otherwise this would not have been possible," Chalmers said. "This is going to raise the profile of the women's game in Scotland a huge amount, and it gives us something to show the girls when they come to the summer camps, to show what can be achieved."
Rosy Hume, the team manager, said the key to the triumph had been, the link around the half backs, Chalmers and Denise Fairbairn, along with Jenni Sheerin, the no 8, the first woman to win 50 rugby caps for Scotland.
"Throughout the tournament, the defence, which had been a weakness in the past, was superb," Hume said. "We only conceded 12 points, all through kicks, and our discipline was also spot on with the team giving away very few penalties.
"The girls worked really hard for this. We came feeling we could win and although the heat in the final was formidable, we stuck to the task to come through in the end."
The real question is whether, having succeeded where the men failed, in capturing the European crown, the women's game in Scotland can use the victory to expand its profile ahead of the women's World Cup next year and the numbers taking part.
"I would hope that on the back of this, the lottery assistance will restart so that we can mount a strong challenge at the world cup," Hume said. "We need to start being able to bring the London-based players up for regular training sessions and organising weekends together."
Scotland do not win many European titles in any sport, so they are determined this triumph for women's rugby will be the foundation for an upsurge in interest in their sport.
The Times (London, England) (May 14, 2001): p5
Rugby's champion belles of the ball.
JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK
OUR rugby team performed abysmally in the Six Nations Championship and the footballers are struggling to qualify for the World Cup in 2002.
But in one fast-growing field of sporting endeavour, the Scots really can hold their heads up high - women's rugby.
Remarkably, the Scotland first XV, including three police officers, two nurses, a PE teacher, a sales representative and an insurance broker, have just been crowned European champions.
But lurking under all the talk of line-outs and scrum downs lie the more familiar women's concerns such as makeup, clubbing and boyfriends.
Flanker Fiona Gillanders admitted the women spend much longer doing their hair and makeup after the match than their male counterparts.
'It is something we are actively encouraging because we know we are role models. We enjoy looking smart and feminine - guys certainly like it. The image has changed and men now like to see feminine women with great bodies.
They run to us now, rather than run away.' Boyfriends watch their matches as often as they can and both sexes mix sociably in the post-match drinking sessions, in which the ladies always hold their own.
But Miss Gillanders admits that while they may look more feminine off the pitch, once they don the studs and get on the pitch they are every bit as aggressive as the men - gouging, scratching, kicking are all par for the course in the mauls, while punch-ups are not unusual.
One ploy which is used in the female game - less common in the men's - is pulling ponytails in a last-ditch attempt to stop opponents crossing the line.
Miss Gillanders laughed: 'If it's there to be pulled, then it will be as long as it stops the opponent scoring. It is a trick used by every women's rugby team.'
The Daily Mail (London, England) (May 15, 2001): p27
Sexy Denise is maul woman; SHE'S A RUGBY BABE
MAGGIE BARRY
MOST women normally associate mud on their faces with beauty treatment.
But for a group of Scots it is the ultimate way to spend a Saturday afternoon - lying in it face down.
They are Scotland's women's rugby team, and they have just put one over their male counterparts by winning a major trophy.
They have rucked and mauled with the best of them, slaughtering - among others - top-scoring France and Spain, in the European Championships.
They carried off the honours in Lille, France, at the weekend, putting Scotland right at the very top of women's international rugby.
But while the mud that spatters them usually comes from the gritty turf of the rugby pitch, Denise Fairburn is a perfect example of how they can scrub up well off the pitch.
Stunning Denise, 29, hopes the team's success can inspire young girls into the game.
She said: "I am a PE teacher and I would encourage any young girls to play rugby - it's a great game.
"I usually play on the wing because I am only 9st so I don't get a lot of contact.
"For the final I played at stand-off but once you explain to girls how to make contact safe they really enjoy playing rugby.
"It's also a game in which I found I improved very quickly and that's always heartening."
Flanker Fiona Gillanders admits the team likes to spend plenty of time after a match putting on their make-up and getting their hair right.
She said: "It's something we are actively encouraging because we know we are role models. We enjoy looking smart and feminine.
"Times have changed and men now like to see feminine women with great bodies.
"They run to us now rather than run away."
The women's team lost their lottery funding last year - ironically for not being successful enough. That means they have had to compete all year against sponsored and paid-to-play teams.
