Venus wins at home 46-33!

What a great game! We had fantastic turnout with 20 players at the pitch, however the opposition had only 11 and we lend them a player to play 60min 12s. It is important to mention the it was Louise'a 100 cap!

Second win at home!

After an amazing fight and with a support of fantastic defence,Venus have won at home against Brockleians Ladies 34-0. More info soon.

Physio clinic

Hi all,

Please be aware that next physio clinic is going to take place on - November 7th from 7.30-9pm.

Andrea

Sunday game cancelled! Fitness instead?

Sunday games has been cancelled by the opposition. Please let me know if anyone wants to come to an extra training session on Sunday morning. I propose some mixed intensive fitness for 30-40min.

Home game!

Hi all! We have a home game today at 2pm at Millwall park against Beccehamian. Come and support us. The squad for today:
Hayley, Louise, Hannah, Kirstie, Colette, Harry, Jodie, Amanda, Edna, Rebecca, Inge, Zaii, Andrea (Polski), Jenn, Alejandra, Ucheora, Andra, Charlieann, Anna

Training tonight - new coach

Hi ladies! Don't forget about the training tonight. Also, I would like to properly announce that we have a new coach - Felix Greenhalgh! We already had a first session with Felix last week and he also saw as playing against Croydon so he has plenty of ideas how to make us great ;)

If you are new and still hesitating if you want to join - don't! We still have beginners joining so you won't be alone.

Andrea

Please read & help - IPF and Gracie Matthews

Ladies,

I am writing to you today because I am totally gutted with the story of Gracie Matthews, a girl like me or you, a fellow rugger. Gracie was a successful player when the biggest nightmare happened - she broke her leg during the game so badly, that the leg had to be amputated. She is much better now, I follow her on her blog at: https://grapeygrapes.wordpress.com/ - she seems to be doing well baring in mind what has happened to her.

But this is not exactly why I am writing to you. I am writing to you because of double standards in the RFU and their Injured Players Fund (IPF). RFU is a hugely funded organisation and we all know that women are massively underfunded in this sport anyway. Only few women are lucky enough to be paid at all for playing and now what the IPF has done is just outrageous - they have refused to help Gracie because... her injury is not serious enough. I don't know, but in my opinion it's pretty permanent, life changing and catastrophic. 

So few people got upset about it including Jeff Probyn who wrote a column about it. In the article linked here he still says it's unchecked info but Gracie already confirmed it on her twitter.

http://www.therugbypaper.co.uk/features/columnists/jeff-probyn/26743/jeff-probyn-column-gracie-matthews-deserves-support-from-injured-players-fund/

Why I am writing about this today? Because we are all women, we all play rugby and I think we can spare 2 min to support Gracie. Some guys on Facebook from "Women's Full Contact Sport" page have lunched a campaign for Gracie and they write emails to Mike England from IPF to tell him to change their decision on Gracie. Look at Gracie's website, check Probyn's column and please write to Mr English.

I allowed myself to copy an email that was sent by the Women's Full Contact Sport to mikeengland@rfu.com and adjust it a bit (but feel free to write your own thing. Please get involved.

Dear Mr England,

I am writing to you regarding the IPF's decision not to regard a full leg amputation as a serious enough injury to get some financial help from IPF. The decision to exclude Gracie Mathews fro any grant by your awarding body is morally and professionally unacceptable.

Jeff Probyn has just written an article about it. I'm not going to ask you to reconsider. You should make this decision yourselves following Jeff's article.

The RFU is an extremely rich union substantively helped in this regard by the enormous volunteer network. Unlike soccer, your overall wage bill is sparse in comparison to revenues received. 

As a female rugby player, I want to tell you, that I am deeply concerned with your decision and I cannot imagine that me or any of my teammates would be refused a grant from you in a similar situation. 

Best regards,

xyz

Venus wins at home

Great game this weekend! Millwall Venus won today against Kingston Komets 25:5! I'm really proud of the team and how they played! Woop woop! The detailed match report will follow!

