ACTRESS Ffion Dafis is out to prove women's rugby is not all hairy armpits and bulging thighs.
She's going for it as the star of a new TV drama about the sexploits of the women's game.
And the saucy actress is using a stunning Christine Keeler-type pose to promote S4C's new drama.
The television channel hopes the new warts-'n'-all show will have wives and hubbies mauling for the remote control.
Set in a fictional North Wales town, Amdani - it means Go For It - lays bare the sexual antics of the fictional 15 players.
One programme maker said: "It brings the muddy and sexy world of women's rugby alive."
And they kicked off their advertising campaign with Ffion's daring Rucking for Wales poster.
An S4C source said: "This drama focuses on the sexual antics of the girls. Although some of the ladies display skills that Graham Henry would be proud of.
"S4C has never done anything like this before.
"This is the first time a programme has looked at women's rugby both on and off the pitch."
Actor Daffydd Emyr is the team's Romeo coach - a man who manages to get to grips with all his girls.
But all the stars prepared so well for their roles on the field they ended up beating Bethesda RFC in a practice game before filming.
Co-producer Sue Waters added: "It is going to be a very lively series which I hope will appeal to S4C viewers.
"It has been a lot of hard work, but we're also having a lot of fun during the filming."
The hard-hitting series will kick off on September 19.
Source Citation
"Rugby women will try anything for a TV hit." Mirror [London, England] 17 Aug. 1999
Tuesday, 17 August 1999
Friday, 2 April 1999
Watsonians women's team
NIALL AITCHESON
WHILE former Tennent's Velvet Premier-ship champions Watsonians have spent most of this season fighting to steer clear of the relegation frame, it has by no means all been doom and gloom down Myreside way.
The club's fledgling women's team is poised to give them something to celebrate in south-west Edinburgh by lifting the Keyline SWRU Division Three title in their first year together.
They need only a victory at home to Aboyne in tomorrow's final league match to add yet another piece of silverware to the club's impressive collection of trophies, and founder Viki Mendelssohn admits their success has caught everyone unawares.
'It's hard to believe that we've come this far so quickly. It was only in August that I was approached by a number of girls new to the sport about the prospect of forming a team. They had no opportunity to break into the established Edinburgh women's sides, Accies and Wanderers, who are packed with international players,' she said.
'I managed to organise things through Gavin Hastings and we started out with just five players. Now we have a squad of 17 and the numbers are growing all the time. It's great the way we've been accepted by the men. To them, we're just another of the club's XVs.' Skipper Mendelssohn, who also founded the highly-successful Edinburgh Accies women's team ten years ago, has used her renowned powers of persuasion and persistence to recruit a number of rugby celebrities to boost the team's promotion push.
Scott Hastings, now Watsonians' director of rugby, has been along to lend a hand at training, while this week Henry Edwards has taken time off from preparing the Scottish Districts for Sunday's match against Spain to provide some useful pointers.
The ladies' success hasn't suprised their French coach Patrice Langlois, who has been involved in Scottish women's rugby for more than a decade.
He told Sportsmail: 'Generally, the standard of play in women' s rugby has improved dramatically since the World Cup was held here six years ago.
'It's amazing to think that half of the Watsonians girls had never played rugby before this season, but they have an advantage in that they tend to learn quicker than the guys.
'Most of them are at university but they are just as committed to making a go of their rugby. Some of the sides we've played against this year have been physically stronger than us, but we've become technically sound in various areas, particularly in the forwards.
'The girls have all the rugby skills and, perhaps most importantly, we've managed to get their fitness levels up.
'We've only had a handful of seasoned players like Viki and Scotland A hooker Pam Woodman to call upon, but the rugby newcomers have played their part superbly. It has been a real team effort and I'm proud of them.'
Langlois believes his charges will round off their restricted nine-game league programme in style against the team two places below them in the table and enable him to start preparing for life in the elite Division Two.
Despite Scottish rugby's long winter of discontent, the champagne could yet be flowing in the famous old clubhouse.
Source Citation
"Luck be a lady for Watsonians; Myreside welcomes the lasses with a winning touch." Daily Mail [London, England] 2 Apr. 1999
WHILE former Tennent's Velvet Premier-ship champions Watsonians have spent most of this season fighting to steer clear of the relegation frame, it has by no means all been doom and gloom down Myreside way.
The club's fledgling women's team is poised to give them something to celebrate in south-west Edinburgh by lifting the Keyline SWRU Division Three title in their first year together.
They need only a victory at home to Aboyne in tomorrow's final league match to add yet another piece of silverware to the club's impressive collection of trophies, and founder Viki Mendelssohn admits their success has caught everyone unawares.
