East London RFC

Many members will be unaware that East London Ladies rugby officially started at the club last October when the University of East London women wanted to play extra games together rather than going their separate ways to different clubs. And it wasn’t long before they were joined by other women from Queen Mary and St. Bart’s universities as well as women from the local area and partners of members from the men’s side of the club.

Many of the players have never played rugby before but with the leadership and guidance of former Saracens winger Marcia Wilson and Ella Mitchell who plays for London Wasps as backs and forward coaches respectively, they are all now excelling in the sport, especially a number of Muslim and African-Caribbean women who traditionally wouldn’t ever play rugby.

They currently have a squad of 25 to 30 women and say that more women are contacting them with an interest in playing all the time. In particular, about 15 women from the London School of Economics who don’t currently have a team at their university have shown an interest in developing the squad even further and at this rate it won’t be long till they are putting out 2 teams.

East London Ladies train every Monday evening 7.30pm – 9.30pm at the club. If you are interested in taking part please feel free to pop along to any training session or call their head coach Liam Twomey on 07916 265 813.

As East London Ladies are a newly established side they don’t currently play within an official league but they have already established their own committee and have arranged enough fixtures throughout this season so that they can meet the requirements to enter the RFUW league next season…