WOMEN rugby players are driving forward with their ambitions to secure a Premiership side in the North East after a successful season of top flight games.
North East Women’s XV finished their summer campaign with success against a US Collegiate side winning two of their four matches, inspired by the fact the Women’s Rugby World Cup opened in Sunderland.
Organisers and players are now turning to the business community to back a campaign to form a fully-fledged Premiership side for the North East. At the moment there is no club North of Manchester playing in the nine-strong semi-professional Premiership Women’s Rugby union league.
They claim that this is leading to a ‘brain drain’ of sporting and professional talent because women wanting to compete at the highest level have to move away from the North East to play and work.
North East Women’s XV currently selects the best players from local clubs off-season to play invitational above Championship rugby.
They are aiming to raise £60,000 to raise the level of the game in the region and compete nationally during the rugby season. So far just £360 has been pledged.
This summer they played four matches against the Super BUCS winning Durham University Alumni team, USA Collegiate side and a team from the UK Armed Forces, losing two and winning two.
North East Women’s XV captain Mackenzie Thomas Roberts said: “It was our last game this season so it was excellent to come out with a win.
“It really hits my heart. I’m Canadian but have played in the North East for 10 years. I'm actually going back to Canada soon so it's amazing to see all these girls come from different clubs and band together to show that there is excellent rugby in the North East.
“We're trying to build something here because we've lost our elite programmes. We are trying to set a foundation for the future for the girls that are coming through to show that there are good players in this region and that we deserve to have some elite rugby for them to be able to play.”
She said hopefully next season they could build on what had been achieved and walk away with all wins. “It will mean a lot of building so we're definitely looking for sponsorship,” she said. “We're looking for people to band together, to believe in the North East. We will keep fighting and practising so we can come out running next summer.”
Chair of Rugby NE Women's Rugby Francesca Johnson-Harding, who has helped established the women’s game across the region, said: “Having no Premiership team in the North East is hard on the girls and all the really good players have to move down south leading to a brain drain.
“It’s the same with university as they are forced to study closer to where the Premiership sides are. Why not learn here, stay here, play here?”
She said she put out an appeal for sponsorship securing £3,000 for kit and the NE XV had been surviving on that ever since. “But we could really do with more sponsorship for kit, venues and coaches,” she said.
“We have had some great high level coaching for free – from Tamara Taylor, Fiona Graham Michael van Vuuren and Ben Harding – but that can’t go on forever and we want to have paid coaches, nutritionist and a strength and conditioning coach to reduce injuries and grow our game.”
The 72-strong squad trains ‘wherever it can’ including Gateshead, AGPs at Blaydon and Billingham, Bishop Auckland and Mowden Park, Darlington.
“We are very well supported by local clubs when we ask for nominations by the coaches of the best players,” she said. “We are here to build the North and in five years hope to be able to see a return to a Premiership offering.
“Eighty per cent of the Red Roses squad are from the North but play down south. We had such a successful Women’s World Cup opener which has given us a place on the rugby map. We now need businesses to take this on, so we don’t lose any more woman to somewhere else to play rugby.
“We have the infrastructure, the players and the people who want this but the last piece of the jigsaw is finance.”
Anyone interested in sponsoring the team should visit www.northeastxv.co.uk or email info@northeastxv.co.uk.