England Women pioneers celebrate world victory
Players from the 1994 and 2014 Rugby World Cup winning teams presented caps to 30 England U18 players at Twickenham Stadium.
Wednesday 24 April marks 30 years since England’s women beat defending champions USA 38–23 in the final of the 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup, the second world cup for women.
Next year’s Rugby World Cup in eight stadiums around England, with the ambition to fill Twickenham’s 82,000 capacity for the final, will be vastly different to 1994 when England’s Women self-funded their winning campaign and the Scotland team rescued the hosting of the tournament at the last minute. The Netherlands had pulled out when the then International Rugby Board failed to give the tournament official Rugby World Cup status.
So much has changed. Last year there was a record women's crowd of 58,498 at Twickenham’s first standalone women’s Test to watch the Red Roses’ Grand Slam win against France. Last weekend, for a fourth Round Guinness Women’s Six Nations Test, 48,778 fans watched them beat Ireland before heading to France for this Grand Slam decider.
Among those watching England beat Ireland in a 14 try 88-10 record romp were more than 600 women who had represented their country or their region and before the match players from both the 1994 and 2014 Rugby World Cup victories presented caps to 30 England U18 players.
Springboard for something better
For legendary player Gill Burns the progress is heartwarming. “Our fantastic captain, Karen Almond, said our ’94 world cup win was a springboard, and every time the women’s game achieves something it’s a springboard for something even better, bringing more people on board, more kids playing and more people wanting to watch.”
A true ambassador for women’s and girls’ rugby, Gill insists that what rugby continues to give her outweighs what she contributes. “Rugby gives me such rewards for being involved. It’s fantastic,” she says.
Back in 1994 rewards were entirely driven by a passion for the game and the camaraderie of teammates, the players self-funding and organising everything. Gill was given unpaid leave from her teaching job for the world tournament and, like the rest of the squad, had to pay all her own expenses.
“We did get a track suit,” Gill laughs. “But we just got on with things and made it happen. The way Scotland’s Sue Brodie and her team stepped in at the last minute was amazing and saved the day. We’d lost to the USA in the previous tournament. They were great athletes, more experienced, played together more. By ’94 we were spending more time together, were being well coached in our clubs, and with England we had head coach Steve Dowling, and coaches Steve Jew and Steve Peters. We had proper coaching and a game plan.
“My club Waterloo was just behind Wasps, Richmond and Saracens in the Premiership. We beat them all at home but being self-funded we didn’t travel well, although we did have what I believe was the first women’s team match programme.”
Fantastic finish and firefighter galore
Giselle Mather was England’s fly half in 1994 and later introduced a pupil at her Orleans Park School to rugby. Claire Allan went on to become one of the 2014 Rugby World Cup winners.
Giselle is now Director of Women's Rugby at Ealing Trailfinders, having been Red Roses backs coach, coached the Barbarians for the invitational side’s first female outing in 2017, been Wasps Ladies Director of Rugby as well as working with the Elite Player Development Groups at London Irish and heading up the club’s AASE programme.. She remembers the ‘94 team deciding to stay at Edinburgh’s George Hotel because the men’s world cup sevens team had stayed there.
“The bill was something life £800 for 18 days. Unlike Gill, I was given paid leave and a financial contribution from my school. I remember going to the team meeting after the semi-final and we had a video for analysis. I came out of that meeting knowing I was going to be a world champion.”
There were of course celebrations after that final which featured unwitting firefighters. Someone set off the fire alarms in an attempt to steal the trophy but were caught as several fire appliances answered the call.
“When the firemen realised it was a false alarm, they couldn’t get all the women in cocktail dresses off the fire engines. I remember them saying ‘Girls we really have to go!’” says Giselle.
Gill laughs at the recollection and says, “From selling raffle tickets to help fund taking part in that world cup, the women’s game has certainly been going places. It’s made massive progress and looking at where we are today it’s phenomenal.”
Connecting past & present
The journey for the England U18s who were there collecting their caps from the pioneers will certainly be different to that of their predecessors, with a rugby pathway maximising their development. Sue Dorrington who played hooker in ’94 handed a cap to Heidi Pashaei Tarighoun the U18 hooker from Bristol Bears Centre of Excellence and the two determined to stay in touch.
Said Sue: “It was such an honour to present Heidi’s cap and talk to her and her family and connect the past and the present. I hope to follow Heidi’s career. We had no connection with the past but now the pioneers are really getting re-engaged and the young players are saying they are so interested in the legacy, that they wouldn’t have had their opportunities without it.”
