England Women’s World Cup 10,000 Mile Trophy Tour

England Women’s World Cup 10,000 Mile Trophy Tour to help inspire 10,000 new females into the game.
England Rugby has today launched a country wide tour of the Women’s World Cup trophy with a send off from Twickenham the Home of Rugby. After 16 years residing on the other side of the world in New Zealand, England Women carried the World Cup home this August, giving female rugby an unrivalled opportunity to grow the game.
The present figures show female playing numbers in England at 18,000, with the new target to increase that by a further 10,000 by 2017. Funding was received from Sport England two years ago, specifically with female players as the target audience. Using the World Cup winners as inspirational role models, to spread the word is a prominent part of the Rugby Football Union’s strategy to grow the game.
The trophy leaves Twickenham to embark on a 10,000 mile journey around England, a mile for every new player the RFU are looking to enlist as part of the new strategy, launched at the Houses of Parliament on the 3rd September. The tour will finish May 2015 after having visited hundreds of clubs, schools, colleges and universities. With RWC 2015 fast approaching, it is hoped that one trophy can inspire the arrival of another for England Rugby. Rugby World Cup winner Katy McLean, said: “We were truly “carried home” by the support of the fans and we want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get their hands on the Trophy to share in our success. We also want to use the opportunity to inspire girls in schools, colleges, universities and wider communities, and being able to take the trophy on tour will be a great opportunity.

Each area of the country has been allocated points between October and April, and if you would like to be involved and support events, please speak with your CB RDOs, Chris Burton and Alan Low in  the first instance.
All requests and ideas will be collated and a calendar of events confirmed during the autumn.