Counting down to 1000 tests

It will have taken women??s rugby just over 31 years to reach this moment, and it??s a perfect time to stop and look at how far the game has come, and how widespread it is becoming.

It is fascinating, for example, to compare and contrast the 1000 test with the 999. In a wonderful piece of chance juxtaposition, this will ?? in contrast the clash of the titans in Auckland - feature two of the world??s smallest and newest women??s rugby test nations ?? the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

It is a perfect illustration of how women??s rugby is played well beyond the traditional rugby nations. Indeed, this has always been the case. With the exception of France, countries such as Belgium and Sweden have longer histories of playing women??s test rugby than any of the ??big eight?? rugby nations. Indeed the first ever test did not take place in, nor was it the idea of, any of the traditional homes of rugby.

In 1982 the Dutch Rugby Union ?? the NRB ?? was celebrating its 50 anniversary. Women??s rugby had been played at a number of Dutch universities for some years, and graduating students were continuing their sport by setting up teams in local clubs. As a result, and as part of the celebrations, someone had the idea of contacting the French women??s rugby union and inviting them to send a team.

France was the obvious place to turn. The French women??s union - the AFRF ?? was well established, having been formed in 1970, and France??s national club championship was already well into its second decade (by way of contrast it would be another 12 months before a women??s union was formed in the UK, and three years more before there were any organised competitions). It was also perfectly timed as only weeks before the invitation was sent the then chair of the AFRF (Nadine Leterre) had suggested that a French national team should be formed.

When the invitation came in it was seized upon by the French.?˜ Two national trials were hastily arranged at opposite ends of the country, with the first national coaches ?? Jackie Leterre and Claude Izoard ?? working with club coaches to identify players for the squad. However there was no funding of any sort available ?? the players selected had to pay for everything, from transport and accommodation down to the plain white shirts they wore (it was some years before they were allowed to wear the French cockerel - for the first few years the French women played with a rose on their shirts!).

The game itself took place in the university town of Utrecht, which then had the Netherland??s largest women??s club team (the Utrecht club is still in existence, but has moved several times since and the ground where that first match was played is now under a motorway). France won thanks to a single try, 4-0, but the game was such a success that a return fixture was organised for 12 months later, and games between the two nations took place every year for the next six years.

After playing on alone for two years, the French and Dutch were joined on the field by Sweden in 1984, Italy in 1985, and Belgium and a Great Britain XV in 1986. In 1987 England and Wales finally played as separate teams, but it was not until 1990 that either felt strong enough to take on the French or the Dutch on their own.

By that time the international game had moved outside Europe. The fact that women??s rugby was operating outside of the IRB and (in most countries) national unions did little to slow its expansion. Canada and the USA played the first non-European test in 1989, and in August 1990 New Zealand organised RugbyFest - a massive festival of women??s rugby that attracted club and national teams from around the world. The USA, Netherlands and USSR took on their hosts in the first ever inter-continental tournament, won (very narrowly) by the home team thanks to a narrow 9-3 win over the USA.

Within months the first Women??s Rugby World Cup was being played in Wales and, the rest is ?? as they say ?? history. Opposition to the women??s game continued within some unions, but after the second World Cup took place in Scotland in 1994 ?? despite not being granted official status by the IRB ?? it was clear that women??s test rugby was not going away. By the 1998 World Cup ?? held, fittingly perhaps, in the Netherlands - the game had official acceptance from the IRB, who had taken over the organisation of the women??s game.

It took women??s rugby nearly 12 years to reach its 100 test, four more years to get to 200. Today ?? and despite the competition the 15-a-side game gets from sevens (which did not appear on the horizon until 1997) around 50 or more tests worldwide are played every year. Fifty-five countries (and three joint supra-national teams ?? World XV, Great Britain and Caribbean XV) have played test matches, and eight ?? England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain ?? have played over 100 tests (the 1000 test will also be England??s 199).

The most successful teams have, needless to say ?? but also somewhat remarkably - been the two teams who will play the 1000 test, but it is incredibly close. England have won 86.87% of their games, while New Zealand have won 86.72% - so the winner in Auckland will be the most successful team in the 1000 tests.

It??s quite a gap to France in third place, and USA fourth. But other teams in the top 10 further illustrate the breadth of the game. In fact, other than the top three, none of the remaining ??Big Eight?? rugby nations make the top 10. Asia??s Kazakhstan (5) and?˜Japan (6) have won over half of their tests, as have the Netherlands (7).?˜ Spain and Russia are in 8 and 9, while the 10 most successful women??s rugby team is Hong Kong ?? even though they have never played in a World Cup.

This weekend's test between Uganda and Kenya was the?˜998th?˜test.?˜It is a further example of the strength of the game that by the time of the 1000th test?˜we will, in a matter of weeks, have seen?˜games?˜involving eight nations spread across four continents. North America will saw?˜USA take on France in a three test series, Africa for the two Elgon Cup tests between Uganda and Kenya. The focus returns to Europe?˜for the 999 game in Prague, before test 1000 in Auckland on 13 July. And before the year?˜is out?˜we'll soon have the Asian Four Nations too!

Sevens rugby has grabbed many of the headlines in recent years - some countries have all but stopped playing tests in the lead up to the sevens World Cup and Olympics ?? but test rugby is far from dead. From New Zealand and England, to Switzerland and the Czech Republic it remains the ??real thing?? and ambition of most players. The ultimate test.