'It's hard to believe that we've come this far so quickly. It was only in August that I was approached by a number of girls new to the sport about the prospect of forming a team. They had no opportunity to break into the established Edinburgh women's sides, Accies and Wanderers, who are packed with international players,' she said.
'I managed to organise things through Gavin Hastings and we started out with just five players. Now we have a squad of 17 and the numbers are growing all the time. It's great the way we've been accepted by the men. To them, we're just another of the club's XVs.' Skipper Mendelssohn, who also founded the highly-successful Edinburgh Accies women's team ten years ago, has used her renowned powers of persuasion and persistence to recruit a number of rugby celebrities to boost the team's promotion push.
Scott Hastings, now Watsonians' director of rugby, has been along to lend a hand at training, while this week Henry Edwards has taken time off from preparing the Scottish Districts for Sunday's match against Spain to provide some useful pointers.
The ladies' success hasn't suprised their French coach Patrice Langlois, who has been involved in Scottish women's rugby for more than a decade.
He told Sportsmail: 'Generally, the standard of play in women' s rugby has improved dramatically since the World Cup was held here six years ago.
'It's amazing to think that half of the Watsonians girls had never played rugby before this season, but they have an advantage in that they tend to learn quicker than the guys.
'Most of them are at university but they are just as committed to making a go of their rugby. Some of the sides we've played against this year have been physically stronger than us, but we've become technically sound in various areas, particularly in the forwards.
'The girls have all the rugby skills and, perhaps most importantly, we've managed to get their fitness levels up.
'We've only had a handful of seasoned players like Viki and Scotland A hooker Pam Woodman to call upon, but the rugby newcomers have played their part superbly. It has been a real team effort and I'm proud of them.'
Langlois believes his charges will round off their restricted nine-game league programme in style against the team two places below them in the table and enable him to start preparing for life in the elite Division Two.
Despite Scottish rugby's long winter of discontent, the champagne could yet be flowing in the famous old clubhouse.
Source Citation
"Luck be a lady for Watsonians; Myreside welcomes the lasses with a winning touch." Daily Mail [London, England] 2 Apr. 1999
Monday, 8 March 1999
Ireland v England: report
Ireland 0 England 56
THERE was to be no consolation for the defeat at Lansdowne Road at Stradbrook yesterday, where Ireland's women rugby players were routed by a talented England team that ran in ten tries. The Ireland supporters can be relieved only that England's all-round excellence was not matched by their goalkicking.
There were no weak links in the England side. Their mobile pack was able to lay on a stream of possession and, with Jo Yapp and Sue Appleby calling the shots with authority at half back, Ireland's defence was stretched constantly by the incisive running of the England threequarters. The lineout was also a disaster area for Ireland, so much so that kicking to touch was tantamount to handing possession over to England.
England were out of sight at the end of the first quarter, when Nicky Crawford had scored two tries and Chris Diver, Sue Day and Yapp had also crossed. The second half was equally shattering as England ran in five tries, courtesy of Day, with two, Nicky Ponsford, Jayne Molyneux and Teresa O'Reilly.
SCORERS: England: Tries: N Crawford 2 (2min, 6), C Diver (16), S Day 3 (19, 48, 74), J Yapp (38), N Ponsford (45), J Molyneux (53), T O'Reilly (78). Conversions: T Collins, V Huxford, C Frost.
Copyright (C) The Times, 1999
Source Citation
Johnston, Karl. "England's women deny Irish any consolation; Rugby Union." Times [London, England] 8 Mar. 1999
THERE was to be no consolation for the defeat at Lansdowne Road at Stradbrook yesterday, where Ireland's women rugby players were routed by a talented England team that ran in ten tries. The Ireland supporters can be relieved only that England's all-round excellence was not matched by their goalkicking.
There were no weak links in the England side. Their mobile pack was able to lay on a stream of possession and, with Jo Yapp and Sue Appleby calling the shots with authority at half back, Ireland's defence was stretched constantly by the incisive running of the England threequarters. The lineout was also a disaster area for Ireland, so much so that kicking to touch was tantamount to handing possession over to England.
England were out of sight at the end of the first quarter, when Nicky Crawford had scored two tries and Chris Diver, Sue Day and Yapp had also crossed. The second half was equally shattering as England ran in five tries, courtesy of Day, with two, Nicky Ponsford, Jayne Molyneux and Teresa O'Reilly.
SCORERS: England: Tries: N Crawford 2 (2min, 6), C Diver (16), S Day 3 (19, 48, 74), J Yapp (38), N Ponsford (45), J Molyneux (53), T O'Reilly (78). Conversions: T Collins, V Huxford, C Frost.
Copyright (C) The Times, 1999
Source Citation
Johnston, Karl. "England's women deny Irish any consolation; Rugby Union." Times [London, England] 8 Mar. 1999
Tuesday, 2 March 1999
Minister congratuales England
Matthew Parris,
...
