DESPITE outscoring their hosts Spain by three tries to one, Ireland's women lost 19-17 in their Six Nations opening match in Madrid yesterday.
Ulster firefighter Suzanne Fleming led a recovery by the Philip Doyle-coached Irish, bagging two second-half tries, but it was not enough as Spanish centre Ines Etxeguibel Alberdi's three drop goals and a penalty sealed the home win.
The Irish, who picked up their first Six Nations win on the same Ciudad Universitaria ground two years ago, gave away too much possession in the early stages and were down 13-0 at the break. Fleming's brace got them back in touch at 16-12 but with UL Bohs wing Lynne Cantwell's late effort going unconverted, Kepa Ancin's charges claimed the spoils
Sunday Times (London, England) (Feb 6, 2005): p26.
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 February 2005
Sunday, 6 February 2000
Lottery funding has galvanised women's rugby in Britain
Stephen Jones
IT'S A different tournament this year. Spain enter the women's Five Nations championship for the first time, replacing a struggling Ireland team which has withdrawn to concentrate on rebuilding its domestic rugby.
The environment of the tournament is also changing profoundly. England open their campaign against Spain at Banbury today with semi-professionalism conveyed by lottery funding and standards of preparation so emphatically improved that the players are fit to be compared with international athletes in any sport.
They may not, quite, be on the verge of riches, but England's leading players can now obtain funding for equipment, medical care, gymnasium and other training costs and also enough to tide them over if they decide to revert to part-time employment.
The money comes from a national lottery world-class performance grant.
"It gives us so much more freedom," Carol Isherwood, performance director of the Rugby Football Union for Women, said.
"It can be a shattering experience trying to fit in six or seven training sessions per week when you are also working full-time."
But the important thing is not so much the money, as the status the grant imparts. "Because the lottery has recognised them as being comparable with international athletes in other sports, it gives the girls the feeling that they have been accepted - that means more than any monetary value," said Isherwood.
The funding also hands England the key to challenging for the 2002 World Cup and, especially, to catching the brilliant world champions, New Zealand.
While competition in the Five Nations is stern, England cannot advance until they meet New Zealand more regularly, not to mention America, Canada and Australia, the other major teams.
The world-class performance grant will fund England's participation in the Canada Cup in September, when New Zealand, Canada and, it is to be hoped, other top nations will be competing.
Isherwood is trying to arrange for the team to travel to New Zealand and Australia after the tournament.
Today's game may not prove quite as taxing because, even though Spain were the surprise package of the last World Cup in 1998, they lost to England in a recent friendly.
England's new-look team contains neither of the staple figures of the last decade - Gill Burns, the former captain, played for England A against England Emerging Players yesterday and Emma Mitchell, the scrum-half, has a knee injury.
Paula George, at full-back, assumes the captaincy.
This season's Five Nations fixtures:
February 4: Wales 10, France 27 (Swansea); February 6: England v Spain (Banbury); February 18: France v England (Massy); February 19: Spain v Scotland (Murcia); March 5: England v Wales (Newbury); March 5: Scotland v France (Edinburgh); March 18: France v Spain (Dax); March 19: Wales v Scotland (Caerphilly); April 1: Scotland v England (Edinburgh); April 1: Spain v Wales (TBC).
Sunday Times 6 Feb. 2000: p 5
IT'S A different tournament this year. Spain enter the women's Five Nations championship for the first time, replacing a struggling Ireland team which has withdrawn to concentrate on rebuilding its domestic rugby.
The environment of the tournament is also changing profoundly. England open their campaign against Spain at Banbury today with semi-professionalism conveyed by lottery funding and standards of preparation so emphatically improved that the players are fit to be compared with international athletes in any sport.
They may not, quite, be on the verge of riches, but England's leading players can now obtain funding for equipment, medical care, gymnasium and other training costs and also enough to tide them over if they decide to revert to part-time employment.
The money comes from a national lottery world-class performance grant.
"It gives us so much more freedom," Carol Isherwood, performance director of the Rugby Football Union for Women, said.
"It can be a shattering experience trying to fit in six or seven training sessions per week when you are also working full-time."
But the important thing is not so much the money, as the status the grant imparts. "Because the lottery has recognised them as being comparable with international athletes in other sports, it gives the girls the feeling that they have been accepted - that means more than any monetary value," said Isherwood.
The funding also hands England the key to challenging for the 2002 World Cup and, especially, to catching the brilliant world champions, New Zealand.
While competition in the Five Nations is stern, England cannot advance until they meet New Zealand more regularly, not to mention America, Canada and Australia, the other major teams.
The world-class performance grant will fund England's participation in the Canada Cup in September, when New Zealand, Canada and, it is to be hoped, other top nations will be competing.
Isherwood is trying to arrange for the team to travel to New Zealand and Australia after the tournament.
Today's game may not prove quite as taxing because, even though Spain were the surprise package of the last World Cup in 1998, they lost to England in a recent friendly.
England's new-look team contains neither of the staple figures of the last decade - Gill Burns, the former captain, played for England A against England Emerging Players yesterday and Emma Mitchell, the scrum-half, has a knee injury.
Paula George, at full-back, assumes the captaincy.
This season's Five Nations fixtures:
February 4: Wales 10, France 27 (Swansea); February 6: England v Spain (Banbury); February 18: France v England (Massy); February 19: Spain v Scotland (Murcia); March 5: England v Wales (Newbury); March 5: Scotland v France (Edinburgh); March 18: France v Spain (Dax); March 19: Wales v Scotland (Caerphilly); April 1: Scotland v England (Edinburgh); April 1: Spain v Wales (TBC).
