Successful Girls Development afternoon


On the 15th March 2006, Welwyn RFC held its first girls rugby development afternoon which was jointly funded by the Welwyn Hatfield Council and the Herts Sports Partnership and was supported by the attendance of Rachel Vickers, England Ladies 2nd Row, who with the rest of the England ladies squad, went on to win the six nations grand slam at OA’s (St Albans) on the 18th March 2006.

The purpose of the day was to promote rugby as a sport for girls and women, to make links with schools and to recruit girls who would like to consider playing the sport outside of their experience of it within school. A number of schools were invited to attend and on the day six schools took part, Stanborough (WGC), Sherrardswood (WGC), Onslow St Audrey’s (Hatfield), Nicholas Breakspear (St Albans), St Georges (Harpenden), Sele (Hertford) who between them brought along 125 girls aged between 11 and 17 years.

11 Welwyn RFC coaches, which included Bob Dawson, Luke Williams, Clive Cramphorn, Peter Engledow, Gary Peterkin, Russell Lane, Pete Williams, Vince Staniforth, Ian Aitkinson, Charlie White and Jess Lane all offered their time to coach on the day, a number of the Welwyn Warriors girls team namely Lana Block, Emily Matuszyck, Michelle Brophy, Megan Williams, Mel Harcourt, Hannah Gallagher, Hannah Marques, Harriet Lilley, Francis and Becky Dawson and Rachel McCullough were also on hand to demonstrate drills and assist the girls within the groups. Rita Williams provided first aid and Lorraine Lane and June White were in the kitchen

The girls were taught the basic rules of the game and were put through their paces, taking part in drills to develop ball handling, passing and tackling skills. They were then invited to play matches against each other and following this were given the customary after match food in the clubhouse. The afternoon was rounded off with a question and answer session with Rachel Vickers.

Feedback from the questionnaires filled in by the girls at the end of the day was extremely positive, these being just some of the comments
“it was very active and fun” ,
“it was good to make new friends”,
“ the atmosphere and everyone was friendly”
“we worked together as a team”

When asked what they would have liked to do more of, overwhelmingly they wanted to do more contact and tackling.

A request was made for the afternoon to be repeated in September and following the day, nine girls have actively returned to the club to train with the Warriors, with more expressing a wish to be contacted. If anyone is interested in joining for rest of season or for next season contact June on 07899 791060. or e-mail jaws24662@hotmail.com