Which is why Gwyneth Dunwoody (Lab, Crewe and Nantwich) comes as such a relief. The veteran "old" Labour rightwinger arrived yesterday arrayed in a new garment. A vast purple wrap, hundreds of square yards of it, covered this substantial lady. She described the "enormous opportunities" presented by the Millennium Dome: "a great public space," she said. Ah, Gwyneth, how true: but not our greatest public space! It lends a whole new meaning to the right to roam.
And a new fascination to the concept of women's rugby, heavily plugged yesterday by the Sports Minister Tony Banks.
For Monday mornings, Mr Banks chooses a wicked little black suit, three-piece, which he wears with a puckered face and sourly deadpan expression. Apropos of nothing much, Mr Banks offered his congratulations "to the England women's rugby team, on their victory over Scotland". Mr Banks's felicitations will raise a cheer in the ladies' shower room.
"I was there," he declared grimly. "And it was in fact very, very enjoyable rugby and I'd encourage people to go to women's rugby." Sadly, Mrs Dunwoody looked unconvinced.
...
...
Which is why Gwyneth Dunwoody (Lab, Crewe and Nantwich) comes as such a relief. The veteran "old" Labour rightwinger arrived yesterday arrayed in a new garment. A vast purple wrap, hundreds of square yards of it, covered this substantial lady. She described the "enormous opportunities" presented by the Millennium Dome: "a great public space," she said. Ah, Gwyneth, how true: but not our greatest public space! It lends a whole new meaning to the right to roam.
And a new fascination to the concept of women's rugby, heavily plugged yesterday by the Sports Minister Tony Banks.
For Monday mornings, Mr Banks chooses a wicked little black suit, three-piece, which he wears with a puckered face and sourly deadpan expression. Apropos of nothing much, Mr Banks offered his congratulations "to the England women's rugby team, on their victory over Scotland". Mr Banks's felicitations will raise a cheer in the ladies' shower room.
"I was there," he declared grimly. "And it was in fact very, very enjoyable rugby and I'd encourage people to go to women's rugby." Sadly, Mrs Dunwoody looked unconvinced.
...
Friday, 26 February 1999
England's women rugby players have to beg for time off work to play for their country
The Spice Girls have a lot to answer for. Mention Girl Power and the images which spring to mind - certain minds anyway - are Geri's patriotic little number at the Brit Awards and Scary's tongue. Which is distinctly unfair on those 15 genuine Sportys, otherwise known as the England women's rugby team, putting their less famous bodies on the line for their country this weekend for less than the price of a free CD.
Never let it be said that all English international rugby players lead privileged lives. What would the national reaction have been had Martin Johnson prepared for last weekend's Calcutta Cup match by climbing mountains in the Lake District and paying his own way to Twickenham? Or if Mike Catt walked his neighbours' dogs to help with the rent?Their female equivalents have been doing precisely that this week, without a murmur of complaint. Every rolling maul at the Athletic Ground in Richmond, where England face Scotland on Sunday, will involve a role model for the women's game.
Take Teresa Andrews, the lock, winning her first cap at the age of 22. A talented athlete, she is one of the new faces being drafted in with an eye to the 2002 World Cup. Over six feet tall with pace befitting a former schoolgirl hurdler, she has all the physical attributes but her staggering commitment is what really gives the game away.
Her job as a trainee instructor at an outdoor centre near Coniston Water owned by the University of Birmingham necessitates whole days spent literally up hill and down dale, followed by evening training sessions at her club, Waterloo, which is over two hours' drive away. A fresh arrival on the England scene, she has yet to receive a penny in financial help and has to beg time off at weekends.
'I'll have to work every weekend after all this is over, but it's worth it,' she insists.
At least all that yomping must keep her fit?
'It's the wrong sort of fitness; walking up a mountain slowly doesn't give you the sort of power you need.'
The only Amazons in Lakeland used to be those contained within the pages of Arthur Ransome's Swallows And Amazons; these days they are for real.
Andrews's story is instructive all round. The daughter of an English father and Danish mother, she grew up in a completely 'non-sporty family. The only person they could find who might have been was a great aunt who died falling off a mountain.'
Until 1995 she had never played rugby. On Sunday she will share an England dressing-room with players of the stature of Gill Burns and Emma Mitchell, both involved at the inaugural World Cup in 1991.
Burns, 34, has been England captain for five years - 'I feel like I'm nearing the end' - and made her debut back in 1988. Her fairytale moment came in 1994 as a member of the World Cup-winning side which, all too briefly, generated as much nationwide publicity as New Zealand's triumph in Amsterdam last year did on the other side of the globe.
