Women’s rugby influence in Parliament
As England’s Red Roses travel to play Wales in the 2025 Guinness Six Nations on 29th March, nobody will be more invested than Gower MP and former Wales international Tonia Antoniazzi who recently became chair of The Rugby Union All-Party Parliamentary Group.
From a rugby family, with her brother Julian Antoniazzi playing for Welsh Schools, Tonia studied French and Italian at Exeter University. While there she played for Exeter women’s team after meeting them at her freshers fair, as the university didn’t have a women’s team at the time.
Already on the Scarlets Board of Directors, she was brought up in Llanelli by her Welsh mother and Welsh-Italian father and, with Stradey Park visible from home, grew up on the terraces supporting the team.
Now at the helm of the cross-party group of MPs and Members of the House of Lords who share an interest rugby, Tonia has served at Westminster since June 2017.
She followed that with a PGCE from Cardiff University, teaching in Wigan before returning to West Wales as Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Ysgol Bryngwyn in Llanelli.
While in Wigan she played for Waterloo, alongside England’s Gill Burns who remains a friend and recalls: “Tonia added real strength and power to the Waterloo pack playing in the Premiership.
"Propping for Wales in her last match, they struggled against an England pack and team that was one of the best in the world but she was a great player and a fantastic character.
“It’s wonderful to see her taking on this role in Parliament. I can’t think of anyone better suited to it.”
Tonia won nine caps propping for Wales over three years and played for Benetton Treviso’s women’s team, The Red Panthers, for a year while studying in Venice.
She played in the Women’s World Cup in 1998 and her last cap came in 1999 in the first-ever Women’s Five Nations Championship when England won the Grand Slam beating Wales in Swansea as their last opponents and winning 83-11.
Tonia says: “My passion for rugby is as strong as it has ever been, and I want to use the platform that I have to promote the women’s game and get more women and girls involved at all levels. Rugby has given me so much and I want others to experience what I have.”
“The women’s Six Nations is one of the highlights of my calendar and, in a world cup year, I’ll be more invested than ever.”
Since retiring from international rugby she has been a champion for the growth and development of women’s and girls’ rugby and inclusion at all levels of the game.
