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“It’s perfect, it’s a beautiful trophy.” Lost and foundįollowing England’s victory in 1994, the trophy was taken on tour and was displayed during roadshows put on by the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW).Ī new trophy for the women’s tournament was unveiled ahead of Rugby World Cup 1998 and bar a brief appearance at an exhibition at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham, it seemed the original cup had been lost. “It just adds another funny story,” World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Gill Burns, who lined up for England at number eight in those first two finals, said. There were no complaints from the victors, though, and certainly not from Dorrington’s England team-mates three years later when they avenged that defeat, beating the USA 38-23 in Edinburgh to get their hands on the antique trophy. The Americans soon discovered it was a difficult trophy to celebrate with because the lace detail that had caught Dorrington’s eye made it almost impossible to drink from. The story of how the first women's Rugby World Cup trophy was found ? /dAY2PYY9Ffįour months later, 12 women’s national teams arrived in South Wales to contest the inaugural Rugby World Cup, a tournament won by the USA following a 19-6 win against England in the final at Cardiff Arms Park on 14 April 1991. “There we were with no money, and she goes and spends £1,000 or whatever on a bloody cup!” “I think we had a bit of a barney about how much she spent on it,” Griffin recalled.
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Given the tournament’s organisers, Griffin, Dorrington, Alice Cooper and Mary Forsyth were struggling to attract sponsorship for the event, that was not an inconsiderable sum. JB Jewellery and Antiques invoiced the organising committee just over £1,000 for the trophy, a figure that would increase with engraving. “So, it was the biggest and the most attractive one I could afford.” Book your tickets to Rugby World Cup 2021 > I know that one shouldn't choose one's trophies on that basis, but it stood out for me, and it was the biggest one I could afford because then they got bigger and got more and more expensive. “I wanted something proper, like a silver cup and that's where I headed, I went into Hatton Garden and found this cup and have since learned through Phill at the World Rugby Museum that it was commissioned in 1924.”ĭorrington added: “It just looked different it was more feminine. “I didn't want some tinny fake trophy,” Dorrington remembered more than three decades later. “It is antique solid silver and we believe presents a strong but feminine image to portray our game,” the release read.įollowing a half-hour presentation, England players Karen Almond, Debbie Francis, Carol Isherwood and Sam Robson posed alongside the trophy for photos that would appear in the next day’s newspapers and January’s edition of Rugby World & Post.Īlthough insured on Griffin’s home policy, the original women’s Rugby World Cup had been selected by the organising committee’s commercial manager, Sue Dorrington during a trip to London’s Hatton Garden.ĭorrington, who led proceedings in Cardiff on that Tuesday morning so was not in Richmond to unveil the trophy to the world, was attracted to the cup by the intricate lace-like pattern on its rim. The press pack that was handed to journalists as they registered in London and Cardiff and had been posted to foreign correspondents the previous evening, contained a picture of the cup. Placed in front of a large display board plastered with the tournament’s logo was a smaller table on which a rugby ball and flowers served to frame the prize that the participating nations would compete for in South Wales: the first women’s Rugby World Cup trophy. To the side of the top table where organising committee chair Deborah Griffin would make her welcoming speech was a colourful display.
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However, there was one significant difference to the set-up in south-west London. The Bute Room at the iconic Cardiff Arms Park – where the semi-finals and final would be played the following April – and the Conference Rooms at Richmond’s Athletic Ground were set up almost identically as journalists and invited dignitaries took their places. On Tuesday 27 November 1990, the organisers of the inaugural women’s Rugby World Cup held simultaneous press conferences in Cardiff and London to launch their historic event.