Millwall Venus - Kingston Ladies

The gods of the rain have listened to our prayers and fortunately it's wet today! That means that the pitch should be much nicer tomorrow, just in time for our first home game agains Kingston Ladies. We lost our first game in the season so our appetite is huge to make this Sunday a victory day for the club. We still feel like we need more game-time together to correct our mistakes but we have a good squad for tomorrow and loads of energy to tackle hard and run fast!

Squad for tomorrow (not in any particular order): Colette, Chiara (King's), Polski, Kirstie, Hannah, Amanda (captain), Hayley, Jodie, Andrea, Charlie, Edna, Paz, Frech Jo (yes!), Chelsea, Liva, Inge (not confirmed), Celine (King's).

First game - lost

Unfortunately we have lost our first game against St Francis 56-5; but we stay positive. We had really good squad with 2 players completely new to rugby but they both did amazing. We did a lot of good things - for example our scrums were very powerful and we won few of them. We also had few impressive runs and ball recycling moments - some of those should have resulted with tries but we made mistakes.

The most positive information is that it was the first time we played together and we know we can do better - we just need to learn from this lesson. We know exactly what mistakes we made and how we can sort them. So let's go to work team and let's get ready for the home game on 11/09!!

Yours, peace and love,

Andrea

Game day - St Francis v Millwall Venus

Our first game is scheduled for 2pm at St Francis Rugby Club in Crawley. It is unfortunately miles away but we are ready for this new challenge more that ever. In the last 2 months we have managed to recruit few amazing players and many promising beginners. We are strong, positive and most importantly – we have a 15 with some subs! That's a point for free;) But hey, the plan is to bring back the whole set of points.

We are meeting at 11:15-11:30 at the club. I will bring some beers for the way back;)

The team for this game is (alphabetically):

Zaii Alema, Andrea Bielska, Paz Bombo, Jodie Botha, Kirstie Hargreaves, Harry Heard, Amanda Huddleson (captain), Rebecca Kelly, Chelsea McDonagh, Alice Merritt (LSE), Charley Mitten, Louise Norris, Hannah Salway, Edna Schweizer (manager), Liva Servan, Lucy Sutcliffe, Colette St-Onge, Hayley Whitehead

Peace and love,

Free gumshield

Hello! I am not into sharing adverts normally, but I have received a link to a short survey. If you complete it, they will send you a FREE gumshield!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OPRO1

Training tonight - Monday 29/08

Hello guys!

It's bank holiday but the training is still on! Please join us at 7:30pm. If there will be enough ladies, we can split from the guys and do some more prep for our first game.

Andrea

Players news - August 2016

Players, supporters, friends,

The pre-season is full-on and we have very good numbers on the trainings. At the moment we are being coached by James Wakefield and the coaches from the Return to Rugby. Also Monday mixed fitness session have a good turn out from the women side, which makes me particularly happy as this is one of my goals for this season. Guys are also more used to our presence now, so we start to be properly noticed and we receive help and support from their side. We even managed to impress them with Rosie's super-pass;) It actually impressed all of us, I don't care if the guys are impressed;) This Monday we have learned a lot of things about the defence and it would be very good to be able to implement this during the game. Wednesday was Robin and tackling basics - ground is hard as stone and we do need rain!

In regards to the coach issue - I am pleased to announce that we have a preliminary agreement with a coach and he will be joining us end of September/beginning of August. This is a really ambitious guy and I hope that our cooperation will be as successful as Matt's with the men's team. More details will follow.
 
The season starts on 4th of September with our first game against St Francis. We have booked the minibus so the travel is secured. Numbers looks good at the moment so I am very optimistic about it. Now what we need to do is WIN :) Let's start the season well.

I want to also mention the recruitment program targeting the universities. We have secured a deal with a network of small campuses and we will be hosting a recruitment open-day on 25th of October. Also, Matt has secured an agreement with Queen's Mary and RFU and we are going to get some new players from them. 

