Scotland looking for Murrayfield inspiration to beat the auld enemy

Hilary Weale

With a World Cup later this year, England, Scotland and France will be hoping to give their campaigns a boost with a grand-slam triumph, while Wales have something to prove after coming last in 2005 HAVING botched three attempts at winning the grand slam, England's men clinched it in 2003, getting their World Cup year off to the start it needed. In view of this, it is easy to understand that Geoff Richards, the England women's coach, considers this season's Six Nations in a wider context.

"We're hoping to win the grand slam. In World Cup year that's an important goal because if you're not going to win the Six Nations, it diminishes your chances of winning the World Cup."

The World Cup takes place in Edmonton, Canada, this summer and it has given incentive to the teams in the Six Nations to perform well. Running parallel to the men's tournament, the women follow the same fixture list, the difference being the inclusion of Spain rather than Italy.

The competition is vital for the development of the women's game, and for the Scots to play their home match against England at Murrayfield straight after the male counterparts have finished their battle should help to bring it to a bigger audience. Gil Stevenson, the Scotland coach, said: "It's always a thrill for them (the players) to play at the national stadium. What we hope is that they can continue to raise the profile of the game."

That England are playing their home matches in the more humble surroundings of Old Albanians RFC does not worry Richards unduly: "We have played at Twickenham in recent years, and it's wonderful (for the players) to play for their country at the home of rugby. But sometimes it doesn't help our grassroots supporters, because they don't have access to Six Nations tickets."

Venues aside, there are some intriguing sub-plots to some of the fixtures. Spain are in the same group as Scotland in the World Cup, so the result of that tie on the last weekend of the tournament will have resonance. The Scots are probably the third strongest team in the competition, and rather than playing any matches in the autumn, were saving themselves for a warm-up match against the United States last month, which they lost 13-6. Hardly the best preparation for playing France next. In Donna Kennedy, the No 8, they boast the most-capped female XVs player in the world, and the most-capped Scotland player, her 84 caps surpassing Gregor Townsend's tally.

It is always tight between Wales, Ireland and Spain. Wales, who finished bottom last year, have a new coaching team in Fielies Coetsee and Jason Lewis, but are still smarting from their failure to qualify for the World Cup, so will be out to prove a point.

Last year, France were crowned queens of Europe, their three-point win over England being the crucial result. Losing their two matches against New Zealand in October has made England all the more determined to better their second place of last year.

Richards points out that there are some world-class players in the side, among them Jo Yapp, the captain and scrum half, as well as young players blooded recently, such as Alice Richardson, the fly half, who give the squad strength in depth.

Winning is vital, but Richards has an additional hope: "I just wish more people would come and watch women's rugby. I think for the time and effort and quality rugby they produce, it's a great spectacle, and I think people would be pleasantly surprised if they came and watched."

Donna Kennedy is the most experienced woman player in the world with 84 caps

The Times (London, England) (Feb 4, 2006): p41

Sports active: The routine: Jo Yapp, England rugby international

Jamie Polk.

Last week, scrum-half Jo Yapp was announced as captain of the England women's rugby union team for this year's Six Nations tournament. The 25-year-old made her club debut for Worcester Ladies in 1996 and joined England's elite squad in 1998, playing her first international, against Ireland, in the same year. She lives in Worcester and teaches physical education at Bewdley High School.

How professional is the women's game?

In terms of attitude and training it's as professional as the men's game. Finance is the main difference. We are Lottery funded, but only one or two girls are full-time. Most of us have to juggle training and playing with our jobs. The structure at club level is well developed; the Premiership has eight teams and the usual names are there, like Wasps and Saracens.

Describe your training regime

I train two nights a week with my club. During the 90-minute sessions we do ball-handling drills before going through team plays - line-outs, rucks, mauls. On top of that I have a fitness programme set by the English Institute of Sport that fits around my club-and-country training. It's pretty scientific, and the programme changes depending on the time of year. Pre-season is all about building strength - a lot of high-repetition weights, squats and bench presses. Explosive strength helps in the tackle. Once the season starts, the emphasis switches to maintaining body condition.

Have advances in technology improved match preparation?

Every international we play is videoed, as are those of the opposition. The coaches spend hours analysing strengths and weaknesses, and pinpointing who we should target. Once a week, one of the England coaches comes to Worcester and does a skills session with me. We go through my passing technique and work on improvements. Men's rugby is all about bulking up. Do you follow a similar nutritional plan?

