Women who saved the Rugby World Cup

On a gloomy Wednesday night in January 1994, the Scottish national rugby team headed to Todd’s Tap pub in Leith after a frigid training session at the Edinburgh Axies ground.

They were unusually quiet and completely disgusted.

They practiced hard and did their best to raise money to cover the cost of their trip to the World Cup in the Netherlands.

However, the event was canceled with just three months to go.

The host country had pulled out after a dispute with world rugby authorities over permission to host the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

The Scottish women’s team has only been in existence for a year and has only played two international matches.

The World Cup will give them much-needed experience against more established teams.

That night, a quiet and determined revolution began in the pub. They ended up running the tournament themselves.

The Scottish women’s team did not take part in the establishment of official rugby union.

They existed in parallel with the Scottish Rugby Union and its referees and match officials, but they had very good relations.

They didn’t need anyone’s permission to play.

If calling it a World Cup is a problem, they’ll call it a World Championship.

Sue Brodie was a winger as well as a team manager and president of the Scottish Women’s Rugby Union.

Her day job was running the Meadowbank Sports Center, which meant she had access to a fax machine.

Exactly 30 years later, Sue recalls: “We thought let’s invite the team here and see what happens. If they can get here, let’s play. Everybody just wants to play.”

“At that time, we just had to sort everything out ourselves.

“We were all working full-time, students and raising families during the day, training and playing at night, and I just thought, ‘I can’t believe it, I’m going to organize now. There’s a need.’ There’s 90 days left.”

Sue said the excitement of hosting the world tournament in Edinburgh could not have been achieved without the rugby community and the local people and businesses who volunteered their time in so many ways. was immediately recognized.

More than a dozen international teams had registered and organized their travel and accommodation, but when the Russian team arrived they still hadn’t sorted it out.

As a result of an appeal on Radio Force, a bus company dropped off the travelers at Manchester Airport and took the Russians back to Edinburgh.

They were provided with accommodation by the Livingstone Nursing Home, which had been vacant over the Easter holidays, and provided with food for two weeks by Livingston Rugby Club.

Once the tournament began, the Scottish players saw the largest crowds ever at their matches due to the positive coverage and media attention in its run-up.

A software developer by day and Scotland captain by night, Kim Littlejohn was always on TV.

Standing by the Meggetland pitch in Edinburgh where the group games were played, I can still hear the roar of the crowd as the teams ran out of the tunnel onto the pitch.

“The sound of people cheering for us was amazing,” she said.

“It was a really special time. We went into that tournament, a very new international team, green behind the ears, but full of energy, willing to learn, and I We did that.”

The Scottish team weren’t the only Scottish players to enjoy a taste of the big time.

When the phone rang, Sheila Scott was part of a team at Heriot-Watt University, busy with a final year project for her Building Services Engineering degree.

“Two weeks before my final thesis was due, my coach called me and said, ‘What are you going to do for the next two weeks? Do you want to come and play in the Rugby World Cup?'” The answer was obvious. “Yes” was the answer. ”

Spain dropped out at the last minute, so a Scottish university team filled the group.

Sheila still wears the “heavy cotton” jersey she proudly wore to play at university in Scotland.

“It was incredible,” she says.

“It was so exciting that I didn’t care about anything else. And it ignited my passion to train hard and get into the Scottish national team and play in a few more tournaments. thought.”

It was an ambition that Sheila fulfilled, and by the next World Cup she was playing for Scotland.

The 1994 tournament ended with England defeating defending champions USA 38-23 in the final.

Scotland won the ‘Shield’ competition for teams eliminated in the quarter-finals and finished in a glorious fifth place.

A stage play called “90 Days” is currently being performed in Scotland, which depicts how the World Cup was held.

It will premiere at the Traverse Theater in Edinburgh this weekend.

In the spirit of 1994, the idea to stage a play was sparked by some of the players at the time, and crowdfunding and sponsorship were found to make it happen.

For a time in 1994, these women became the rock stars of rugby.

Kim Littlejohn said women’s rugby was well-known, broadcast on television and more and more women were getting involved across Scotland.

Women’s rugby clubs have sprung up from borders to islands.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a Blackwatch tartan skirt instead of a rugby top.

“It was part of the uniform after the game,” she says.

“Again, it was donated to us, and the picture we have is of them all wearing matching Blackwatch uniforms and celebrating all that World Championship. It was very good, it was an opportunity we had to take, we learned from it and it was a great experience for us and we were very happy.”