Remembering WRWC “91” Gill Burns

Women??s rugby was still very new in England in 1991. The national team had played just seven test matches (excluding the Great Britain games) and five of those had been against Wales. England knew about the USA ?? the side they would face in the final ?? after the successful , but it??s not an exaggeration to say they were jumping into the unknown as tournament hosts, with no real idea of what was ahead.

Burns' main memories of the tournament relate to the step up in England??s preparation.

??There was a real feeling that we were doing things professionally for the first time. I was excited from the first gathering at the County Hall about that. We had little, if any, knowledge of the other teams at the World Cup so the pre-event training had been purely physical with little input regarding our opponents.?˜ I can remember looking out for opponents and guessing which position they played.??

??I had a photo taken with one of the 5ft 2" Japanese lock forwards - she thought I was a giant!??

Burns remembers too some of the off the field action.

??I remember the college where most of the teams stayed, the Russians selling caviar and vodka to fund the trip and the fact that the whole village of Llanharen turned out to watch the games even when Wales weren't playing. They all cheered for Italy however, when England played!??

England probably went into the tournament as one of the favourites, simply by virtue of the test match experience they had picked up between the Great Britain games and their own seven tests, and Burns remembers a real confidence around the squad.

??I can't remember having any structured mental preparation for the tournament but we were a confident side that won most of our fixtures so I??m sure we went there with the hope of winning.?˜After we saw the first matches ?? there no video footage to study in those days - we all felt we could win the tournament however we knew that USA were by far the best of the rest.?˜??

That assumption proved to be true when the USA beat England 19-6 in the World Cup Final in Cardiff.?˜Burns?˜converted the penalty try England won early in the game, but the USA ran out winners once they grew into the game.??We were na??ve,?? Burns recalls.

??America had a squad with much experience and our team was relatively new and not so streetwise.?˜ We knew we had a strong enough team to win but let the Americans in with two easy tries - we had a pack that was easily good enough to dominate but our game plan wasn't enough against the accomplished USA squad."

Even so, the experience of the tournament helped England in the following years?˜she believes.

??It helped all the sides. It was the first time that each nation was able to size each other up and start the ever expanding collection of performance data.?˜We were devastated after we'd reached the final but lost - it made us determined to improve and commit to excellence. The following few seasons were fantastic for us. We learned from our 1991 mistakes and England went from strength to strength.?˜??