Some other admin things, especially for the new guys - please remember that you need gumshields and it would be nice if you could buy the club socks at the bar. We should look like a team ;) Also, the short are available at Millwall store at https://www.oneills.com/shop-by-team/rugby/rugby-union/millwall-rugby-club.html 

Don't forget about your membership - if it's due - pay it :)

Also, for those who still didn't sign up for this - Jodie organises a recruitment gathering/social event in the Greenwich park this Saturday at 2pm. There is a ball game planned, bit of leafleting and pub crawl so please let me or her know if you want to join!

Peace and love!

Andrea

Last session

I'm so proud of you guys. Last training was really good and the numbers are starting to look really positive. I think we are building very successful team. We have some experienced players who are clearly inspiring others to be better and to develop and we also have few beginners who are really doing well. I can also see a lot of energy in all the girls. On top of that we have James as a coach and the coaching support from Robin. It looks like Randall and some other coaches from Back2Rugby may get involved too! See you next week!

Training 10/08/2016

Hello Millwallians! (is that even a word?)

It's the training day today and I want to encourage everyone to come. I hope you are all pumped up with emotions and motivation after watching rugby sevens at the Olympics.

We have an amazing coach and fantastic group of new girls so let's get to work :) I also want to remind that our first game is in less than a month so we should get together and practice, practice and practice! Can't wait to see the effects of that hard work that we did this summer.

Peace & love

Andrea

First training - done

So fellow ruggers.. We finally came back. The clubhouse was full of people and Matt the coach gave us a bit of a speech about the player's survey. Unfortunately, the girls were not included, so we were warming up our calves and ankles (and patience);) After that, we have all headed to the pitch and started some work with James Wakefield and James Newman. It was absolutely great to work with those two! We had a few new players including some proper beginners so that was additionally interesting.  Anna was around too with her 8 months belly taking some pictures and thinking what hurts more, giving birth or being tackled by Amanda.  Well, I can tell you, both are pretty painful ;)

Let's go to work!

Pre-season starts tomorrow!

Ladies, don't forget that the pre-season starts tomorrow and we have a new coach to help us with the preparation for this exciting season. Don't forget your boots - the ground is hard, but not that much. I was playing touch last night in hard-pitch boots and it was bit too slippery. Let's go to work!

Urgent - BOOT APPEAL - Kenya

Ladies, Marcella Collins from Saracens and FRN went with Maggie Alphonsi to Kenya for some charity work. Apparently there are some really talented rugby players in Kenya but it looks that they are lacking total basics like BOOTS. So they have a deal with an airline, that it will deliver for free to Kenya all the boots that we will collect. It can be your old boots that you are not using anymore. But you are free to buy some brand new too! Originally, they said they will be collecting them at the FRN 7s, but I am going to do it earlier so please let me know if you have any or bring it to the Wednesday training.

Andrea

Pre-season training starts on 27th of July

All, I am happy to announce that the pre-season is going to start officially on 27th of July. We have managed to convince an amazing person, James Wakefield, to help us with the pre-season until we will hire a coach. This is great news as James is extremely experienced and  has such a great approach to people! Let's make an effort and show in large numbers :) Also, James is happy to hear from us if we have any suggestions in regards to what we want to work on. I said to start with basics. Also, Matt (men's coach) is going to send some training suggestions over. I am very optimistic and can't wait to start!

Last thing, although there is no official session on Monday, I am planning to come to the park to do the fitness with the fitness group so please join us at 6:30pm if you fancy some light training.


PRE-SEASON TRAINING
Monday 7:30pm (mixed men & women fitness) [no official session on 25th of July]
Wednesday 7:30pm (rugby training with James)

 

The picture of sample exercise ;)

Women 7s Team GB named

Great Britain has announced their squat for the Olympics. One of the girls that we have trained with couple of weeks before in Regent's Park, Amy Wilson-Hardy is one of them. Good luck ladies!

http://www.scrumqueens.com/news/great-britain-squad-completes-rio-line

Spring cleaning

As we are slowly approaching pre-season, we have gathered in the clubhouse to do some spring cleaning. The medikit was empty, although there was enough petroleum jelly (enough to grease a horse) we have new water bottles, some kicking tees, kit is ready too. Can't wait to be on the pitch!

