Girls’ Rugby

The growth in girls’ rugby is partly inspired by the success of England’s Red Roses, partly due to support and investment by the RFU, but mostly due to the fact that rugby is an inclusive sport, played in a welcoming environment that can be enjoyed by players of all abilities, from any background.

Growing the Girls’ Game is the RFU’s guide to support clubs to support girls to live their best lives playing rugby. This resource offers advice on how to introduce girls’ rugby at your club, how to recruit  and retain players as well as coaching and general well being advice.

Additionally, the RFU has produced a comprehensive set of guidance and assets to promote Women and Girls’ Rugby for clubs, schools and colleges HERE.

Rugby is a game for everyone, and the Girls’ game is growing phenomenally!

If you (or your daughter) have never played, and want to give it a try, the best first step is to go down to your local club – the ‘Clubs’ link below will take you to contact information for all clubs in the NLD region

Following a three year review, consultation and development process between 2018 and 2021, the RFU Council agreed to change the age bandings in the girls game from the 2022-23 season.

This signaled an exciting next phase for girls rugby in England. Through the superb efforts of everyone involved in the previous 10 years, the number of girls playing rugby was at a point where moving from three age bands to four was a realistic and sustainable proposition. This set up the potential for further growth of the game over the following 5 to 10 years, as part of the Every Rose Strategy.

The new age bands are at U12, U14, U16 and U18. This means the wide three year age band at U16 to 18 is no longer required and there is a single age band at U12, better supporting the transition to girls-only rugby for current and new players.

The U11 regulations are also more flexible, enabling girls to continue to play mixed rugby; to play girls only rugby; or in exceptional circumstances, if individually assessed/approved in line with playing-up regulations, to play with the U12s.

The England Rugby Age Grade page contains more information about Girls’ Age Grade Bandings, and there is a useful FAQ document to explain the purpose and implementation of the change.

Links to the Rules of Play for the new bandings are below

The 2024/25 season sees the launch of the NLD Girls U16 Foundation Programme, replacing the England Rugby Developing Player Programme.

While the name of the programme has changed, the ethos and purpose continues to be a development-focused pathway programme for girls with the talent and ambition to progress within rugby; whether within their club set-up, into the NLD u18s representative side or into an RFU Player Development Group centre (formerly Centres of Excellence).

We are pleased to announce the following additions to the coaching team for the programme:

Guy Hope will be Executive Lead Coach with responsibility for overseeing the coaching team in providing a high-quality programme experience in line with a clear vision;

Stacey Coulthard and Simon Jewkes will be co-Lead Coaches with responsibility for heading up a strong coaching team in the delivery of successful programme sessions.

Simon is stepping up from his role as an Assistant Coach in the first two DPP seasons and Guy and Stacey bring with them a wealth of experience from coaching within the BUCS, RFU, IRFU and C of E formats.

Providing much-needed continuity, we are also pleased that Connor Power is staying on as Strength and Conditioning coach, Holly Felton as Assistant Coach and Katie Nesbitt and Chelsea Hillsley as Auxiliary Coaches.

Debbie Linn, NLD Girls’ Opportunity Officer, and Siobhan Peeling, NLD Head of Girls Rugby, will also continue to ensure oversight and support from within the NLD Age Grade Committee.

As we come to the end of the first two-year programme cycle and restructure our leadership team, we have also made changes to the application process for players.  Applications for the NLD Foundation Programme (formerly DPP) 2024/25 season will be in the form of self-nomination by players and we are asking all interested girls to put themselves forward, including players who have already been on year 1 of the programme this season, so that our new team can have a fair look at everyone wanting to take part in the programme at the assessment sessions.

The NLD Girls’ Conference Cup has been introduced for the 2023/24 season to provide girls in the u14s, u16s, and u18s age groups with competitive playing opportunities. The aim is to bridge the gap between our popular development Pitch Up & Play events (“PUaPs”) and National Cup or representative rugby and to improve the playing experience for girls across NLD.

Participation in the Cup was opened to girls in full teams and in clusters and we are pleased to have nine teams/clusters from across our counties entered at u14s and u16s and four at u18s.

The priority of the Cup is safe participation for as many girls as possible in some version of competitive rugby. All games will be played in line with England Rugby’s Core Values and the ‘Game On’ principle. The format is a waterfall format so all teams will participate in a finals day on 28th April to round off an exciting season in girls’ rugby across NLD.

Schedule and Guidance for this season’s competitions are below, and can also be found on the NLD Junior Competitions page.

NLD Pitch Up & Play (PUaPs) events are to give girls in the U12 – U18 age grades an additional opportunity to play rugby.  PUaPs are particularly targeted at girls who, for whatever reason, do not get to play enough rugby with their clubs.

Click the links to get more information about NLD PUaP events and to see the Age Grade Playing Calendar for the 2023/24 season

The following pictures are of the 2021/22 NLD U15s – this was the last season of U15 representative rugby, as the programme has now been replaced with the U16 DPP (see above).