Shelford Rugby Club to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s Week during clash against Buckingham Swans
Shelford Rugby Club is hosting its second Women’s Week to mark International Women’s Day.
The annual global event, which is today (March 8), aims to celebrate the cultural, political and social achievements of women everywhere. This year’s accompanying message, for the day itself and beyond, is #EmbraceEquity with the aim of creating an inclusive world.
And at Shelford they will be showing their support on Sunday (March 12) when they welcome league-leading Buckingham Swans to The Davey Field.
As part of the celebrations, the club will host a pre-match lunch with guest speaker Deborah Griffin OBE, who was one of the principal organisers of the first ever Women’s World Cup in 1991 and 13 years later she became the first female to be elected on to board of the England Rugby Football Union.
Shelford first-team captain Charlotte Gisbourne said: “This is the second year we’ve run a Women’s Week at Shelford, and hopefully it will be just as successful as the first.
“Women’s rugby has grown massively over the past five years, but we’re still a minority sport, so it’s relatively rare that we get to be the front and centre.
“Having this opportunity to showcase the women’s game, and give more people the chance to watch us, really highlights the commitment of the entire club to developing women’s rugby, both within our club and the game as a whole.
“Certainly for the team and me personally, we’d never experienced the level of support we had at our Women’s Week game last year, and we’re really looking forward to having that again.
“This year the first XV are playing the league leaders, so it’ll be a tough game, but it should be a great showcase of rugby and I am confident that with the support around us we’ll come away with a great result.
“We’ll also have our second team, the Nomads, playing at home on the same day as the first XV.
“It’s only the second year we’ve had two squads established at Shelford, so having them at home with us is further testament to how good things are at the club.”
The women’s section at Shelford has grown exponentially in recent years, with the club now able to field two senior sides and a selection of age-group sides ranging from the under-11 to under-18 levels.
Director of rugby Will Cotterill said: “Shelford are proud to be leading the way in women’s and girls’ rugby across the county and this event will be a great way to celebrate the achievements of all those involved in the current success of the club’s women and girls’ rugby programme.
“We are hoping to see large numbers of our girls and women with their families supporting the women’s first team on March 12.
“Any girls or women interested in playing in either the competitive teams or the social teams along with anyone interested in coaching girls or women’s rugby at the club – or elsewhere for that matter – would be very welcome to attend the game.
“It would be great for them to get to know some of the people already engaged in the further growth and development of this enterprise at the club.”