Burns has seen the game come on in leaps and bounds since 1988. 'It's just not recognisable. Watching the videos now . . . well, it isn't laughable but we've come on so much. We were really cross-country runners, athletes and hockey players who had come together and were trying to learn a new game.'
As with the men, the road ahead is paved with fitness targets. Rex Hazeldine has been offering advice from Loughborough and the WRFU's performance director Carol Isherwood confirms that Lottery funding of Pounds 200,000 will help towards, for example, gym fees, kit and physiotherapy. There is still a way to go. The England squad will only gather tomorrow, just 24 hours before playing the Scots, who beat them last year.
This is the first fully fledged women's Five Nations Championship, yet England have not played any com- petitive rugby since their 4411 defeat against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-finals last April.
Isherwood also reports difficulties in persuading employers to release players, even when their costs are all reimbursed.
'We have to change the way that people look at sport in this country,' she adds.
And that includes, as ever, the opposite sex. Are men still sceptical?
'Yeah, in a word,' says the Saracens and England fly-half Susie Appleby, currently walking other people's dogs prior to starting a job with the Metropolitan Police. Her father, Northumberland's representative on the Rugby Football Union committee, turns out to be an enlightened 'Old Fart' and she is working on the rest.
'There's still the old school that say women shouldn't play rugby. I don't know if they'll ever change. All I say to them is: come and watch a game.'
Andrews reports an equally mixed reaction.
'I've got a few rugby-playing male friends who are impressed. But you also get: 'Is it proper tackling, proper pitch, kit as well?' '
A few 'girlie' stories do still surface. The England A lock Linda Uttley was introduced to the game through a chance remark in her local hairdresser's; last year a second-row playing for Eastern Suburbs in Sydney complained of back pains after a game and was found to be pregnant.
Motherhood and rugby are scarcely perfect bedfellows, so three cheers for Maxine Edwards, mother of a six-year-old, who props for England A in Sunday's curtain-raiser. Could childbirth be any more demanding than playing in the front row?
'I said that,' laughs her team-mate Nicky Goodwin, 'but everyone goes: 'It's nothing like it, shut up'.'
But there is a serious side as the women's game approaches the next century, namely how much extra training young women, already juggling busy careers and social lives, can be asked to do for a sport which may leave them richer in body and soul but nowhere else.
'That's a problem for all international sports for women,' says Burns, a PE teacher. 'It's ridiculous, really, but I think most of the girls who play international rugby actually go to work in order to play. There are big sacrifices but, if people aren't prepared to make them, they're not committed enough.'
Posh and her mates would last five seconds, max.
Source Citation
"The poor woman's Five Nations: Forget overpaid pros, England's women rugby players have to beg for time off work to play for their country. Robert Kitson joins the former World Cup champions in preparation for Sunday's first Five Nations encounter with Scotland." Guardian [London, England] 26 Feb. 1999
Never let it be said that all English international rugby players lead privileged lives. What would the national reaction have been had Martin Johnson prepared for last weekend's Calcutta Cup match by climbing mountains in the Lake District and paying his own way to Twickenham? Or if Mike Catt walked his neighbours' dogs to help with the rent?Their female equivalents have been doing precisely that this week, without a murmur of complaint. Every rolling maul at the Athletic Ground in Richmond, where England face Scotland on Sunday, will involve a role model for the women's game.
Take Teresa Andrews, the lock, winning her first cap at the age of 22. A talented athlete, she is one of the new faces being drafted in with an eye to the 2002 World Cup. Over six feet tall with pace befitting a former schoolgirl hurdler, she has all the physical attributes but her staggering commitment is what really gives the game away.
Her job as a trainee instructor at an outdoor centre near Coniston Water owned by the University of Birmingham necessitates whole days spent literally up hill and down dale, followed by evening training sessions at her club, Waterloo, which is over two hours' drive away. A fresh arrival on the England scene, she has yet to receive a penny in financial help and has to beg time off at weekends.
'I'll have to work every weekend after all this is over, but it's worth it,' she insists.
At least all that yomping must keep her fit?
'It's the wrong sort of fitness; walking up a mountain slowly doesn't give you the sort of power you need.'
The only Amazons in Lakeland used to be those contained within the pages of Arthur Ransome's Swallows And Amazons; these days they are for real.
Andrews's story is instructive all round. The daughter of an English father and Danish mother, she grew up in a completely 'non-sporty family. The only person they could find who might have been was a great aunt who died falling off a mountain.'
Until 1995 she had never played rugby. On Sunday she will share an England dressing-room with players of the stature of Gill Burns and Emma Mitchell, both involved at the inaugural World Cup in 1991.
