The stories of the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 have been passed down through the rugby generations, told and retold to each and every entrant into a sport that still carries the against-all-odds spirit that inspired that first tournament. Held in Cardiff across eight days, the event was entirely unsanctioned by the International Rugby Board (IRB) and organised by four remarkable women from Richmond Rugby Club, starting a movement that no one else would.
It was an event beset by challenges. Even before it began, Deborah Griffin – one of Richmond’s “founding four” – was being told off by the IRB for having the idea at all, her infant daughter with her as she ignored their censure. England sported shirts featuring a different rose to their male equivalents with their integration into the Rugby Football Union (RFU) still 18 years away; the Russian team bartered for rooms with vodka, the only tradeable commodity to make the trip with them as the Soviet Union did not allow hard currency out of the country; and the entire playing personnel spent a night together on the floor of a function space ahead of the final after a mix-up with the hotel bookings.
