Ex-Red Roses star backs drive for women rugby players

A former England rugby player who began her career in Kent has backed a national award which helps encourage women and girls to take up the sport.

Shaunagh Brown visited Medway RFC to announce that applications were now open for clubs to apply for the annual Royal London Championing Women and Girls' Grassroots Rugby Award.

Clubs receive a £10,000 prize to develop their women and girls sides as part of the award.

"There's continual growth, and to me the future of the sport is in the women and girls side of the game", Brown said at an event at the Rochester club where she began her playing career.

After starting with Medway RFC when she was 25, Brown enjoyed a career with Harlequins Womens and played for England 30 times winning multiple Six Nations titles.

She played in the final of the 2022 Women's Rugby World Cup and is full of admiration for the current Red Roses who won it last year.

"We've got our own style of play and women's rugby is it's own thing," she said.

"I just want it to keep growing and everyone just knows it's normal that women and girls play rugby."

The first British and Irish Lions Women tour of New Zealand takes place in September next year, with the side playing five matches in different cities.