Our diets are tailored to individual needs, whether it's reducing body fat or increasing muscle bulk. We get our body-fat levels monitored three or four times a season, along with our fitness levels through beep tests.

Which parts of the body take the biggest hammering?

It depends on what position you play, but the neck and shoulders are always vulnerable. Our training focuses on overall body conditioning and core stability. We are encouraged to use alternative therapies on top of general fitness work, and some of the girls have taken to yoga.

How important is recovery time?

Its significance is being increasingly emphasised. The problem is that when you mix training and work there is almost no time to rest. During tournaments we need to train to maintain fitness, but really it's about being ready to go on match day. We need to make sure we get enough rest and recovery between matches. After heavy training sessions and matches we are encouraged to take an ice bath. It's a great way to rid the body of toxins, especially lactic acid.

Interview by Jamie Polk. Jo Yapp will captain England against France on Sunday 13 February at Imber Court, Surrey. More information: www.rfu.com

The Independent on Sunday (London, England) (Feb 6, 2005): p11.

Ireland's women

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.

60 seconds in sport; Interview with Karen Findlay, the captain of the Scottish women's rugby team

What match are you in training for?

Friday's Six Nations opener against France in Roubaix Do you have another career outside of rugby?

I'm a sergeant in the Met, sitting exams to become an inspector. I'm originally from Cullen in the north east of Scotland, but now live in the shadow of Twickenham What is your earliest sporting memory?

Aged seven, stealing my dad's golf clubs and sneaking off to play at Cullen Golf Club. I could have fitted into his bag. My dad said there were worse things I could have been doing. I got my handicap down to seven Do you remember your first rugby match?

In 1988 I was at Richmond watching a women's game. My friends said I should give it a go, as I had the perfect build Who is your sporting hero?

David Sole. He was outstanding for Scotland and plays in my position Is there anyone outside of sport that you admire?

My mum for putting up with my dad What is your funniest sporting memory?

I was running out to play for Scotland in Spain but got my studs stuck in a drain in the middle of the pitch. It was live on Spanish TV, and friends said it looked like I'd been shot. I've never been so embarrassed What's the last CD you bought?

O by Damien Rice What's your biggest success?

In one weekend in 2001, I was in the Scotland team that won the European Championship in France, flew back to London and the next day was in the Richmond team that beat Wasps to win the English Cup final at Twickenham What hobbies do you have?

Drinking nice red wine, with good food and good company What are your ambitions?

To help this Scottish women's team achieve it's full potential. We've made huge progress, but didn't do well in the last World Cup and I'd love to go to the 2006 tournament What is your favourite piece of sporting memorabilia?

My European championship winners' medal and the first Scotland shirt I played in.

It was an A international in Wales in 1995 and we were staying in a pokey B&B, but we won the game Your worst sporting memory?

Losing away to Spain last season Do you have a nickname?

Jock If your house was on fire, what one item would you grab as you ran to safety?

My pyjamas. My bed is my favourite place How would you like to be remembered?

As a players' captain, someone who gave their heart and soul to the job and took great pride in pulling on the blue jersey of Scotland

Sunday Times (London, England) (Jan 30, 2005): p26.

Teenage dream

THE growing popularity of women's rugby is reflected in the announcement of a youthful England team

for the Six Nations opener against Wales on Feb 4 in Cardiff. Six squad members are under 23, including Michaela Staniford (pictured), who will become

the youngest England international when she appears at outside centre.

The A-level student learned the game at Rickmansworth School and Fullerians, before joining the East Durham and Houghall Community College academy .

"Michaela is a natural footballer and very talented," Geoff Richards, the England coach, said. "Of course, she's inexperienced, but with the World Cup 18 months away now is the time for young players like her to get their chance."

Staniford will be 18 years and 24 days old when she plays against Wales, beating scrum-half Danielle Waterman, 43 days older when she won her first cap two years ago.

Richards believes the growth in women's rugby at clubs and schools has built a pool of far better players. In the past, women tended to start the game at university.

Daily Telegraph (London, England) (Jan 20, 2005)

Isherwood works her wizardry to enhance women's game; Interview.

