t the lack of media interest in the game, sit back and do nothing about it.
Just a quick note to say thank you for putting this website together. The topics, people and information are invaluable to the thousands of rugby fans across the world. There is too little on the established institutional websites and scrumqueens brings a fresh approach to the game and the people involved in rugby. It's also easy to navigate...
Much appreciated
Amanda Bennett
Saracens Women Head Coach
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 00:00 |
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By Ali Donnelly. After months of preparation, planning, researching and lots of negotiating; the feelings I had today when we officially launched this website were both of relief and pride. When I first thought about setting up a women’s rugby website for the international community it was a result of there being scant resources on the web or elsewhere where one could find out about the global game. Lots of clubs and individual union websites would occasionally tell me how their sides were faring but I felt the game badly needed an independent international home. Promoting a women’s sport – especially one that’s a minority in most of the countries it is played in - is a tough job. But it’s especially tough when those who complain a Since I left Ireland for London a couple of years ago, where I had for the best part of six years been promoting the national women’s team as part of a PRO role with the now defunct IWRFU, that person was me. Earlier this year, I finally decided to do something about it, when another London-based women’s player, Sarah Edwards, showed an interest in designing and helping to develop a site. Six months on and here we are, launching what I hope will become the home of the international women’s game on the web. We anticipate that you won’t find everything you might want here yet – but we plan to continue to add new features and applications once we’ve been up and running a few months and begin to gather your feedback and views. We know too that some countries will feature more than others – that in itself not a conscious decision by us, rather more a result of how regularly the contacts we have for national teams update us and include us in their plans and announcements. We know what a vital role the developing nations are playing in promoting women’s rugby and that’s why we are continuing to work hard to make the right contacts in as many playing nations as possible. The fruits of that labour will be clear as we progress with adding more ‘country’ pages to the site, in the months and years ahead. There’s lots more info about us scattered around the site, on various end-link sections and we would love to get your feedback so feel free to contact us and give us your thoughts. Remember though that we are volunteers who have ploughed a lot of our own time, effort and money into making this happen so be gentle please! I’ll be blogging regularly on the women’s game and issues as part of the ‘editors blog’ series so I’ll take up the rest of this message with some extremely well deserved messages of gratitude. First off a major thank you to the designer-in-chief of this site, Sarah Edwards from Make it Clear who together have delivered something slick, fun and professional, despite my round-the-clock barrage of questions, problems and tantrums – I am eternally grateful. To the contributors: John Birch, for his advice, flawless copy and astounding knowledge of the game – you have been a bigger help than you imagine. Kate Clements for masses of ideas, feedback and all-round PR help – thank you! Nic Evans, a brilliant writer, rugby player and mate whose talent might be wasted on us but we’ll take it anyway! Laura Mackay – who’s about to be bombarded with copy requests but she doesn’t know it yet. Wendy Parker, who already runs a superb site in the USA, thanks a million times for your input, copy and general inside track on running a women’s rugby portal – you are truly ‘awesome’ - as you Americans would say. To our first bloggers: Meghan Mutrie, Fiona Coghlan (who also inspired the website name) and Claire Daniels – your inside track on the international game is hugely insightful. We look forward to more from you and the rest of our blogging team in the months ahead. Another thanks to Dianne Crowther - for offering me proper grown-up legal advice and penning our official terms and conditions. To Graham, Laura and Richard at LGR UK - the wonderful team who delivered the technology behind the site and who taught a novice (me!) how to run a website - sorry to you three especially for the endless stream of questions and amends. I hope it’s been worth it! Also to those unions and media contacts who have taken pity on our scant resources and provided us with free and amazing images and information for the site – especially Nekesa Were, Eunice Tay, Karen Bond, Julia Hutton, Vilma Aho, Sophie Bennett, Gary Coldwells, Vincent Acheson, Jose Lagman and the Irish agency Inpho. We are massively indebted. If I have forgotten anyone it is simply because I am square-eyed after days of looking at the site – sorry. Lastly to my fantastic friends who have at various times been forced to listen to my whinges and stressed ranting – all of you have helped me in so many ways it would take another blog to even start naming you. I owe you all a drink.
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