But that has made Scotland's success all the sweeter.
Flanker Beth McLeod, 26, who has 34 caps, said: "We had a very hard game in the tournament against France in very hot weather.
"Then we met Spain in the final in even more extreme weather conditions.
"But the result was 15-3 to Scotland and the girls were just ecstatic. The atmosphere afterwards was terrific. We were all very excited."
Beth went on: "Rugby is just great fun and there's good social life too.
"The women's team and the men's teams usually meet up for drinks afterwards.
"We really enjoy ourselves."
CAPTION(S):
HIGH KICKS: Denise Fairburn, pictured, left, in a glamourous dress and, above, in her training gear, fired Scotland to victory with crucial kicks; WING QUEEN: Star Angela Hutt glides past a Spanish player during Scotland's victory; GLAMOUROUS: But pretty Rimma Petlevannaya loves the rough and tumble of rugby; FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND: The team celebrates European success; SWEET VICTORY : Fiona Shepherd, Beth McLeod and Rimma Petlevannaya with the trophy
The Mirror (London, England) (May 16, 2001): p12
Showing posts with label FIRA European Championship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FIRA European Championship. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 May 2001
Sunday, 13 May 2001
Scotland close in on European crown
Lewis Stuart
By the end of today, Scotland could be holding a European Championship title. The country's women rugby players face Spain, who they have already beaten 19 8 this season, in the final of the FIRA competition in Lille, France.
"It has been a fantastic team effort," Peter Brownlee, the coach, said yesterday. "We came to the competition with our hopes riding high, we have been 100 per cent focused on the game we wanted to play and we have been getting better and better as the competition has gone on.
"The girls want to win this for themselves, and it would be a considerable achievement, but it would also do so much for the women's game in Scotland if we were able to come back with the title."
The team were already in the elite group, and started with a hard-fought 13-3 win over Wales, with Jennifer Dickinson, of Richmond, getting the try while Paula Chalmers, of Murrayfield Wanderers, kicked a conversion and two penalties. They followed that by coming from behind to beat France 9-6, with Chalmers getting all the points from kicks.
"Basically, we squeezed the life out of them," Brownlee said. "The forwards were magnificent and while I would rather they had played more of their rugby in the opposition 22, you can't complain."
Spain, who are previous European winners, will be no pushover after defeating England in their semi-final, but the Scots say they are ready for the physical challenge they pose. "There are not many surprises in store at this level," Brownlee said. "We don't expect to see much as far as back moves and three-quarter play is concerned, they will try to boot the ball down into our half and drive us from there.
"If the forwards can repeat their showing in earlier matches, then we can come home as European champions."
The Times (London, England) (May 12, 2001): p44
By the end of today, Scotland could be holding a European Championship title. The country's women rugby players face Spain, who they have already beaten 19 8 this season, in the final of the FIRA competition in Lille, France.
"It has been a fantastic team effort," Peter Brownlee, the coach, said yesterday. "We came to the competition with our hopes riding high, we have been 100 per cent focused on the game we wanted to play and we have been getting better and better as the competition has gone on.
"The girls want to win this for themselves, and it would be a considerable achievement, but it would also do so much for the women's game in Scotland if we were able to come back with the title."
The team were already in the elite group, and started with a hard-fought 13-3 win over Wales, with Jennifer Dickinson, of Richmond, getting the try while Paula Chalmers, of Murrayfield Wanderers, kicked a conversion and two penalties. They followed that by coming from behind to beat France 9-6, with Chalmers getting all the points from kicks.
"Basically, we squeezed the life out of them," Brownlee said. "The forwards were magnificent and while I would rather they had played more of their rugby in the opposition 22, you can't complain."
Spain, who are previous European winners, will be no pushover after defeating England in their semi-final, but the Scots say they are ready for the physical challenge they pose. "There are not many surprises in store at this level," Brownlee said. "We don't expect to see much as far as back moves and three-quarter play is concerned, they will try to boot the ball down into our half and drive us from there.
"If the forwards can repeat their showing in earlier matches, then we can come home as European champions."