Burns, 34, has been England captain for five years - 'I feel like I'm nearing the end' - and made her debut back in 1988. Her fairytale moment came in 1994 as a member of the World Cup-winning side which, all too briefly, generated as much nationwide publicity as New Zealand's triumph in Amsterdam last year did on the other side of the globe.
Burns has seen the game come on in leaps and bounds since 1988. 'It's just not recognisable. Watching the videos now . . . well, it isn't laughable but we've come on so much. We were really cross-country runners, athletes and hockey players who had come together and were trying to learn a new game.'
As with the men, the road ahead is paved with fitness targets. Rex Hazeldine has been offering advice from Loughborough and the WRFU's performance director Carol Isherwood confirms that Lottery funding of Pounds 200,000 will help towards, for example, gym fees, kit and physiotherapy. There is still a way to go. The England squad will only gather tomorrow, just 24 hours before playing the Scots, who beat them last year.
This is the first fully fledged women's Five Nations Championship, yet England have not played any com- petitive rugby since their 4411 defeat against New Zealand in the World Cup semi-finals last April.
Isherwood also reports difficulties in persuading employers to release players, even when their costs are all reimbursed.
'We have to change the way that people look at sport in this country,' she adds.
And that includes, as ever, the opposite sex. Are men still sceptical?
'Yeah, in a word,' says the Saracens and England fly-half Susie Appleby, currently walking other people's dogs prior to starting a job with the Metropolitan Police. Her father, Northumberland's representative on the Rugby Football Union committee, turns out to be an enlightened 'Old Fart' and she is working on the rest.
'There's still the old school that say women shouldn't play rugby. I don't know if they'll ever change. All I say to them is: come and watch a game.'
Andrews reports an equally mixed reaction.
'I've got a few rugby-playing male friends who are impressed. But you also get: 'Is it proper tackling, proper pitch, kit as well?' '
A few 'girlie' stories do still surface. The England A lock Linda Uttley was introduced to the game through a chance remark in her local hairdresser's; last year a second-row playing for Eastern Suburbs in Sydney complained of back pains after a game and was found to be pregnant.
Motherhood and rugby are scarcely perfect bedfellows, so three cheers for Maxine Edwards, mother of a six-year-old, who props for England A in Sunday's curtain-raiser. Could childbirth be any more demanding than playing in the front row?
'I said that,' laughs her team-mate Nicky Goodwin, 'but everyone goes: 'It's nothing like it, shut up'.'
But there is a serious side as the women's game approaches the next century, namely how much extra training young women, already juggling busy careers and social lives, can be asked to do for a sport which may leave them richer in body and soul but nowhere else.
'That's a problem for all international sports for women,' says Burns, a PE teacher. 'It's ridiculous, really, but I think most of the girls who play international rugby actually go to work in order to play. There are big sacrifices but, if people aren't prepared to make them, they're not committed enough.'
Posh and her mates would last five seconds, max.
Source Citation
"The poor woman's Five Nations: Forget overpaid pros, England's women rugby players have to beg for time off work to play for their country. Robert Kitson joins the former World Cup champions in preparation for Sunday's first Five Nations encounter with Scotland." Guardian [London, England] 26 Feb. 1999
Monday, 22 February 1999
Girls rugby only at Millennium Youth Games
HUNDREDS of girls' football and rugby teams are to compete in a national sports festival for youngsters to mark the millennium - while boys are forced to stand on the touchline.
The traditionally male preserves of rugby and football are among eight sports that will make up the Millennium Youth Games, launched today by Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, and Sally Gunnell, the Olympic hurdler; yet most boys will not be allowed to take part. The football tournament is limited to girls and children with learning disabilities, while boys can play rugby only at under-11 level - and even then in mixed-sex sides. A netball competition will also be girls-only, while hockey, athletics, swimming, basketball and tennis will give both sexes a chance.
More than 300,000 children under 15 are expected to take part in the Pounds 4.3million games next year, part of the Pounds 100million Millennium Festival that will be announced today by Mr Smith. The games are being organised by Sport England, until recently the Sports Council for England, and are partly funded by BAA, a sponsor of the Millennium Dome.
Boys have been left out of the football and rugby competitions because organisers believed that girls needed a stage on which to prove their skills at these male-oriented sports. Both have become increasingly popular among girls, with more than 3,000 girls' football teams in Britain.
Anita White, director of development at Sport England, said: "There are lots of leagues, cups and competitions - almost too many - for boys to play in, but what we are hearing all the time is that girls want to play but don't have the opportunity. We are giving them a chance to shine and show that they can play football and rugby to a very high standard as well."
Helen Ames, national youth development officer at the Women's Rugby Football Union, said the games would deliver a massive boost to women's rugby. "It is going to be a tremendous competition that will give girls a chance to play rugby as never before," she said.
