Is Rugby The Best Sport For Women To Play This Year?

A tall, muscular man is ordering me to roll around in the mud in front of him.

Before your mind wanders, I am in fact embarking on my first ever rugby practice.

My initial response to the coach’s warm-up instruction is to flatly refuse; this grassy muck is gross, and I don’t enjoy playing stuck in the mud literally.

It seems, however, I have no choice. When the next drill requires us to leap into the arms of the nearest person, my partner promptly drops me into the quagmire. Apparently, the extra visits to the cheeseboard over Christmas have taken their toll. I am now covered in mud… and remain so for the next two hours.

No, bounding around Regent’s Park in London is not my normal way of spending a freezing winter’s day. To the surprise of everyone who knows me, I have joined an Inner Warrior Camp: an all-female rugby training session which hopes to encourage newbies to get involved in the sport.

Rugby is undoubtedly becoming an increasingly popular sport for women. In 2016, when the nationwide initiative was launched, over 10,500 women attended the Warrior Camps, 3,500 of whom had never picked up a rugby ball before.

What’s more, since 2013, female participation in rugby has grown by a whopping 215%.

Inner Warrior Camps are nationwide all-female rugby training sessions which hope to encourage newbies to get involved in the sport.

Nevertheless, at this point in my inaugural experience with the game, I admit I still need further proof as to why I should be here.

My camp is principally made up of girls from London university rugby teams and I’m feeling pretty inadequate. They’re in full kit, studs and all, and I’m in running trainers and gym leggings.

I observe, though, that while thoroughly sporty-looking, most of the ladies around me do not live up to the traditional female rugby stereotype at all.

One of the warm-up drills sees me leaping into a partner’s arms (left) although not always with great success.

I quiz Katy Daley-Mclean, the former captain of the England women’s rugby team who is hosting the camp, on this after the session. “I think the stereotypes are starting to change,” she tells me.

“Given how hard we train I like to hope we look like athletes. When people ask me what sport I play they don’t immediately presume rugby; the perception of women’s rugby is shifting.”

One thing’s for sure: my attempts at playing rugby sadly do nothing to support the case for women’s rugby. Our coach splits us up into rival teams and asks us to achieve 10 passes within our group.

We are given a rugby ball and then, just to keep us on our toes, a large exercise ball. With the former I am hopeless – and I swiftly give up any hope of any hand to ball contact – while with the latter, my technique is simply to charge at the thing, arms open wide like a desperate lover.

My technique (center left) when playing with the exercise ball is simply to charge at the thing, arms open wide like a desperate lover.

Rather sweetly, one of the girls on my team instructs the others to look after me due to my lack of studs (and increased chance of falling over) – which rather puts my own lack of team contribution to shame.

It is this sense of camaraderie that I really take away with me from the event.

Daley-Mclean loves this aspect of her sport, too. “One of the loveliest things I’ve seen at these camps is how warm people are,” she says. “The girls genuinely want new people to get involved and hopefully this is a way of doing it in a non-threating environment.

“At the last camp I went to, it was dark and about 1°C, but there was a girl there in shorts and a T-shirt and she was just so, so happy! Seeing a love of the game in someone else is amazing.”

– RELATED: What It’s Like To Captain The England Women’s Cricket Team –

The ex-captain also appreciates how all worries about image go out of the window when you play rugby. After all, when you’re covered in mud who cares what you’re wearing underneath?

Daley-Mclean sees it as a great alternative to slogging away at the gym. “There can be the worry of fitting in when you turn up for the first time at a gym,” she points out, “but if you go onto a rugby pitch it just doesn’t matter.

“There’s a place for you no matter what your size: being heavy is useful for carrying the ball but being small and quick is an asset as well.”

“When people ask me what sport I play they don’t immediately presume rugby; the perception of women’s rugby is changing,” Katy Daley-Mclean (pictured) says. Image credit: Rugby Football Union.

You can also take valuable life skills away from rugby training. “For me, rugby brings you so much that you can use every day,” enthuses Daley-Mclean, “such as basic communication, teamwork skills, but also just having that accountability to somebody else – when you play a team sport you don’t want to let your teammates down.”

Of course, there are plenty of fitness benefits to rugby, too. “There’s a lot of variety,” the England player explains. “You work on speed, strength and agility, plus there’s the constant need to work hard and improve.”

At the camp we are put to work by learning to tackle and grapple by way of various maneuvers that see me reaching an alarming level of intimacy with my partner.

We then go on to attempt a quick game of touch, during which I run around flapping madly and not getting one jot closer to the ball. It doesn’t help that my team have cottoned on to my ineptitude and no longer pass to me.

When a ‘fun’ contact game is announced, and everyone jubilantly jogs off to collect their gum shields, I know it’s time for me to bow out.

Incredibly during one game, I manage to grasp hold of the ball (center)… but not for long.

I may not be a natural rugby player (my PE teacher at school could easily have predicted this) but I am now fully convinced it’s a sport women shouldn’t shy away from anymore.

“The beauty of rugby is that in society you’re often told you’re a fragile woman who can’t hold her own,” says Daley-Mclean, “but rugby proves, ‘Screw that, look at me!’”

“One of the loveliest things I’ve seen at these camps is how warm people are,” Daley-Mclean says. “The girls genuinely want new people to get involved.”

You might initially be afraid of the violent side of rugby but, in reality, if you pick up the sport as a beginner, you won’t be expected to dive straight into a contact match.

“Coaches will guide you through,” Daley-Mclean informs me, “and once you’ve learned the basics you can pick and choose how much or how little you want to do.

“There’s also touch rugby, if you don’t want the contact. The main thing is to get down there and give it a go, you’ll never be put under pressure to do something you don’t want to do.”

So, if your 2018 is all about taking on new challenges, making new friends and getting fitter, joining your local rugby club could be the answer you never knew existed.

You don’t need fancy leggings or perfectly plaited hair, you just need you. Your gender is no barrier to the type of sport you want to do. Screw stereotypes, look at you!

Even if the new you is covered in mud.

Women interested in attending a Warrior Camp should visit www.englandrugby.com/InnerWarrior to find their local event.

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