Women's rugby union originated in the late 19th century and has grown significantly since. The earliest documented women's rugby match took place in 1881 at an Irish school where Emily Valentine scored a try. In the early 20th century, women's rugby began being played more formally in several countries. However, it faced bans in some places and didn't truly take off internationally until the 1960s and 70s when university teams formed in Western Europe and later clubs and national teams developed globally, with the first official international women's rugby match occurring in 1982.

1. FEMALE RUGBY

2. WOMEN’S RUGBY UNION
The Women's
Rugby Union is a
sport identical to
the men's game
with the same
rules, all the
same size, and
the same team.

3. THE FIRST 100 YEARS OF WOMEN'S RUGBY UNION
1881–1990A series of sports
cigarette cards,
published in 1895 in
Liverpool, includes an
image of a woman
apparently playing
rugby in a game very
similar to that
described in the team
reports of 1881.
Cigarette
card, 1895.
The first
confirmed record
of any woman
definitely playing
rugby at any level
anywhere in the
world comes from
a school game.
This happened at
Portora Royal School in
Enniskillen, Ireland.
Emily Valentine's
brothers were
responsible for the
formation of the first
school rugby team in
1884. Emily practiced
with the team and in
1887 played for school,
scoring a try.
The first documented
evidence was an
attempt to form a
women's team was
from 1891 when a tour
of New Zealand by a
team of female rugby
players was canceled
because the public
said they did not want
them to play .

4. THE FIRST 100 YEARS OF WOMEN'S RUGBY UNION
1881–1990
There are early
reports of women's
rugby union being
played in France
(1903) and England
(1913).
During World War I
a number of
women's charity
games were
organized, the
most documented
at Cardiff Arms
Park on December
16, 1917, when
Cardiff Ladies
defeated Newport
Ladies 6-0.
In 1930 a women's
league playing rugby was
formed in Australia, in
the areas of New Wales,
which lasted until World
War II. After the 1956 war
an Australian women's
rugby league played in
New South Wales - but
even in the 1960s female
rugby was banned in
Samoa
The decade of 1960 was
the decade in which the
game finally began really,
first in the universities of
Western Europe. In 1962
appears in the University of
Edinburgh the first
feminine equipment of
rugby of United Kingdom,
in 1963 the students
participate in the parties
against the masculine
students in London and in
1965 are formed in France.

5. THE FIRST 100 YEARS OF WOMEN'S RUGBY UNION
1881–1990
The first match of
the women's club
documented and
recorded was in
France in Toulouse
Femina Sports in
front of "thousands
of spectators". In 1970 she also
saw the first reports
of women's rugby
union in Canada,
and in 1972 four
universities in the
USA were playing.
In 1975 the university
students of Wageningen
in the Netherlands were
playing, and in the same
year appeared clubs in
Spain. The first non-university
clubs were formed in
1978 in Canada and the
Netherlands, and in Italy
(Milan) a year later.

6. THE FIRST 100 YEARS OF WOMEN'S RUGBY UNION
1881–1990
In 1980 there were
club championships
in the United States
and Sweden, and
provincial
championships in
New Zealand. In
1981 appeared the
rugby in Japan.
A few months later,
on June 13, 1982,
the first edition of
the international
women's team was
held in Utrecht,
Netherlands, France
...
Finally in 1990 also saw
the first international-
rugby tournament held in
New Zealand. In addition
to several clubs,
including teams from
Japan (but not the
Japanese team).
Four "national" teams -
the United States, New
Zealand, the USSR and
the Netherlands - played
a round tournament.
The winner was New
Zealand, who then
played - and defeated -
a combined "World XV".