The Millennium Youth Games will be one of the main projects in the Millennium Festival, which is designed to ensure that all parts of the United Kingdom can participate fully in the celebrations. Mr Smith said on GMTV yesterday: "I want to make sure that the millennium is something to celebrate everywhere. I sometimes get annoyed with the national press, that they seem to think that the only thing happening for the millennium is the Dome in Greenwich. That's going to be wonderful but there's a lot else happening as well."
Sport in schools, page 37
Copyright (C) The Times, 1999
Source Citation
Henderson, Mark. "Girls get a sporting chance to shine." Times [London, England] 22 Feb. 1999
The traditionally male preserves of rugby and football are among eight sports that will make up the Millennium Youth Games, launched today by Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, and Sally Gunnell, the Olympic hurdler; yet most boys will not be allowed to take part. The football tournament is limited to girls and children with learning disabilities, while boys can play rugby only at under-11 level - and even then in mixed-sex sides. A netball competition will also be girls-only, while hockey, athletics, swimming, basketball and tennis will give both sexes a chance.
More than 300,000 children under 15 are expected to take part in the Pounds 4.3million games next year, part of the Pounds 100million Millennium Festival that will be announced today by Mr Smith. The games are being organised by Sport England, until recently the Sports Council for England, and are partly funded by BAA, a sponsor of the Millennium Dome.
Boys have been left out of the football and rugby competitions because organisers believed that girls needed a stage on which to prove their skills at these male-oriented sports. Both have become increasingly popular among girls, with more than 3,000 girls' football teams in Britain.
Anita White, director of development at Sport England, said: "There are lots of leagues, cups and competitions - almost too many - for boys to play in, but what we are hearing all the time is that girls want to play but don't have the opportunity. We are giving them a chance to shine and show that they can play football and rugby to a very high standard as well."
Helen Ames, national youth development officer at the Women's Rugby Football Union, said the games would deliver a massive boost to women's rugby. "It is going to be a tremendous competition that will give girls a chance to play rugby as never before," she said.
The Millennium Youth Games will be one of the main projects in the Millennium Festival, which is designed to ensure that all parts of the United Kingdom can participate fully in the celebrations. Mr Smith said on GMTV yesterday: "I want to make sure that the millennium is something to celebrate everywhere. I sometimes get annoyed with the national press, that they seem to think that the only thing happening for the millennium is the Dome in Greenwich. That's going to be wonderful but there's a lot else happening as well."
Sport in schools, page 37
Copyright (C) The Times, 1999
Source Citation
Henderson, Mark. "Girls get a sporting chance to shine." Times [London, England] 22 Feb. 1999
Tuesday, 1 December 1998
Interview with Paula Chamlers (Scotland)
BRIAN SCOTT
HENRY COOPER may have spoken for chauvinist swine the world over recently when he said something to the effect that women belong in the boudoir rather than the boxing ring.
What says Paula Chalmers, skipper and scrum-half of the Scottish ladies side who play Spain in a friendly in Madrid on Saturday while their male counterparts meet the same nation in a World Cup qualifier at Murrayfield?
Put it this way: Paula does not argue against the prerogative of her gender to infiltrate whatever area they wish of the sporting province regarded hitherto as being for men only.
But the chances of this 26-year-old from Melrose ever wanting to go 12 rounds are about as great as those of Joe Bugner, still fighting in his late 40s, applying belatedly to join a ballet school.
'I relish some man saying to me that I shouldn't be playing rugby,' she says assertively. 'I'd like to hear his argument. Women play football, they play baseball and softball. Why not rugby? It's not as if they're playing against men. It's women versus women and it's all fair.
'Women's boxing? Er, no. I watched on television an interview with the girl who was boxing in Edinburgh on Friday night. She was talking about hitting people in the face. I thought, och, none of that.
'I don't even like boxing for men, to be honest. I don't really know why anyone would want to go into a ring and take hits on the face while trying to smash their opponent. It can't be good.
You wouldn't get me in there, anyway.' Paula, if you didn't know or hadn't guessed, is the sister of one of Scotland's most celebrated rugby players, Craig. She knows the hurt which can be caused, even in their game, although it seems unimaginable for her to inflict any other than by accident.
'You're trying to play the ball in rugby,' she points out.
'You're trying to get that ball over the other side's line and, if it's at all possible, trying to miss out on any contact.
Rugby doesn't have to be hash-bash. It can be skilful.' So there's the difference, articulated by one whose support of women's rights in sport does not stretch quite so far that she would argue with the aforementioned Henry Cooper on the topic of their perceived excesses.
Paula may be feminist, a women of the 90s, but she is unmistakably feminine with it and, dare this be said, looks like Tinkerbell when matched up to some of these towering specimens of womenhood with whom she shares a field.
