John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Feb 8, 2012, 4:01 pm
With the probability of frozen pitches again this weekend it could be a good time for relaxing at home and watching some of the world's best players in action from the comfort of your laptop. On Friday (and continuing to Sunday) the Las Vegas Sevens will feature several of the world's best women'...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Feb 5, 2012, 6:10 pm

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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Feb 5, 2012, 6:07 pm

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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Feb 5, 2012, 1:53 pm
England's up-and-coming generation stepped up and gave their team the perfect start to the Six Nations. A nine-try 47-0 demolition of Scotland put England in pole position after the first round of games in this year's championship. Admittedly the result was no real surprise - Scotland have not score...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Feb 4, 2012, 6:16 am
While the Six Nations captures all the headlines (metaphorically of course - since when was the last time any women's rugby captured any real newspaper coverage?) major women's sevens teams are making their final preparations for the start of a vital year which lead up to qualification for next year...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Feb 3, 2012, 3:06 pm
Ireland and Wales kicked off today to begin this year's Six Nations... but came to a premature end when the game was called off at half-time due to a frozen pitch. Scores: 12 min: Ireland 7, Wales 0 (try from Alison Miller (pictured right), converted by Niamh Briggs)31 min: Ireland 7, Wales 3. Wales...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Feb 2, 2012, 5:18 pm
There was great excitement at Old Albanians RFC recently due to the ladies team, best known as the OA Saints, winning  a competition! The winning entry was sent in by player Kate Barnes and the prize is a new kit designed specifically for women by TRU Sportswear  http://www.trusportswear.com ,wo...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 31, 2012, 2:56 pm
Its a method of selection that (if this article is right) sounds closer to a prime-time reality TV than rugby, but New Zealand have begun their search for a 2016 Olympic Star. 80 hopefuls began today, who will be whittled down to 30. Then another cut a bit more before public trial game, after whic...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 31, 2012, 1:31 pm
Fantastic (and unexpected) news. Sky Sports will be linking up with France4 to show the France v England game LIVE! As reported earlier, the game - which should be the decider for the Six Nations - will be the first game ever shown live on a national French TV channel, a step forward that looked lik...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 30, 2012, 9:40 am
Women's sports magazine Sportsister have launched a "Have Your Say" page for readers to comment on anything to do with women's sport. They are "giving you the chance to use Sportsister as a platform to air your views. It can be a global matter, a nationwide problem or simply something that’s per...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 28, 2012, 4:18 pm
This is rather good. Two young Indian women describe their passion for rugby. The second speaker actually plays for the Indian national team (ie. their sevens team - India have not played a 15s test yet).
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 26, 2012, 6:21 pm
France will begin their Six Nations against Italy in the small town of Riom in central France, and to celebrate the selection of their town as international hosts the people and local council will tomorrow starts TWO WEEKS of celebrations leading up to the game. There will be live music concerts i...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 25, 2012, 12:13 pm
Congratulations to Sydney Gregson for being selected again for the U18 divisional squad (see Herts Blog for full set of names). No great surprise, because she is brilliant, but I think it is still worth saying as getting into the Divisional team - especially for London & South East - is always prett...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Jan 25, 2012, 12:08 pm
After the recent divisional trials at Guildford on 22nd January, the following Hertfordshire County Girls have been selected for the London & South East Divisional squad: Under 18 Courtney ArberryOren BlindellLotte ClappScarlett Cooper-WallSydney GregsonShira KilgallonOlivia Stembridge Under 15 Har...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 24, 2012, 6:52 pm
The IRB have revealed how the 12 teams that will play in the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup in Paris will be selected. The actual announcement is on ScrumQueens but - cutting through the verbiage - it looks something like this.... Automatic qualifiers: 1. New Zealand (holders) 2. England (2010 ru...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 24, 2012, 12:28 pm
The second official IRB Women's Sevens will take place in Hong Kong between 23rd and 25th March. There does not seem to have been any official announcement - yet - but Netherlands today announced that they have been invited to take part, which implies some changes to the structure of the tournamen...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 23, 2012, 5:27 pm
I have no idea where or if the full film can be found (see article below), but this trailer was produced. If anyone knows a source for the full picture then let everyone know as clearly it is a must-see picture!
