At Twickenham on Saturday the festival atmosphere of England women’s rugby games continued. A few friends and myself managed to get hospitality tickets, which I believe had sold out. The room was full, the atmosphere really good. 

It still seems utterly insane to me, the speed of this growth. It only seems like yesterday I was stood in grounds with tin roofs stands, to watch a women’s six nations game. There would have been about 100 other people mainly family, that here I was, at Twickenham, in a hospitality event at Twickenham 12 years later. 

This growth has been driven by a union who truly has seen the future and is helping to drive it. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, in the past the RFU like many unions were slow to grasp the potential. Now I feel they not only understand it, but it is also becoming a primary focus.

One really noticeable difference this weekend, was that in among this festival crowd, were more and more of the people who looked like me. I hate to admit it but what I mean is, grey haired old men. The types that often fill the stadium for the men’s games. Clearly coming around in bigger and bigger numbers to the great atmosphere and enjoyable rugby that is being played. 

For young people, the women representing England are fast becoming icons. Characters that young people can relate to. Sharing and promoting the stories of their journeys to girls and young people in general; for whom there are now opportunities open to them to go and explore the great game. These opportunities were not there 10 years ago, now they are all around.  They are all unique, the speedsters and the hot steppers and the powerful pack of forwards.

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth around the speed of growth around oppositions to this dominance. I do understand it, I don’t necessarily agree with it. People like to watch dominant sports teams and sports stars, The All Blacks during their dominance never failed to draw a crowd because they were too good, even at times unbeatable. Tiger Woods dominance in golf never saw crowds drop off because they knew he would win. There are many reasons people will come along, no matter how one sided the game may look; A chance to see a generational sports team; the characters that are doing such a good job promoting the sport and themselves; the atmosphere is good; there is good value for money; also, they might see an historical upset. 

So as we come up to the final weekend, and the best set of games we could possibly have. I can’t say enough positive things about the direction of travel. hopefully my hangover will be gone by then.

P.S. As a prop the 4 starting props for this weekend’s final game are just on another level! 

I can’t wait.