The Times (London, England) (May 12, 2001): p44
Monday, 8 May 2000
Lomu of women's game fired up for European title
Pete Nichols
It was a little over a month ago that the English women's rugby team wrapped up a Five Nations grand slam with a comprehensive 64-9 victory over Scotland at the Stewart's Melville ground in Edinburgh. Only one of the four matches had been close, that against France at Massey, near Paris, in February, when England scored in the final minute of time added on to snatch a 24-18 win. The remainder of the tournament had been a romp, confirming their status as the best team in Europe.
In the modest but hectic world of women's rugby, however, there is no resting on laurels. Today in Almeria, on the eastern wing of the Costa del Sol, the first games of the European championship take place and England have to prove their superiority all over again.The cast list is familiar, for Spain, Scotland, France and Wales contested the Five Nations with England and they form the core of Group A in the European event. The additional teams in the top group are Ireland, Italy and Kazakhstan, fifth in the 1999 event and against whom England open their championship today.
Europe takes on an elastic shape for sporting events, as evidenced by the participation of the Kazakhs, whose capital city Almaty is closer to Beijing than Moscow. Even so, rumours will definitely have reached them of the player in the England team they will have to stop if they are going to win.
Chris Diver always wanted to be a firefighter. As a child she would pass the fire station in Slough on the way to school. "I thought, they squirt water and climb ladders and that would be fun," she recalls. Even now, six years into the job, she has an undiminished love of her work. "It's better than I thought, although we don't save lives every minute like they do in London's Burning; we get our share of fires in rubbish bins and horses that have fallen into trenches."
Diver's rugby career developed in a more accidental fashion. Unsure of how the fire brigade would feel about women enlisting, she decided to go to university first. It was during her final two years at Chelsea College in Eastbourne, where she took a Bachelor of Education degree in PE and science, that the university formed a women's rugby team and she switched her allegiance from hockey.
On graduation she applied to West Sussex for a job as a firefighter and was posted to Crawley. If it had been Worthing or Bognor the rugby career might well have ended there, but in Crawley there was a women's team.
Work and pleasure dovetailed as the fitness for the job - "you've got to be able to sling 14st people over your shoulder" - paid dividends on the pitch. In 1997 she was spotted by Carol Isherwood, the England performance director, at a sevens tournament in Crawley and enlisted into the national squad.
From the start Diver, at 5ft 10in and 13st, could easily have been assigned to the pack, but she has always been a wing. "I've never done any serious running, the last time was at school, but I'm naturally quick," she says. Quick enough and strong enough to earn the highest of accolades. "I'm the female Jonah Lomu, I've been told," she says, laughing.
A series of stunning recent performances, culminating in the last-minute try that stole that England-France Five Nations game, have reinforced the image and the reputation. Yet it was not an easy ride to the top.
"Last season I had a very good game against Scotland and the success got to me a bit," she admits. She became anxious about her perfor mances and her game suffered. The pleasure principle was discarded. "I can't really explain it. I just felt a lot of pressure, so I started working with our psychologist, Kirsten Barnes. Now I don't dwell on matches a week before they happen. I just enjoy it. They [the tries] just happen," she says.
For the past three winters Diver has played for Saracens, who have just won the league title ahead of Richmond. The 28-year-old is full of praise for Nigel Wray, who owns the club. "We've had women's matches preceding the men's games, which is great. He's been so supportive of us," she says.
She is eager for her sport to move more into the mainstream - "I'd love to play at Twickenham, wouldn't anyone?" - but the future of women's rugby is in the balance. With no television or gate money to feed the coffers, women's rugby union in the UK is dependent on lottery funding.
Recently the Scotland team lost a government grant worth Pounds 79,000 because they came only third in the Five Nations, and everyone connected with the England team tells you how tenuous is the hold on their funding should they not justify their ranking as favourites in Almeria.
On the other hand, the World Cup comes around again in 2002. The last edition was held in the Netherlands and won by New Zealand - the Black Ferns, as they are known in the women's game. The encounter that settled the issue came in the semi-final against England when the heat of the battle became so intense that two English players ended up in hospital, one with a broken nose, the other with cracked ribs.
England are one of the two countries bidding to host the 2002 event. What a pleasure it would be if the female Jonah Lomu, from Crawley, could put one over the world champions. It would be only fair, given the number of occasions the All Blacks' male Chris Diver has done it to us.
The Guardian (London, England) (May 8, 2000): p7.
