Hurricane Ivan effectively put a stop to the development of women’s rugby at the SSG, so it was great to witness over sixty women playing in the first ever women’s touch league. ‘Top Drawer Fine Lingerie’ have stepped up to sponsor the league and the four teams and both initiatives signal the return of women’s rugby and rugby development programs at the SSG to the Cayman Islands.
The Top Drawer Womens Touch League consists of four teams of sixteen girls each and is currently played on a Monday evening. The games comprise of two twenty minute halves with six girls on each team on the field at all times and with rolling substitutions.
The Top Drawer Women’s Touch League is a spin off from the AndroGroup summer touch league in which men and women play in mixed teams. The summer league has seen a steady growth in the last three years with as many as twenty four teams playing the 2006 season. Each year the rules have been modified to match those used internationally around the world for touch Rugby. One of the big hurdles has been getting enough women to play and develop their touch rugby skills in order to allow the league to grow and the last rule of International touch to be adopted. This last rule is that teams comprise of six players with three being women at all times. During the 2006 season teams were allowed to field seven players with three being women and four being men.
Touch Guru Rangi Attenbourough from New Zealand spent three months in Cayman over the summer grooming the players and referees on the development of the game and bringing the sport into line with all of the international rules and interpretations. It was at his suggestion that the Top Drawer Women’s touch League was formed in order to allow many more girls to develop their skills and participate in the game, without the pressure of cometing with the men. The hope is that by the 2007 summer touch season all of the girls playing in the Top Drawer Womens Touch League will be better trained, skilled and have a whole new confidence in their abilities with the sport.
So the Top Drawer Womens Touch League is serving a multi faceted function in that it gives our girls a chance to develop, it gives our new girls emerging from the schools development programs an arena to compete and improve their skills, it offers the summer touch league better trained players and it gives men and women together a chance to compete in international competition.
There are many all male, all female and mixed tournament’s worldwide, we would hope to see the Cayman Islands competing in world wide touch competitions in the near future. To do this we must train and play under the full international rules. The sponsors Top Drawer Fine Lingerie and AndroGroup are incredible and fully beleive in the program. The volunteers are fantastic and do a great job in organising and providing the competitions. The players definately enjoy the game and it has opened a whole new season and revenue stream for the Rugby union in an otherwise very quiet period. Touch can also serve as a great skill development tool for new and emerging players of the full contact game so the Top Drawer Womens Touch League is an excellent tool for the girls from our developing school program to join and to develop their ball, defensive and running skills so a great big thanks you to Top Drawer and all who have made this league possible.
Results of Monday October 23rd Round 1 matches
Hell’s Angels 3 v. Tempted to Touch 5
Try Scorers for Hell’s Angels: Leigh Fagan 2 Rowena Lawrence 1
Try Scorers for Tempted to Touch: Nancy Lewis 1 Emma Ward 3 Joan Murphy 1
Wonder Women 4 v. Touch n’ Go 2
Try Scorers for Wonder Women: Lisa Kehoe 1 Sharon Stainrod 3
Try Scorers for Touch n’ Go: Sharlee Durham 1 Jo Ziegler 1
The refs selected Emma Ward and Sharon Stainrod for women of the match.
Next round Monday October 30th.
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