How women's rugby is outgrowing its stereotypes 

Tara Slater loves her high knee boots, dressing up with girls and glaming up make-up every morning – not just for a big night out. But she also loves swopping her boots for boots covered in mud with metal studs that dig in the churned up grass on a Wednesday afternoon. Slater, Sunderland University women's rugby union flanker, is evience of the transition women’s rugby is making from the traditional lack of feminity of rugby players to the reality of the sport as it breaks through in women’s sport. Standing 5ft 9’ with big curly hair, bronzed from head to toe, bold brown eyes with long fluttery eyelashes and perfectly rounded polished fingernails. But none of that matters come a Wednesday afternoon – the heels are studs, the plates are in and the hits made are heard from the sideline.

"I often get the look of surprise when I say that I play rugby, it can be quite annoying as it is as if people already have what a rugby player should look like in their head. I play because I wanted to try something different and challenge myself. It is not about whether I thought someone like me should play, I still do my girlie things – rugby does not change that! Every girl has steam to burn and for me there is no better way to do that than rugby."- Tara Slater, 21 

Women's rugby has for years held stereotpes such as, 'butch’, ‘strong’ and ‘masculine’. The girls picking up a rugby ball are changing this but that by no means mellows the aggression and power of the game. Just because a female can swoop another female off her feet on the field and use a hand-off to charge her way over the try line does not mean she has to fit a criteria.

Peter Taylor, Rugby Footbal Union (RFU) women's rugby development officer stressed that the personality behind the ball is not changing. They all rugby love and that is why they do it. "What is changing is who is picking up a rugby ball for the first time. The women you see playing are moving away from the stereotype and it is less than rare for females to play rugby because of all of the opportunities available to them.

“It is about women who are independent, physical and determined not about their shape or size. It is much like tough mudder. What was tough mudder a few years ago? Now look at the number of women taking it on because it is a challenge just like rugby."

Women like Slater are proof of the reality of who is actually playing rugby. Altering peoples opinion will not happen overnight but women’s rugby needs to continue to make itself visiible to show off the anti-stereotype players in the game. 

Although there are players that do not have a visible coat that fights off the stereotype to viewers. Some players come into women's rugby because of brothers or parents and by the time they hit their teens they have grown out of the girlie appearances. But that does not mean they should be thrown into stereotypical bubbles.

Sydnie Grace, Saracens Ladies flanker grew up loving rugby after watching the London Irish in Reading every weekend with her dad. She made her debut to rugby at the early age of six after spending her Sunday afternoons watching her brothers down the local rugby club. For many females, rugby is that new exciting sport which will push them to new levels. Grace explained that thrilled her to play."After just watching my brothers running around I saw the boy’s team and I really wanted to give it a go. I really enjoyed just the running around mainly and it was something different to football and netball which I had already played!

“I was nine when I played my first game, it was with the boys team that I had joined. I had only trained for three weeks and then played my first game. I felt really excited, but I also felt really nervous. A lot of the boys did not respect me as I was the only girl, but that just made me play harder and determined to prove to them I deserved to be on the pitch!

Breaking the stereotype is not just the players taking on the sport but it also the opportunitues made avaliable in the women’s game across the UK. The RFU are continuing to bring females into the game by creating a warm and welcoming environment with various entry levels including non-contact, referring, contact and coaching. Ian Richie, Chief excutive of the RFU emphasised the progression of the game on paper. “The potential to grow the women’s and girls’ game further is substantial and we aim to have 10,000 additional females playing contact rugby by 2017."

But it is not all about tackling and pushing in scrums as rugby has welcomed a fitness game with rugby features – O2 Touch. Offering a feminine sector to the rugby pyramid is one more step in the break down for those who stereotype the sport as too 'masculine’ for them. Even without the additon of O2 Touch teams, there are more females taking on the game simply because society is changing. More females playing equals more team acorss the UK.

Climbing from strength to strength, players all over the UK agree that they are seeing the changes. Grace, 21 agreed: “From when I started out at the age of six to now, a lot has changed. I remember when I used to have to travel up to two to three hours for a competitive and entertaining game. But that is changing because of the number of girls and women’s teams increasing.”

Players and the RFU are moving forward with the times and their repsonses are showing that rugby is not a game built on size or appearance. So why should we be ignorant to this? It deserves more than lousy stereotypes with no back bone.

Grace has learnt a lot over her 13 years of playing women’s rugby but most importantly she stressed “anyone, any shape and size really can play rugby.”

“Every position on the pitch has different demands. To say that a certain type of girl or woman plays rugby then it would be completely inaccurate. Even personality wise, I grew up playing with dolls and watching Barbie but there was the part of me that loved rolling in the mud with my brothers too,” She added.