Sarah Potter

Sarah Potter talks to the ambitious administrator who is the driving force behind the sport

CAROL ISHERWOOD has worked magic on women's rugby, so it seems only proper that she has been mixing it with J. K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter. The meeting was a touch surreal, because it was arranged by the Queen, who hosted a lunch last summer for the nation's most successful females. The author's world-storming fame demanded her presence, but the largely unknown Isherwood has a dazzling list of credits, too.

The 43-year-old started a women's rugby club at Leeds University in 1981 when she was a history student, was a founder member of the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) two years later, captained the first Great Britain and then England teams later that decade, was appointed OBE last year and now, as the union's director of rugby, oversees a burgeoning game from her office at Twickenham stadium.

"It's funny where you find yourself," Isherwood said, with trademark understatement. "The truth is that 20 years ago none of the RFUW founder members had any idea what we were taking on or how the sport was going to boom. We simply wanted a structure so that we could organise a league. Then J. K. Rowling tells me that her daughter wants to play rugby; I must have just stood there looking dazed."

Few, though, would imagine Isherwood lost for words. Talking rugby is a vocation, progress a must. So the Super Fours -a tournament for the 88 elite players in England -continues this weekend, at the Broadstreet club, near Coventry, with a few changes. "It's in its fifth season and has been very successful for the players and the selectors in the lead-up to our Six Nations tournament," Isherwood said. "It's raised standards, so this season we're running it over three consecutive weekends. We're also not assigning coaches to the teams. We want the players to have the extra responsibility, so that they can develop their decision-making and problem-solving."

Isherwood is a Level Three coach -she was the first woman in England to reach that standard -but as the game's leading administrator, her difficulty is how to get the green light to host the next World Cup. The first such tournament, held in Cardiff in 1991, had Isherwood's fingerprints all over it. The 2006 version the fifth for the women -would be a lost opportunity, Isherwood believes, if it were not held in Britain. The International Rugby Board (IRB), though, seems reluctant to agree to the RFUW's costings.

"UK Sport have offered us a grant of Pounds 250,000 to help stage the World Cup," Isherwood said, "and the Rugby Football Union, the men's governing body, with whom we have increasingly strong links, have also agreed to help. I'm not aware of any other country bidding to stage it and we've been in negotiations with the IRB for six months. The finance doesn't seem to be enough for the IRB in terms of what they're willing to put in, but I don't want to cut too many corners in our bid.

It's vital for the women's game that the World Cup be a showcase for everything that's good, which includes hosting the tournament properly."

Quite so, since 34 nations have officially registered an interest in participating. The inaugural event of 1991, when England lost to the United States in the final, included only 12 countries.

"Deborah Griffin, who is still the RFUW's honorary treasurer, pretty much ran it all," Isherwood said. "It came about because a group of us who'd played in the first international, when we were known as Great Britain -said, 'Why don't we have a World Cup?' We didn't have much money, but Cardiff City Council and Sport England were fantastic, as were the hordes of volunteers."

The latest official estimates put the number of women playing regularly at club level at almost 8,000. Up to 20,000 children participate in either primary or secondary schools and last season a record 120 teams in the under-16 age group were registered with the RFUW.

Isherwood is overseeing a budget of Pounds 1 million. The sense of rags to riches is acute, especially given the financial restrictions that surrounded the first international in 1986. "On the morning of the match I had one mate going down the motorway to collect the shirts, which were late from the suppliers, and another at the airport to meet the French," Isherwood said. "They were expecting a bus to collect them, but I hadn't even thought of that. It was like, 'Here's your Tube tickets.' Stuff like that deepens friendships, although I'm glad to say we do things a bit more professionally these days."

The Times (London, England) (Oct 7, 2004): p88

I toughed it out with women's rugby team -and lived.

Stefanie Marsh

"CARNAGE" is how it was described. Last weekend, injuries resulting from the women's National Festival of Rugby earned the tournament the sobriquet the Battle of Lichfield.

Ankles were sprained and muscles were ruptured. A hip was dislocated and bones were broken. So numerous were the casualties from the two-day tournament that emergency services classified it as a "major incident".

At one stage ambulance teams had to mobilise helicopters because they had run out of vehicles.

In the words of one Staffordshire ambulance spokesman, Bob Lee: "The girls came from all over the country for the tournament, which was a knockout. And knockout was an appropriate choice of word."

