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Women have been involved in playing rugby from 1884 although still in its infancy, female full-time professional rugby players are showing signs the game is growing at a steady pace. Rugby fans can wager on all the top rugby action with this betting offer and predict the team they believe will win.

Female rugby has seen a 60% rise over the years and now seen as one of the fastest growing women’s sports in the United Kingdom.

Although women’s rugby has come a long way there is still a long way to go as researchers at De Montfort University Leicester claim there is hidden history to women’s rugby that will be uncovered in due course.

First Female Rugby Player

Northwich Guardian:

Emily Valentine was the very first female rugby player to score a try, long before the first Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Northern Ireland 1887 is where Valentine’s achievements came into play, at just 10-years old when she joined her brother‘s rugby team due to them being a man down, long before the idea of female professional rugby ever came to fruition.

First Women’s Rugby World Cup

Northwich Guardian:

The inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup took place in 1991, where Wales played host to the tournament as 12 nations descended on the country. The first tournament didn’t receive the backing of the International Rugby Board and it wasn’t until 18 years later that they retrospectively gave an endorsement to the event.

The United States romped to the Women’s World Cup title with a 19-6 win over England in the final, that was their only Women’s World Cup tournament win.

A Voice in the Sport

Northwich Guardian:

While women had participated on the pitch for decades, there were no female voices on the World Rugby Council. In 2017, World Rugby finally appointed female members to the council as 17 women were appointed to join 32 male representatives.

The decision to add women council members was a milestone for World Rugby as the organisations were praised for showing progression.

England Set Attendance Record

Northwich Guardian:

Drawing the largest crowd to date was for a women’s rugby match was when England played Italy in March 2019. England took on Italy at Sandy Park in front of 10,545 fans, the game was expected to set a record for pre-sale of tickets but it in fact it doubled pre-sale tickets 9,700.

The ladies dominated Italy 55-0 in front of the crowd in Exeter. Then England followed up by winning in their next fixture by defeating Scotland 80-0. England allowed just 45 points as they romped to a 15th Six Nations title, 14thGrand Slam, and 20th Triple Crown.