Sunday Times 6 Feb. 2000: p 5
Tuesday, 18 October 1988
Breaking clear of the Cinderella image
Chris Thau charts the popularity of women's rugby and the steps it is taking to win even more friends
England's 40-0 victory over Sweden in Waterloo at the weekend was another landmark in the short history of the women's game in Europe.
The women's international, sponsored by Chelsfield plc, was part of an international schedule agreed at a preliminary meeting of the representatives from European countries last April.
The meeting, attended by delegates from Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain has decided to form an international women's confederation similar to the International Rugby Board to coordinate and promote the women's game worldwide. The first meeting of the newly-formed body is scheduled for this month in Paris.
The conference was organized during the first European women's cup in Bourg-en-Bresse in France. French women beat Great Britain 8-6 in a closely fought contest to win the first tournament. France is the leading European nation, but both the US and Canada have strong teams and they would be expected to join the WIRB.
One of the first decisions of the WIRB was to organize a second European tournament in England in 1991, the year of the men's second world cup. Naturally the glamour and the media build-up surrounding the senior event would help the publicity of the women's game.
The French have about 30 clubs organized since 1972 on a league system. The French women's federation is affiliated to the FFR and is recognized by the French sports ministry, therefore receiving a subsidy from the Government.
During the last five years the women's game has soared in popularity in Britain. There are more than 60 teams, mainly in England and Wales, and the league structure has operated since 1985.
A five-year development plan has been devised to increase the number of players, raise the playing standards and encourage more women, former players to become involved in administration, refereeing and coaching. The plan is to be submitted to the Sports Council by the new WRFU coaching and development officer, Carol Isherwood.
Until last season, Miss Isherwood was both the secretary of the WRFU and, as a tireless loose forward, the captain of both England and Great Britain.
Sidelined by injury, she has been replaced by Wales's Carolyn Mann as the WRFU secretary and by Karen Almond as the England captain repectively. Karen Almond, a product of Loughborough University, the cradle of women's rugby in Britain, is a gifted stand off half and she was the leading try scorer in the game against Sweden with 16 points (two tries and four conversions).
Miss Almond, a PE teacher in Potters Bar, near London, cherished the occasion though according to her, she never regarded herself as a natural leader.
She believes that women's rugby is still facing an uphill struggle in its attempt to establish itself and cut through prejudice and preconceived ideas.
``It will take a long time before the women's game will lose its present image as a kind of Cinderella sport,'' Miss Almond said.
``But every time we play somewhere new we make new inroads.
``A lot of the men spectators at Waterloo never saw women play before. To their credit, they were full of praise after the game. Even the president of the Waterloo Rugby Club was heard saying that he would support the formation of a women team within the club. I have to admit that we encountered the same reluctance from ordinary members when we joined Wasps. However, nowadays we are accepted as just another team of the club.''
Source Citation
"Breaking clear of the Cinderella image; Women's rugby." Times [London, England] 18 Oct. 1988.
England's 40-0 victory over Sweden in Waterloo at the weekend was another landmark in the short history of the women's game in Europe.
The women's international, sponsored by Chelsfield plc, was part of an international schedule agreed at a preliminary meeting of the representatives from European countries last April.
The meeting, attended by delegates from Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain has decided to form an international women's confederation similar to the International Rugby Board to coordinate and promote the women's game worldwide. The first meeting of the newly-formed body is scheduled for this month in Paris.
The conference was organized during the first European women's cup in Bourg-en-Bresse in France. French women beat Great Britain 8-6 in a closely fought contest to win the first tournament. France is the leading European nation, but both the US and Canada have strong teams and they would be expected to join the WIRB.
One of the first decisions of the WIRB was to organize a second European tournament in England in 1991, the year of the men's second world cup. Naturally the glamour and the media build-up surrounding the senior event would help the publicity of the women's game.
The French have about 30 clubs organized since 1972 on a league system. The French women's federation is affiliated to the FFR and is recognized by the French sports ministry, therefore receiving a subsidy from the Government.
During the last five years the women's game has soared in popularity in Britain. There are more than 60 teams, mainly in England and Wales, and the league structure has operated since 1985.
A five-year development plan has been devised to increase the number of players, raise the playing standards and encourage more women, former players to become involved in administration, refereeing and coaching. The plan is to be submitted to the Sports Council by the new WRFU coaching and development officer, Carol Isherwood.
Until last season, Miss Isherwood was both the secretary of the WRFU and, as a tireless loose forward, the captain of both England and Great Britain.
Sidelined by injury, she has been replaced by Wales's Carolyn Mann as the WRFU secretary and by Karen Almond as the England captain repectively. Karen Almond, a product of Loughborough University, the cradle of women's rugby in Britain, is a gifted stand off half and she was the leading try scorer in the game against Sweden with 16 points (two tries and four conversions).
Miss Almond, a PE teacher in Potters Bar, near London, cherished the occasion though according to her, she never regarded herself as a natural leader.
She believes that women's rugby is still facing an uphill struggle in its attempt to establish itself and cut through prejudice and preconceived ideas.
``It will take a long time before the women's game will lose its present image as a kind of Cinderella sport,'' Miss Almond said.
``But every time we play somewhere new we make new inroads.
``A lot of the men spectators at Waterloo never saw women play before. To their credit, they were full of praise after the game. Even the president of the Waterloo Rugby Club was heard saying that he would support the formation of a women team within the club. I have to admit that we encountered the same reluctance from ordinary members when we joined Wasps. However, nowadays we are accepted as just another team of the club.''
Source Citation
"Breaking clear of the Cinderella image; Women's rugby." Times [London, England] 18 Oct. 1988.
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