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 23, 2012, 2:51 am
The appearance of women's teams at several international sevens tournaments in recent years has been the cause of much comment, not only because of their kit (the IRB bent the rules close to breaking to allow them to play in full body coverings), but because of the way it challenged the portrayal ...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 22, 2012, 6:25 pm
Unfortunately there seems likely to be little improvement on TV coverage of the Six Nations this year. From what has been announced so far (plus educated guesses)... England v Wales (25th February) WILL be shown live on the BBC. Which BBC channel (or whether just on the Red Button) yet to be confirm...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 20, 2012, 2:17 pm
It may be a few weeks yet before the first big women's sevens kicks off (three to be exact), but it looks like the USA have made sure they get a place in the semi-finals this year after missing out in 2011. They'll probably play Netherlands. The draw for the tournament finds the USA pitted against F...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 19, 2012, 12:42 pm
Apparently the "London Sevens" is still unconfirmed. It is not an issue about a lack of teams - clearly several leading teams have already put the week aside in the diaries so keen are they to take part - but more an issue of the IRB recognising it. RFUW certainly want it to take place, alongside th...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 16, 2012, 5:46 pm
More news on the proposed U20 four nations, mentioned below. RFUW have confirmed that they did propose the tournament, and did offer to run it, but Wales and Scotland later withdrew. England will still play host to France for the same week, playing two internationals, but the exciting new initiative...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 14, 2012, 10:41 am
Another event that there has been no official publicity for, but which seems to have sneaked into the calendars of at least two national teams, is a London International Women's Sevens - apparently to be played on the weekend of the 12th-13th May. At first glance some of us thought that this was a m...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 14, 2012, 8:48 am
There does not seem to have been any announcement about this, but buried away on the French RFU's website is this: FRANCE FEMININES -20 ANS 11/03/2012 : France – Angleterre à Paris (A confirmer) 02-08/04/12 : Festival des 4 nations (en Angleterre)So there will be a week-long U20 tournament involv...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Jan 12, 2012, 5:32 pm
The county coaches were really pleased with the way all the U15 squad improved both individually and as a team over the county season and want to help players continue that development. They also want to begin to identify Year 9 players with the potential to play for the county next season. They wil...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 11, 2012, 8:56 am
RFUW have responded to the post below, which highlighted complaints being circulated in Italy about England's demand that the upcoming Six Nations game be moved from its original venue at Udine: "The RFUW had no problem with the game being held in Udine – the problem was actually getting flights ...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 9, 2012, 5:26 pm
The generosity and enthusiasm of Italian rugby clubs who play host to women's internationals is fast becoming legendary. Ireland's trip to Rovigo last year was typical - the Irish team being given the complete red card treatment throughout their visit, with a big enthusiastic crowd making the game a...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Jan 6, 2012, 2:48 pm
... a (US) comic novel that seems to be centred around girls' rugby. Seriously. A new page is published every two or three days, but the action starts in the middle of a girls' rugby match. Moreover an inter-school rugby match. The hero seems to be a wing, and how much of the story will concern rug...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Dec 31, 2011, 7:01 pm
Women's international rugby celebrates several important milestones in 2012. Well, maybe "celebrate" is a bit strong as chances are that several will go by unnoticed. So - in an attempt to give at least some recognition to a game that has a great past as well as a promising future here are some dat...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Dec 30, 2011, 7:01 am
2012 should be the year of the Women's European Rugby Championship. It happens once every four years, in between the World Cups, and normally features the top eight national teams in the A tournament, and all of the rest in a B tournament. In 2000 10 teams took part, in 2004 this rose to 12, and in ...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Dec 29, 2011, 11:15 am
At this stage regrettably the game does not generate the funding or publicity to justify an award evening with lots of evening dresses and suits at some swanky London venues (or even Salford). Maybe next year. Until then the ScrumQueens Awards for 2011 are well worth a look and - if at all possib...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Dec 26, 2011, 4:09 pm
The famous internet encyclopaedia "Wikipedia" is threatening to remove an article on a women's national rugby team because it is "not notable" and because the editors have doubts that women play the game. The article under threat concerns the Laos women's team, but the level of proof being deman...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Dec 20, 2011, 3:40 pm
Herts Coach Education Week 2012 takes place in February half term (11-19 February) at venues around the county. There is a full programme of courses, workshops, seminars, lectures and other events - click here to see the complete list in date order. There are more than 20 individual sports feat...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Dec 6, 2011, 7:05 am
Hertfordshire won their third and final county game in Sunday, 20-0 away to Eastern Counties. Full report to come (hopefully). All results from the final round of county games can be found here.
