Aiming for the top with Quins
Rugby
Aylesford ladies want to become the best women’s rugby team in Europe after joining forces with Harlequins.
The clubs have announced a partnership that will see Bulls join the Quins set-up.
They are set to play on with the Aylesford name in the Women’s Premiership next season but will eventually switch.
Home games will be split between the Jack Williams Ground and Quins’ 15,000-capacity stadium, The Stoop.
Michele Mayhew, a Bulls player for 17 years, has been named head of female rugby operations at Harlequins.
She said: “There’s a lot of work to do but we’re aiming to be off the bottom and finishing mid-table next season.
“We won’t get it right straight away but in the next five years we want to be top of the Premiership.
“Harlequins’ mission statement as a club is to be the best in Europe and we want to emulate that and be the best women’s club in Europe.
“The fact they’ve got a huge reputation means girls will automatically see us as a serious Premiership club.
“We’ve also got two great coaches in Gary Street, the England World Cupwinning coach from 2014 and Karen Findlay, who was at Richmond for 10 years. To have their names associated is brilliant.”
Mayhew expects the bulk of last season’s Aylesford squad to remain involved and is adamant the club will not abandon their roots.
But with women’s rugby changing, Bulls had to look for partners or face losing their Premiership status anyway.
Director of rugby Andy Dawling and Mayhew approached Harlequins, who were keen to get into the women’s game.
There is already a Harlequins side in the Premiership but they have no connection to the main club.
Mayhew said: “The RFU are introducing minimum standards for Premiership clubs from the season after next, things like a 500-seater stadium. It’s not something Aylesford have the appetite or the funding for so Andy and I went looking for clubs where we could resite the ladies’ Premiership team, somewhere with the infrastructure to help us grow and maintain our Premiership status.
“Harlequins were the perfect partners. They’re in a position where they want to invest in women’s rugby.
“The idea is the core of the new squad will still be Aylesford.
“We feel our Premiership status belongs to those girls, and I include myself in that because I was one of them.
“They’re very much part of our plans and, in fact, we sought their acceptance before we went ahead.
“Integral to the whole plan was that we wanted to maintain our ties with Aylesford.
“We’re going to create a development squad to sit below the Premiership squad so there is always a pathway for the girls at Aylesford and the ones at local clubs without a senior team to aspire to.
“We’re all Kent girls. I played for 17 years and we are going to maintain those links.
“Harlequins see where we’ve come from. The know our history, where we’ve been, and it’s exceptional for a small village club to reach the standards we’ve reached.”