Rugby Football Union for Women
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| FIRA affiliation | 1999 Official Site of FIRA |
| Patron | Queen Elizabeth II |
| President | Rosie Williams (Managing Director) |
| Women's coach | Gary Street |
| Website | www.rfu.com/women |
The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) is the governing body for women's rugby union in England. Its headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, London.
Women's rugby union was first played seriously in Great Britain in the late 1970s. Early teams were established through the student network and included Keele University, University College of London, Imperial College, York University and St Mary's Hospital.
From 1983 until May 1994, Women's' Rugby in England – and across the UK – was run by the Women's' Rugby Football Union (WRFU). When it was formed there were 12 founder teams as members: Leicester Polytechnic, Sheffield University, UCL, University of Keele, Warwick University, Imperial College, Leeds University, Magor Maidens, York University and Loughborough University.
In 1992, Ireland broke away from the WRFU, followed a year later by Scotland. As a result, in 1994 the England and Wales also established their own Unions. England's Union became the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW). Today the RFUW has over 500 clubs in membership, including over 200 Senior clubs, nearly 100 student sides, over 200 junior teams (U15 and U18), and around 50 Schools. Most of these clubs today are women's sections within larger men's clubs.
In September 2010 the RFUW was integrated into the Rugby Football Union as a "Constituent Body", retaining significant levels of independence in the management of coaches and teams while at the same time adopting many of the RFU's structures – for example the RFUW's 11 Regions (used for development and talent identification) were abolished and replaced with the four RFU Divisions.
By and large the structure and regulation of women's and girls' rugby in England is similar to that of the men's game, reflecting the close working relationship between the RFUW and RFU especially on development. However, there are a number of significant differences:
Although the local administration of both the men's and women's game is managed via the same Constituent Bodies (CBs) – generally counties (such as Surrey, or Devon), or groups of counties (such as Notts, Lincs & Derby, or Berks, Bucks & Oxon) – prior to 2010/11 the structures above county rugby were very different.
Instead of the four divisions used by the RFU, the RFUW divided the country into 11 regions. These varied slightly over the RFUW's history, but at the time of their abolition they were:
Furthermore, whereas the RFU's divisions were (and are) largely elite bodies, the main purpose of RFUW's regions was development and talent spotting as part of the RFUW Pathway. From 2010/11 this became the responsibility of the county CBs.
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