Two decades apart – Two historic occasions
Twenty years after England Women played their first double-header Test at Twickenham, another historic milestone arrives for women’s rugby on Saturday 29 April.
That’s when the Red Roses take on France in Twickenham Stadium’s first-ever standalone women’s international. This Test will also bring a women’s Six Nations record attendance, with more than 35,000 tickets already sold.
The TikTok Women’s Six Nations match at the Home of England Rugby represents a tipping point for women’s sport, with thousands of fans behind England as they take on Les Bleues, a team that presents a real challenge, as England aim for a fifth Six Nations title in a row.
World Rugby has launched a new annual global women’s international 15s competition, restructuring the Test calendar. This revolutionises the women’s rugby landscape, with a meaningful pathway for all unions and a competitive springboard towards an expanded 16-team Rugby World Cup in 2025.
England’s Red Roses will play the world’s top teams each year in a cross-pool format as a standalone tournament in one location. Teams will include the Women’s Six Nations top three and the top three of the cross-regional tournament featuring USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Having led the England squad in a 30-Test winning run, head coach Simon Middleton will sign off his tenure at Twickenham.
“Playing a standalone Test at Twickenham is a real marker of where the game is at. It will be an amazing occasion for all the players and the management,” he said. “The target for the 22025 Rugby World Cup is to sell out Twickenham for the final and it is fantastic to draw such a great crowd two years in advance. A Test against France is always a great occasion and a tremendous contest. Playing this match at the Home of England Rugby creates a great occasion for the supporters and I know the players will do their best to make them proud.”
The first women’s Test at Twickenham
England women’s first-ever match at the stadium was on 15th February 2003. They were playing France then too and won 57-0.
Maxine Edwards, who won 45 caps throughout her 25-year rugby career, juggling work and parenting with a demanding training schedule, was captain for the first time that day. A veteran of three Rugby World Cups, she was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to rugby.
She recalls: “We were playing at Twickenham before the men’s game and we were thinking it had to be great, looking at where we had come from as women players. Playing at Twickenham was like ‘We have really arrived!’ To play on that hallowed ground really meant something, it was one of those matches that meant so much, a huge occasion and you knew you had to put in a huge performance.
“We were playing at 1pm before the men’s match at 4pm and I remember being on the team coach, walking in through crowds of youngsters, supporters from women’s clubs, feeling almost ‘Do I deserve to be here?’
“We weren’t in the men’s England changing room but that didn’t matter to us, we were at Twickenham. Running out it felt like we did belong there, the quality of the pitch was absolutely beautiful and even, the bounce of the ball, the studs in the turf, all made for a perfect game.
“When we lined up for the anthems there was a proper presentation, I think the RFU made sure that they provided as good a platform for us as they did for the men. That day I was so proud when the anthems were played, the thought of all the training, the sacrifices, the times I hadn’t been able to do things with my son, Sean. All of that was in my head as the fans sang with us and, as we always did, we stood arms around each other as a front row.
“The responsibility that day for all of us was enormous, we couldn’t play for the first time at Twickenham and perform in such a way that would confirm the low expectations that some people still had of us as rugby players.”
Twenty years later there’s no doubt that when today’s Red Roses line up for the anthems they will feel the same – that they have really arrived!