Venus is recruiting!

Thanks to Andrew Hesselden we have this brand new amazing poster! Let's recruit! Let's go to work!

If you are here because you are interested in playing rugby, get in touch with us on FB or at venus@millwallrugby.com. Rugby is for girls! And we do teach complete beginners! Don't by shy!

Venus training with the Team GB girls again

The weather was not inviting but we went to Clapham anyway to take part in the RFU training session and very glad we did.  They began with some passing techniques in a session led by the England girls, one of whom didn't take up rugby till a bit later on in life (so there's still hope for some of us) and then worked the session up into some game playing skills; we are proudly sporting some of the marks of that today.  It was very cool to not only meet with some girls new to the game but also to rub shoulders with the elite. Jodie

IRFU Exiles Women Screening 2016 - please read

Dear All, we have been contacted by the Irish Rugby Football Union Exiles. They are looking to identify Irish qualified players who live outside of Ireland. They work alongside the players playing for their club as they only have 1 or 2 sessions a year.If you think you may be Irish (!!) and you are potentially interested in taking part in their sessions, please let me know on ladieschair@millwallrugby.com :)

Another chance to train with the GB 7s girls

Following the last week's successful event with the GB 7s girls, some of us are going again to the Rugby Sidestep training on Wednesday 13/07. If you are keen to join them please contact Jodie at jodie@millwallrugby.com

It was an amazing experience and great fun! I strongly encourage everyone to go!

  

Training session with the GB team girls!

What an evening with Sarah McKenna and Amy Wilson-Hardy, England & Team GB girls!

We have arrived at Regent's Park just around 6:30pm and immediately started the training. There supposed to be 3 sessions of 45 min but we end up having one long sessions until 9pm. While Edna was playing touch game, Rosie, Charley, Hannah and me, started with the GB girls. We were also waiting for Anna who got lost in the park. She end up on the soft ball pitch and found herself an hour later!;) Edna joined us after the touch. We also met some of our old friends from Kilburn Cosmos or Haringey. It was loads of fun and such a great opportunity! Sarah and Amy are soooo talented and so impressive. It was extremely inspirational. We also hand out some of our leaflets and agreed with Haringey for some social day in the nearest future!

If you wonder, what do you need to do to have some guns like Amy.. well, they are being contracted by RFU, the girls, not the guns ;) and they have trainings every day all day...  :D

#rugbywomen

Come and play alongside the GB 7s Rugby Girls

On 5th of July, few of our members are going to Regent's Park to take part in the Rugby Sidestep which is a free and full contact rugby session with GB Ladies 7s team. It's a program aimed at touch players and its goal is to give touch players a chance to try contact rugby, but anyone can join, especially the beginners who just got into rugby family! 

We are aiming to meet at Regent's Park at 6:30 pm. I am leaving from Isle of Dogs (Island Garden DLR) at about 5:40pm so let us know if you want to join us! (venus@millwallrugby.com).

Venus vs Barnes - Millwall Park

Venus lost 52 v 0 at home today vs Barnes Ladies. 

It was a well played game with Venus dominating the scrums and line outs. There were a few breakaway tries by the opposition which made the difference to the score line in what was actually a close game.

If you'd like to play rugby, we always welcome new members at our Monday or Wednesday training sessions.  For more info, contact venus@millwallrugby.com.

Venus Training - Mixed training tonight is CANCELLED

Due to the blustery weather and the difficulty putting our training lights up safely in the wind, we've decided to CANCEL tonight's mixed training session.

The clubhouse will also be closed for the lines to be cleaned, so enjoy a night off.... or hit the gym instead!

Venus Monday & Wednesday Night Training

At Millwall we're making some slight changes to training on Monday & Wednesday nights.  These changes mainly concern the men's section.

Women who are complete beginners are still welcome to attend on either Monday or Wednesday nights or both.

Our Monday night session is mixed with the men and will be non-contact touch rugby and fitness.  The Wednesday sessions will be contact sessions as usual.

Read more about the changes here.