She plays rugby, by the way, with the full approval of her boyfriend, Mark Moncrieff, although that may not be such a great surprise. He, after all, plays himself; on the wing for Melrose.
It is hardly a surprise, either, to learn that she was introduced to the game, in a playful kind of way, with Craig throwing a ball to her when they were kids in the Borders.
'Rugby has always been in our family,' says Paula, who works in the sales division of a software firm in Galashiels. 'Craig played from an early age; the minis, midis, or whatever they were called then.
'But I progressed to playing hockey because women's rugby still wasn't that big at the time.' Paula, in fact, played hockey well enough to win two caps for Scotland some three years ago. Then, with the other game beginning to burgeon, she had to decide which of the two was better for her to pursue.
'Rugby seemed the greater prospect in that it had more potential for me to get into the side and get regular games,' she reveals.
'I still play club hockey for Melrose, turning out on a Saturday when available because rugby is played on a Sunday.' What did Craig, four years Paula's senior, make of her sporting conversion? She confesses that, initially, he seemed keener that she stick in at hockey. Why was he hesitant?
She is somewhat hesitant about answering the question, admitting: 'Maybe it was because rugby was quite a new sport among women.
'When it first started, it was played just at universities and, well, I don't like to say this, but it was more a sort of ...' She doesn't want to say it may have been more a sort of, er, butch person playing it. But we can gather that's what she means as she passes beyond the unspoken by adding: 'There are so many girls playing rugby now that it's just another sport. The game has widened, the skill level is away up.
'It's not just about big girls running about making hits. Some of them can kick the ball as well as men.
Some can pass it as well as men.
'The skill at international level is probably better than that at second or third level of men's rugby.
'It has improved so much and I think my brother can recognise that now and appreciate women's rugby for what it is. Mark is 100 per cent behind me and always constructive in his criticism. He even comes to our games when he can.
Another of our team, Alex Shepherd, goes out with Derek Stark. Through him, she'll come to training with a new move which the Caley Reds have been working on, so the support we get is great. I've not really met anybody who is anti women's rugby.' Paula, Alex and four others in their team to face the Spaniards play for Murrayfield Wanderers, a club which grew out of a fusion of women from Edinburgh Wanderers and Heriot Watt.
They are reigning Scottish champions as well as cup winners these last four seasons and Paula's latest international appearance, her first as captain, counts as number 13 following her debut against Wales less than two years ago.
She must enjoy the rough and tumble even though her fair countenance doesn't bear a bruise far less a scar. Or does she? 'Ask any of my team-mates,' Paula confesses, 'and they'll tell you I'm the one who takes the least contact in games.
'But it is quite hard and you do get some big hits. There are some big girls out there and a few late tackles. I'm not a greedy player, preferring to use the players around me.
'I just kind of slotted in at scrum-half because I wasn't big enough for the scrum or fast enough for the three-quarters. Touch wood, I've steered clear of any serious injury.
Craig hasn't been so lucky.' Nor is he quite so lucky at the moment, out of the Scottish men's squad while Paula is very much an integral part of the women's. His wee sister must feel a mite sympathetic. 'He'll be back, I'm sure he will,' she says supportively.
'He never gives up. If he'd given up the first time he was passed over by Scotland, he'd never have got half the caps he has. He's never say die.' Yet Paula can't resist aiming a playful dig at her big brother by pointing out that the honour of being Scotland captain has never been his and adding jocularly: 'I always have a laugh with him, saying that I'm a dual internationalist, what are you? He says he might take up bowls when he finishes with rugby, just to get a cap at another sport.'
Source Citation
"Rugby fair game for this sister act." Daily Mail [London, England] 1 Dec. 1998
HENRY COOPER may have spoken for chauvinist swine the world over recently when he said something to the effect that women belong in the boudoir rather than the boxing ring.
What says Paula Chalmers, skipper and scrum-half of the Scottish ladies side who play Spain in a friendly in Madrid on Saturday while their male counterparts meet the same nation in a World Cup qualifier at Murrayfield?
Put it this way: Paula does not argue against the prerogative of her gender to infiltrate whatever area they wish of the sporting province regarded hitherto as being for men only.
But the chances of this 26-year-old from Melrose ever wanting to go 12 rounds are about as great as those of Joe Bugner, still fighting in his late 40s, applying belatedly to join a ballet school.
'I relish some man saying to me that I shouldn't be playing rugby,' she says assertively. 'I'd like to hear his argument. Women play football, they play baseball and softball. Why not rugby? It's not as if they're playing against men. It's women versus women and it's all fair.
'Women's boxing? Er, no. I watched on television an interview with the girl who was boxing in Edinburgh on Friday night. She was talking about hitting people in the face. I thought, och, none of that.
