13th June 1982: The day it all began

The game came about as the result of a meeting about women's rugby held in France in January 1982 between Henri Flechon, from France, and a delgation lead by Leo van Herwijnen, from the Dutch rugby union?˜- the NRB.

The main aim was for the Dutch to find out about how women's rugby was organised in France, but Henri was particularly impressed by the way the NRB had recently officially recognised women's rugby?˜- a long standing aim of French women that would not be achieved for another seven years.

Returning to the Netherlands, the Dutch enthusiastically used?˜everything they had learnt in France to build their game even further, and also decided to form a national Dutch team.

It was 1982 and in that year the?˜NRB was also celebrating its 50th anniversary?˜and as part of the celebrations it was decided to invite the French to send a team.

This was all agreed barely two months before the date of the game.

Officials from tiny, all-amateur,?˜Association Fran??aise de Rugby F??minin (AFRF) accepted the invitation immediately. The Dutch organised trials and selected a team by the end of April before arranging a number of training games - many of their players having little or no experience of full 15-a-side rugby!

On Sunday 13th June, the two teams?˜arrived at Utrechtse Rugby Club to play the historic game.

Friendly and celebratory the game may have been on paper, but on the field it turned out to be a?˜?˜tough, uncompromising game with the hosts putting the eventual French victory down to gamesmanship as much as rugby ability.

However, there were clearly no long-term disagreements (the "third-half" detailed in the report below possibly having a lot to do with that) as a return fixture was quickly organised, and the teams continued to meet annually throughout the rest of the decade.

For the first game, a Dutch news magazine - Panorama - sent reporter Henk Hansen to the report on proceedings. The result was a colourful article, mainly reporting?˜the game from?˜the Dutch point of view. It is not quite the style of reporting we might use today, but?˜it remains the only detailed report on this historic occasion: