Richmond women ensure World Cup lift-off despite zero support from IRB
WOMEN’s Rugby may have plotted an erratic path during the 20th century – conspicuous and growing on occasions, almost non-existent at other times – but enlightened players and administrators were quick to recognise the pressing need for a global tournament once the inaugural Men’s World Cup of 1987 established the concept.
Not that they received a penny of support from the old IRB who remained defiantly sniffy at the whole concept of Women’s rugby and – in many cases – the mere existence of it. Sad to relate the 1991
Women’s World Cup was not officially recognised by the sport’s governing body until 2009.
No, all the credit for the 1991 Women’s World Cup must go to a group of pioneering women players who, against huge odds, made it happen. The catalyst was the arrival of the 1991 Men’s World Cup in Britain and France. Surely there was an opportunity to piggyback off the publicity that huge event was garnering. It was, as we will see, a partially flawed idea but without that initial impetus it would never have happened.
The organisation centred around the Richmond club in south west London, then as now one of the powers in the women’s game. Deborah Griffin – who is now a World Rugby Council member – Alice Cooper, Mary Forsyth and Sue Dorrington went to work organising a 12-team tournament in the April which they literally had no money to work with.
To their surprise and disappointment no sponsors were forthcoming, and TV weren’t interested. All eyes were on RWC1991 which started in October.
So the ladies had to beg, steal and borrow everything – the four venues, accommodation, minibuses for transport, food, publishers to print the programmes – and despite making it quite clear to competing teams that they could offer no help with flights and general costs the 12 teams all arrived on time and ready to play.
Dorrington, a transplanted American who travelled to England to play rugby and loved it so much she stayed, had the added burden of being a star player for England while Carol Isherwood was another with dual responsibilities.
Isherwood was arguably
England’s standout forward – a tenacious, tireless, flanker who had started her own club at Leeds University in the early 80s – but on the eve of the tournament found herself shuttling between Cardiff and Heathrow trying to round up and deliver the Russian ladies team who arrived late and were totally without funds.
The Russians were banned from taking foreign currency out of their country but had optimistically arrived with supplies of Russian vodka and toy Russian dolls they intended to sell on the streets to pay their way.
It was nowhere near enough but undeterred organisers hurriedly booked them into a hotel for the duration even though there was almost no prospect of settling the bill. The vague hope was that gate income for the knockout stages might just about cover costs.
“It was difficult and we had to take a risk but it was time for a showpiece women’s tournament,” recalls Dorrington. “We deserved it and the Women’s game needed it. We had four kick-arse women delivering it and, you know, just admirably led by Debs.
“There was no stopping us. As many kick-backs as we had, as many doors that were slammed in our face for all sorts of reasons, whether it be venues or sponsorship or commercial support, nothing deterred us. We kept going.”
On the field, organisationally it was slick and a decent crowd of 3,000 or so turned out to watch the final when USA defeated England 19-6, although elsewhere the matches had been sparsely attended. England had probably started the final as favourites and dominated a tight territory battle to lead 6-3 at half- time but the Eagles, with the inspirational Patty Jervey in midfield, were a different proposition after the break and won going away.
France beat New Zealand 3-0 in the play-off game while Canada beat Spain 19-4 to win the Plate final. Spain had shown up well – they lost only 12-0 to England in their Pool game – and continue to be a competitive team 30 years on even if they were disgracefully cast aside by old opponents and friends when the Women’s Six Nations tournament was formalised.
In between times the various nations took the opportunity to convene an important Women’s rugby conference to discuss how to develop further and to start putting plans in place for a second World Cup.
There was much to discuss, not least finance and the lack of official recognition from the IRB. Despite the best efforts of all concerned this opening tournament recorded a loss of nearly £30,000 which included £6,000 required to house, feed and generally accommodate the Russian squad for a fortnight.
At the post-final banquet a group of Cardiff businessmen pledged to cover the losses and a while later, when the final reckoning was done and there was still a shortfall, RFU secretary Dudley Wood stepped in and arranged for the Union to meet outstanding debts.
Fine gestures by all concerned but it was clear that in future a Women’s World Cup must find a way of becoming selffinancing. And to that end it was decided that to attract sponsorship and TV, they should in future steer clear of the Men’s World Cup so 1994 – not 1995 – was set as the date for the next tournament.