There are now a record 8,000 women and girls playing rugby in 500 teams across Britain, with growth boosted by the England men winning the Rugby World Cup in Sydney.

Inevitably, a journalist had to get to the bottom of this success story. More inevitably still, only the weediest, most cowardly journalist would do. To paraphrase my thoughts as I made my way to meet some of the hardest women Britain: "You? You will be flattened."

And so it was that I found myself face to cauliflower ear with some of the nation's top women rugby players on Thursday evening.

Wasps, the favourites to win the women's Rugby world National Cup next Sunday, had agreed to interrupt their training to show this sports-shy ingenue in oversized shorts the ropes. Their mantra: "Rugby is a contact sport, not a violent sport."

I must admit to not really believing that last bit, having read about Susie Appleby's incredible bravery during a trial match in Loughborough.

In the course of the game, the scrum half with the England women's rugby union received a nasty gash on her face.

She was given two options: either have the stitches across her cheek under anaesthetic and quit the game or have the doctor sew her face together without a painkiller. She went for the "live embroidery" option.

Despite my expectations, this gathering of the country's finest women's team did not resemble the inside of an accident and emergency department.

Talk of the "dangers of the sport" were dismissed with a snort or a wave of the hand -no broken fingers in evidence. Though it is claimed by its practitioners that women's rugby is Britain's fastest-growing sport, coverage of the game is often unfairly confined to hand-wringing pieces about its violence, many of the Wasps complained. A case in point is Norman Wells, the director of Family and Youth Concern, who said this week that "girls just aren't made for playing rugby".

"That kind of attitude is 20 years old and utter rubbish," said Paula George, the former England captain, a statuesque woman of 35 who has broken her collarbone in the course of her career but looks like a swimsuit model.

George, like many of the women who reach this level, is a purist in the mould of Roy Keane, if Keane were a charismatic black woman from Wales without a temper.

She has ruthlessly cut dairy products, red meat and bread from her diet and drinks alcohol -a "poison" -only on special occasions. That translates as four times over the past 12 months.

But George knew that beyond sticking to an impossibly strict diet or winning the semi-finals this Saturday, there lies a bigger challenge ahead today: the prospect of initiating me to the game.

Rosie Williams, the team's managing director and keen rugby player, and Zuri Toppin, the team's volunteer co- ordinator and a former Canadian international, were assigned the task and cheerfully lied to me about my prospects.

Apparently, neither my low pain threshold nor my natural aversion to sport is a barrier to my becoming an international rugby star. "First rule of tackling," said Williams pointing to her bottom, "cheek to arse-cheek. Yours to mine."

I obliged and experienced the dull pang of humiliation associated with not being very good at sport while Williams feigned collapse.

Rugby play-offs, page 40

THIRTY YEARS OF GIVING IT A TRY

Women's Rugby was first played seriously in Britain in the late 1970s

The game was initially played mainly by student teams such as Keele University, University College London, Marjons and St Mary's Hospital

The rules of the game are the same for men and women

Shelley Rae, who plays outside half for Wasps and England, is known to fans of the game as "the Female Jonny Wilkinson"

The Women's Rugby Football Union (WRFU) was formed in 1983 and was responsible for rugby in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales

In 1994, the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in England, with each of the Home Counties overseeing their own counties

The RFUW is affiliated to, but independent of, the RFU. It organises its women's leagues and competitions separately and has to find its own sponsorship

The RFUW has more than 350 clubs, from under-16s to seniors

Top men's clubs, such as Wasps, Saracens, Worcester, Rosslyn Park, London Welsh, Blackheath and Harlequins now have women's teams

The first women's International in Britain took place in April 1986 at Richmond Athletic Ground in London. Great Britain played France but were beaten 14-8

Cardiff hosted the first Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991

Twelve countries participated in the the first Women's Rugby World Cup, a week-long tournament England reached the final but lost to the USA 19-6

England got its revenge at the second World Cup in Scotland in 1994, beating the USA 38-23

The third World Cup in 1998 was the first to be officially recognised by the International Rugby Board

New Zealand defeated England, the defending champions, in the semi-finals of the third World Cup by 44 points to 11 and went on to win the competition

A record 16 nations, including Japan and Samoa, took part in the most recent World Cup in Barcelona in 2002. In the final England lost to New Zealand by 19-9

The Times (London, England) (May 15, 2004): p8