From The Vaults

06 April 2026

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Helped Transform Women's Rugby

While thousands of individual players and administrators around the world helped build the foundations of women’s rugby, this article will look at how the uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently boosted its development...

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06 April 2026

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Helped Transform Women's Rugby

While thousands of individual players and administrators around the world helped build the foundations of women’s rugby, this article will look at how the uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic inadvertently boosted its development...

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22 August 2025

Cardiff, Customs and Caviar

Cardiff, Customs and Caviar: The real story of the Soviet Union at the 1991 Women’s Rugby World Cup

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11 August 2025

Team GB

In 2027, the first Lions Women's tour will take place, but who were the original women's Great Britain team?

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08 March 2024

#FromTheVaults - Red Roses v France 2003

The 29th April 2023 went down in history, as the Red Roses played their first stand-alone fixture at Twickenham Stadium. More than twenty years on, we're looking back to their first fixture at the venue...

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10 July 2023

Allez Les Bleus: A Brief History of France at the Women’s Rugby World Cups

As one of the driving forces behind the development of the women’s game, it is not surprising that France has consistently entered one of the strongest teams in the women’s Rugby World Cup.

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13 June 2023

The First Women's International

It’s been 41 years since women’s rugby took another huge leap forward with the very first international match on 13 June 1982. Holland v France would go down in history as a significant moment in the development of the sport, driven forward by passionate individuals and contested by committed players...

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29 May 2023

History Makers: The Red Roses

29 April 2023 saw the Red Roses play France in Twickenham Stadium’s first ‘stand-alone’ women’s rugby test-match. The day before, a special unveiling ceremony took place in the England Dressing Room...

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17 April 2023

Meet the force behind the formation of Wasps Women

Sue Martineau, nee Bennett, played back row for Wasps, Loughborough, and England B, with only a broken arm preventing her from playing for the national team. Explore how this influential woman changed the rugby landscape in the 1980s...

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27 February 2023

Allez Les Bleus: Barrette Medal, 1928

The 1920s was an oasis for female participation in sport and physical activities in France. Along with the very popular women’s Olympics, established by Alice Milliat, women’s omni-sports clubs sprung up around the country...

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03 November 2022

Newport Ladies, 1917

While it was uncommon for women to play rugby union in the early twentieth century, some seized short opportunities afforded to them by the significant changes to society brought on by the First World War...

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27 October 2022

Contact Sport

Anna Shilonosova is a documentary photographer and a lens-based artist originally from Russia, currently living in the East End area of London. She has produced a photo book, ‘Contact Sport’, and will be giving an artist talk and presenting her project on October, 27 2022 in the Lord Nelson pub (1 Manchester road, E14 3BD) at 19:00.

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07 October 2022

The Rugby World Cup: In Her Own Words - 2017

Dublin and Belfast were the locations for the 2017 World Cup, but Ireland could not repeat their feat of three years earlier, getting knocked out in the pool stages...

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