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 23, 2011, 3:48 pm
London & South East County Festival U18s Pool 1 Surrey 19 Kent 7 Sussex 0 Kent 12 Surrey 24 Sussex 0 Pool 2 Hampshire  0 Hertfordshire 24 Essex   0 Hertfordshire 27 Hampshire  12 Essex   12 Play-offs5th/6th: Sussex 0 Essex 193rd/4th: Kent 3 Hampshire 01st/2nd: Surrey 0 Hertfordshire 10 U...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 21, 2011, 2:16 pm
Hertfordshire U15 Girls were runners up in the inaugural London and South East Division county rugby festival on Sunday, narrowly losing out to Kent in the final. The first match in the pool round brought a 10 – 5 victory over Hampshire. In the opening minute the ball was moved quickly across the ...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 20, 2011, 5:34 pm
Herts became inaugural London & SE Division Girls U18 County Champions today after beating: Hampshire 25-0. Essex 34-0. Surrey 10-0 in the Final (gaining revenge for the defeat to Surrey U18 in the friendly game earlier in the season).Herts U15s also reached their final, but lost in a tight game 1...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 17, 2011, 12:51 pm
Middlesex will join Eastern Counties on the sidelines for the London & South East Division county festival this weekend, leaving just six teams playing for the Divisional title. Hertfordshire have also had a good draw - avoiding all of the unbeaten counties (Surrey and Sussex in the U18s, and Susse...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 8, 2011, 8:26 am
18 players from the England party that returned from last week's French tour on Sunday have been selected in the squad for the Black Fern tests, which start at the end of this month - including both Hannah Gallagher and Michaela Staniford of Hertfordshire. They will be joined by eight World Cup vet...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 8, 2011, 5:01 am
The second match of the county rugby season saw Hertfordshire U15 Girls score an emphatic 45-15 win against Surrey at a windy Old Albanians. In a tightly fought first half, Hertfordshire scored first with a try by fly half Zoe Harrison. Surrey responded with three tries in succession – two by thei...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Nov 8, 2011, 3:34 am
There was a complete turn around in results for the three county teams last weekend in the second round of county fixtures, played at Old Albanians. The seniors beat Surrey 22-15, having lost their opening game, and the U15s also put in an impressive performance to beat the same opponents - normally...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Nov 2, 2011, 8:13 am
Okay, for once this is not a directly rugby posting, but normal service will be resumed shortly on that score. However it is sort of relevant as it is the tale of an ex-Legend, and  does involve a carload of Australian rugby players. Suffice to say Nichola (ex-second row, currently based in Utrech...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Oct 31, 2011, 6:11 pm
Hertfordshire's England U20 star Hannah Gallagher will have a chance to prove herself at the highest level on Wednesday when she starts for the senior England team against France in Marseilles. The game is actually an uncapped friendly - effectively "An England XV v France" - but a good performanc...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 30, 2011, 1:59 pm
Rugbygirl is a new website set up to "grow and develop women's rugby in New Zeakand". Aiming to "bring you the latest womens rugby news from around the world so you can keep up to the minute with what's going on" it obviously has a significant New Zealand bias at present and is the second Kiwi site ...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 30, 2011, 5:28 am
French women's rugby posters... Love 'em or hate 'em, they are always original, artistic, very French and just a bit different to anything Twickenham would ever produce - and the one promoting Wednesday's uncapped international in Marseilles just what we have come to expect. I wait with baited brea...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 29, 2011, 4:14 pm
While not officially confirmed, details about how Europe will decide which of its five nations will go to Moscow have now reached me from two different sources so its a reasonable assumption that they are correct. 2012 will be a huge - and potentially confusing! - year for women's sevens in Europe....
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 29, 2011, 3:32 pm
Very nearly counted out before they could get onto the field, Uganda's women's seven team - know as the Lady Cranes (all the women's teams in African seemed to be named after animals...) - are now through to the continental qualifier next year. Uganda's women are the only team from their country to ...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 29, 2011, 2:18 pm
One possible downside that Olympic rugby raised was the possibility that 7s would take over as the major form of the game, especially in women's rugby. The policy of the IRB when it comes to qualification for the Women's Rugby World Cup has hardly helped - what with free passes to the finals for USA...
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John B. posted an article on Letchworth Girls' Rugby - Oct 29, 2011, 7:56 am
The RFU may think that there are no autumn internationals this year, but they could not be more wrong.Never have we seen so much international activity at this time of year, especially in Europe. This afternoon France kick the season off with a game against Italy in Nice (6.30pm BST). Italy will be ...
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John B. posted an article on Hertfordshire Women's and Girls' Rugby - Oct 28, 2011, 1:06 pm
A reminder about next Sunday. ( at the bottom details of more sessions for U18/U15/U13.)venue: Old Albanian's RFC, Time: 2pm-3.30 ish    arrive ready for action in case changing room not ready! event:  a session for all U18's not involved in county teams to play a match, warm up with senior w...
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