Women's rugby changed my life – let's help it thrive across the UK
Tonia Antoniazzi took part in a Lords and Commons rugby match in July
4 min read
This weekend, celebrations following England’s World Cup triumph continue with RugbyFest – the Red Roses are visiting clubs across England to encourage more women and girls into the game.
As a former Welsh rugby international, I was unprepared for the total elation I felt when England won.
Flying out of our seats, my former Wales front-row buddy Nadine Griffiths and I hopped from foot to foot, whooping, as the final whistle went at Twickenham. The crowd erupted in pure joy. England 33 – Canada 13.
For me and Nadine, this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup means everything. We have spent most of our adult lives banging on and on about women’s sport, particularly rugby, and this tournament surpassed even our expectations.
Half a million people bought tickets: 50 per cent of them had never seen a women’s game before, 30 per cent had never seen a rugby match.
At the Twickenham final, almost 82,000 people filled the stadium – a record for a women’s sporting event. And 5.8m people watched the game on BBC TV.
It was a world away from my own experience representing Wales in the 1998 World Cup. Back then, we played with passion and pride, but without the funding, visibility or support that today’s players rightly enjoy. My own Dad equated my participation to playing tiddlywinks for Wales! (My champion was always my older brother, Julian, who played for Welsh Schools during the 1980s.)
Despite being from a rugby family and growing up with a view of Stradey Park – the Scarlets’ old club ground in Llanelli) – being a girl meant actually playing rugby wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t until I went to university in Exeter in 1991 that I joined a team.
Tonia and Nadine at the Women's Rugby World Cup final
That was also a big year for my former teammate Nadine. Being a spectator in Cardiff for the first-ever Women’s Rugby World Cup sparked her 12-year playing career and 44 international caps for Wales.
Like Nadine did all those years ago, over these next few weeks and months thousands of women and girls who watched this year’s tournament from the stands, or their sofas, will get up and run on to a rugby pitch for the first time. Not just English girls, but Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish.
And for them, there is opportunity, thanks to initiatives like Impact '25 – the legacy programme tied to the World Cup. It has supported more than 850 clubs and engaged 3,385 female coaches and match officials in training across England and the home nations.
The money from the programme is helping clubs to create facilities where women and girls can thrive. As the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) ‘Every Rose’ women and girls’ strategy proves, enormous effort, energy, ambition and investment are key. Its programme – started in 2021 – has driven England’s success. Scotland, Wales and Ireland are still playing catch-up. The Scottish strategy began a year after England’s, and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) only started their programmes in 2024.
As Red Roses’ number 8 Alex Matthews has acknowledged, her team needs more challengers. Let’s get behind the home nations to give them the support needed to give the Red Roses a run for their money.
There’s no RugbyFest this weekend in Wales, but girls interested in rugby can go to the WRU website, which has a girls’ game club finder. In Scotland, go to scottishrugby.org. In Northern Ireland, email [email protected].
Rugby changed my life. At university, I was a hefty piece – the perfect size and strength to be a prop. Playing rugby gave me confidence, purpose and lifelong friendships. Every girl deserves the chance to experience that. And I’ll keep fighting, in Parliament and beyond, to make sure they do.
Tonia Antoniazzi is Labour MP for Gower
