OPINION: Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 highlights growth of sport with impact on grassroots in the Highlands and Moray — as we mark Women and Girls in Sport week
Ten years ago, as I sat in my local Irish pub in Milan catching a glimpse of the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2015, the only female customer interested in what was happening on the screen, I was approached by one of the waitresses.
“Hey, do you play rugby?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if she was joking or being serious. Rugby was something very new to me. In Italy, it’s not something you grow up with, unless you are from a certain specific region or your family is already part of that world. Back then, I had never seen or imagined a woman playing rugby.
To my confused “no”, she quickly responded: “Would you like to try?”
So, a few days later, I turned up at a scraggy football pitch where a relatively new women’s team was training. They were of all ages, all sizes, and I felt almost immediately at home. The moment I made my first tackle, my life changed.
As someone who had suffered some bullying at school, being unable to fight back and stand up for myself was something that had troubled me for most of my teenage years. That had mildly started to change when I picked up Kung Fu. But turns out, rugby was what made me overcome that feeling of helplessness. I could take bigger people down, run into people and enjoy the joys of a contact sport.
Back then, women’s rugby was still a very niche sport, even more so in a country like Italy, where overall rugby barely makes it into the top ten of popularity for sports.
Fast forward to today — a decade during which I moved to the UK and trained and played with several clubs in England and Scotland — that landscape has dramatically changed.
Last month saw the pinnacle of women’s rugby, the Rugby World Cup 2025 in England, which thrashed any record for the women’s game: a peak audience of 5.8 million tuned in for the final game between England and Canada at Twickenham, which was sold out and saw a crowd of 81,885 in attendance. This means double the numbers for the last women’s world cup in New Zealand (with 42,579 in attendance at Eden Park) and making this the second best attended Rugby World Cup final, second only to the 2003 Men's Rugby World Cup final, which had an attendance of 82,957. It was also the most-watched rugby game of the year.
Investment in the game and the growing worldwide interest in women’s sports have been vital. Most importantly, for the first time, I could see women’s rugby taking up good space in national newspapers and broadcasting. It wasn’t just given a passing, ephemeral mention anymore. On social media, stars of the sport – like Ilona Maher – and content creators are taking over and sharing their love for the sport. Last week, Mattel launched the first Barbies inspired by world-class rugby players. This message and these images are reaching young girls in a way they never had before.
This comes as the level of the game keeps on rising – and this is true also for Scotland, with a team that gave it all on the pitch and reached the quarter finals for the first time in 23 years. In spite of some controversial decisions by Scottish Rugby, they battled and fought for each other.
All of this is translated into the growing number of players of all ages taking up the sports at the grassroots level. Awareness is spreading, and the stigma around physicality and strength in women and girls is slowly fading away. That is also true for the Highlands, where clubs are seeing more members registering and playing, or at least turning up to training. More opportunities are being created for young girls to pick up the game. Exposure is massively helpful, for a sport that, particularly for young girls, can be a godsend when it comes to its positive impact on confidence, social interactions and a better relationship with one’s own body. The trade is only a few bruises, and it’s a fair one, I’d say.
Looking at all the incredible girls who are now growing up with rugby, taking up space on the pitch and in life, it’s really wonderful to think what the next generation of players can bring.
So, reflecting on this incredible journey that was this World Cup and as this Women and Girls in Sports Week draws to a close, we are set to look at the state of the game in the Highlands and Moray, speaking to the people who have been on the frontline of this change.