'I don't even like boxing for men, to be honest. I don't really know why anyone would want to go into a ring and take hits on the face while trying to smash their opponent. It can't be good.
You wouldn't get me in there, anyway.' Paula, if you didn't know or hadn't guessed, is the sister of one of Scotland's most celebrated rugby players, Craig. She knows the hurt which can be caused, even in their game, although it seems unimaginable for her to inflict any other than by accident.
'You're trying to play the ball in rugby,' she points out.
'You're trying to get that ball over the other side's line and, if it's at all possible, trying to miss out on any contact.
Rugby doesn't have to be hash-bash. It can be skilful.' So there's the difference, articulated by one whose support of women's rights in sport does not stretch quite so far that she would argue with the aforementioned Henry Cooper on the topic of their perceived excesses.
Paula may be feminist, a women of the 90s, but she is unmistakably feminine with it and, dare this be said, looks like Tinkerbell when matched up to some of these towering specimens of womenhood with whom she shares a field.
She plays rugby, by the way, with the full approval of her boyfriend, Mark Moncrieff, although that may not be such a great surprise. He, after all, plays himself; on the wing for Melrose.
It is hardly a surprise, either, to learn that she was introduced to the game, in a playful kind of way, with Craig throwing a ball to her when they were kids in the Borders.
'Rugby has always been in our family,' says Paula, who works in the sales division of a software firm in Galashiels. 'Craig played from an early age; the minis, midis, or whatever they were called then.
'But I progressed to playing hockey because women's rugby still wasn't that big at the time.' Paula, in fact, played hockey well enough to win two caps for Scotland some three years ago. Then, with the other game beginning to burgeon, she had to decide which of the two was better for her to pursue.
'Rugby seemed the greater prospect in that it had more potential for me to get into the side and get regular games,' she reveals.
'I still play club hockey for Melrose, turning out on a Saturday when available because rugby is played on a Sunday.' What did Craig, four years Paula's senior, make of her sporting conversion? She confesses that, initially, he seemed keener that she stick in at hockey. Why was he hesitant?
She is somewhat hesitant about answering the question, admitting: 'Maybe it was because rugby was quite a new sport among women.
'When it first started, it was played just at universities and, well, I don't like to say this, but it was more a sort of ...' She doesn't want to say it may have been more a sort of, er, butch person playing it. But we can gather that's what she means as she passes beyond the unspoken by adding: 'There are so many girls playing rugby now that it's just another sport. The game has widened, the skill level is away up.
'It's not just about big girls running about making hits. Some of them can kick the ball as well as men.
Some can pass it as well as men.
'The skill at international level is probably better than that at second or third level of men's rugby.
'It has improved so much and I think my brother can recognise that now and appreciate women's rugby for what it is. Mark is 100 per cent behind me and always constructive in his criticism. He even comes to our games when he can.
Another of our team, Alex Shepherd, goes out with Derek Stark. Through him, she'll come to training with a new move which the Caley Reds have been working on, so the support we get is great. I've not really met anybody who is anti women's rugby.' Paula, Alex and four others in their team to face the Spaniards play for Murrayfield Wanderers, a club which grew out of a fusion of women from Edinburgh Wanderers and Heriot Watt.
They are reigning Scottish champions as well as cup winners these last four seasons and Paula's latest international appearance, her first as captain, counts as number 13 following her debut against Wales less than two years ago.
She must enjoy the rough and tumble even though her fair countenance doesn't bear a bruise far less a scar. Or does she? 'Ask any of my team-mates,' Paula confesses, 'and they'll tell you I'm the one who takes the least contact in games.
'But it is quite hard and you do get some big hits. There are some big girls out there and a few late tackles. I'm not a greedy player, preferring to use the players around me.
'I just kind of slotted in at scrum-half because I wasn't big enough for the scrum or fast enough for the three-quarters. Touch wood, I've steered clear of any serious injury.
Craig hasn't been so lucky.' Nor is he quite so lucky at the moment, out of the Scottish men's squad while Paula is very much an integral part of the women's. His wee sister must feel a mite sympathetic. 'He'll be back, I'm sure he will,' she says supportively.
'He never gives up. If he'd given up the first time he was passed over by Scotland, he'd never have got half the caps he has. He's never say die.' Yet Paula can't resist aiming a playful dig at her big brother by pointing out that the honour of being Scotland captain has never been his and adding jocularly: 'I always have a laugh with him, saying that I'm a dual internationalist, what are you? He says he might take up bowls when he finishes with rugby, just to get a cap at another sport.'
Source Citation
"Rugby fair game for this sister act." Daily Mail [London, England] 1 Dec. 1998
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