Women and Rugby Union
The fair sex very likely began playing competitive rugby union before the start of the 20th century, although the first publicly recorded match (Cardiff Ladies vs Newport) took place at the Cardiff Arms Park in December 1917.
From then on the status of the women game has been chequered, as the institutional bodies running the men’s game, both nationally and internationally, seldom seemed to agree on continuity of rules and events.
A first Women Rugby World Cup was played in Wales in 1990, and eventually the first Women’s Rugby World Cup sanctioned by the IRB took place in 1998. In 2007 the Women’s Six Nations were formally “adopted” organizationally by the Men’s counterpart, and in 2009 women played in one of Rugby Sevens major competitions, the Dubai International.