It was a little over a month ago that the English women's rugby team wrapped up a Five Nations grand slam with a comprehensive 64-9 victory over Scotland at the Stewart's Melville ground in Edinburgh. Only one of the four matches had been close, that against France at Massey, near Paris, in February, when England scored in the final minute of time added on to snatch a 24-18 win. The remainder of the tournament had been a romp, confirming their status as the best team in Europe.
In the modest but hectic world of women's rugby, however, there is no resting on laurels. Today in Almeria, on the eastern wing of the Costa del Sol, the first games of the European championship take place and England have to prove their superiority all over again.The cast list is familiar, for Spain, Scotland, France and Wales contested the Five Nations with England and they form the core of Group A in the European event. The additional teams in the top group are Ireland, Italy and Kazakhstan, fifth in the 1999 event and against whom England open their championship today.
Europe takes on an elastic shape for sporting events, as evidenced by the participation of the Kazakhs, whose capital city Almaty is closer to Beijing than Moscow. Even so, rumours will definitely have reached them of the player in the England team they will have to stop if they are going to win.
Chris Diver always wanted to be a firefighter. As a child she would pass the fire station in Slough on the way to school. "I thought, they squirt water and climb ladders and that would be fun," she recalls. Even now, six years into the job, she has an undiminished love of her work. "It's better than I thought, although we don't save lives every minute like they do in London's Burning; we get our share of fires in rubbish bins and horses that have fallen into trenches."
Diver's rugby career developed in a more accidental fashion. Unsure of how the fire brigade would feel about women enlisting, she decided to go to university first. It was during her final two years at Chelsea College in Eastbourne, where she took a Bachelor of Education degree in PE and science, that the university formed a women's rugby team and she switched her allegiance from hockey.
On graduation she applied to West Sussex for a job as a firefighter and was posted to Crawley. If it had been Worthing or Bognor the rugby career might well have ended there, but in Crawley there was a women's team.
Work and pleasure dovetailed as the fitness for the job - "you've got to be able to sling 14st people over your shoulder" - paid dividends on the pitch. In 1997 she was spotted by Carol Isherwood, the England performance director, at a sevens tournament in Crawley and enlisted into the national squad.
From the start Diver, at 5ft 10in and 13st, could easily have been assigned to the pack, but she has always been a wing. "I've never done any serious running, the last time was at school, but I'm naturally quick," she says. Quick enough and strong enough to earn the highest of accolades. "I'm the female Jonah Lomu, I've been told," she says, laughing.
A series of stunning recent performances, culminating in the last-minute try that stole that England-France Five Nations game, have reinforced the image and the reputation. Yet it was not an easy ride to the top.
"Last season I had a very good game against Scotland and the success got to me a bit," she admits. She became anxious about her perfor mances and her game suffered. The pleasure principle was discarded. "I can't really explain it. I just felt a lot of pressure, so I started working with our psychologist, Kirsten Barnes. Now I don't dwell on matches a week before they happen. I just enjoy it. They [the tries] just happen," she says.
For the past three winters Diver has played for Saracens, who have just won the league title ahead of Richmond. The 28-year-old is full of praise for Nigel Wray, who owns the club. "We've had women's matches preceding the men's games, which is great. He's been so supportive of us," she says.
She is eager for her sport to move more into the mainstream - "I'd love to play at Twickenham, wouldn't anyone?" - but the future of women's rugby is in the balance. With no television or gate money to feed the coffers, women's rugby union in the UK is dependent on lottery funding.
Recently the Scotland team lost a government grant worth Pounds 79,000 because they came only third in the Five Nations, and everyone connected with the England team tells you how tenuous is the hold on their funding should they not justify their ranking as favourites in Almeria.
On the other hand, the World Cup comes around again in 2002. The last edition was held in the Netherlands and won by New Zealand - the Black Ferns, as they are known in the women's game. The encounter that settled the issue came in the semi-final against England when the heat of the battle became so intense that two English players ended up in hospital, one with a broken nose, the other with cracked ribs.
England are one of the two countries bidding to host the 2002 event. What a pleasure it would be if the female Jonah Lomu, from Crawley, could put one over the world champions. It would be only fair, given the number of occasions the All Blacks' male Chris Diver has done it to us.
The Guardian (London, England) (May 8, 2000): p7.
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