Rugby in the Holy Land

Israel used to be a British Colony and between the end of World War I and II (1917-1948) mandatory Palestine (today Israel and the Palestinian Authority) was under the British administration.  It was then that rugby was first introduced in this region, but it wasn't until the late 1970s that the game started taking a more organised shape, with the union joining the IRB in 1988.

The first women's team in Israel started in 1998 was part of the Jerusalem Lions RFC. The team was comprised mostly of new immigrants from England and the United States, and while they basically played against themselves, they also took part in the Holy Land 7s ("The most holy rugby tournament as Earth", as it was described locally at the time!) against Wales, Germany and a couple of other big rugby nations.

About two years later, Tel Aviv RFC started its own women's team, which for a short time competed against Jerusalem. However, as it so often happens, Jerusalem disbanded and now it was Tel Aviv who played against themselves. However, with a pool of over 30 players it was quite easy to have regular 15s games, and the team also travelled to play in the Flanders 10s and had a tour in Ireland to play local clubs there. So, they kept themselves quite busy.

In 2005 a big change took place in women's rugby here. The first and major step was the formation of the women's 7s national team, who has since then been competing in the European Championship on a regular basis. The more important step though was the formation of two new women's teams, in Haifa and in Ra'anana (unfortunately that team lasted just one season).

It was the first time there was an actual league with three teams competing regularly against each other. The year after saw the return to action of the Jerusalem women's team, and last year we welcomed a fourth club into the mix – the Galil Elyon (upper Galilee) women's team.

We play 7s and 10s here, though mostly 7s as we are still very much an emerging nation and our first priority is still getting more players. This year we have close to 90 active players around the different teams and clubs (and growing!). In addition to that we have several girls (u16-u18) who train on a fairly regular basis.

Our national team is definitely a source for pride. It starts with the coach. We are one of the only nations in the world that have a woman coaching the national team. Michal 'Miki' Veitzman is one of the veteran players of our game, a former captain of the national team and last but certainly not least – proud mother to Amit, a very sweet baby.

Miki is starting her fourth year as national team coach. After a first year that saw the team finish last in Division A with no wins, in the past two years the team finished 3rdin Div B, showing an improved play each year. Perhaps the biggest achievement though is that the core of the squad remains year on year, and so we have about nine players who are starting their 3rdconsecutive year on the team.

In addition to Miki, there are several other female coaches who work within the IRU – the Jerusalem ladies are coached by one and there are several players who are coaching the girls teams and are very active in development.

Another point for pride is the fact that there are three female referees who are active within the union. Two who are just starting and I've been refereeing for five years now and has also refereed for FIRA-Aer in 2 European championships and referee in the men's 15s and 7s league.

To be a female rugby player in Israel is quite challenging.

Some of the issues are certainly international struggles – for example a lack of funding, stereotypes, numbers due to women not being encouraged to take part in a sport and such a physical sport at that.In general the biggest parts of the funding pie in Israel go to soccer (men), basketball (men again) and once in a blue moon you hear about a great success story in Tennis, Judo or Swimming. Rugby? Well, not so much. Our union works very hard on promoting the sport, but their attention is first and foremost on the 15s and 7s men teams. Following that are the junior boys and then us.

Again – this is quite a universal issue I believe.

As a young nation, Israel's main focus and biggest budget go to defence and security and with most of the citizens of the country serving a two to three year mandatory army service, that poses two challenges. The first is that the army, unfortunately, is still pretty much male dominated and this carries onwards to our society in general. Women have equal rights, but that does not mean we are treated as such, always.

The second challenge is that once our girls (and boys) reach the age of 18, whatever they did before gets put aside for the duration of their army service. It's very hard to invest so much time and effort in the U18-U16 ages and have them just disappear.

The last struggle we have is that Israel is pretty much an Island. There isn't a lot of rugby around us (some in Greece and growing numbers in Turkey and Egypt). The volatile political climate in our region doesn't really allow us to travel to those countries (Greece aside) for rugby competitions, and so we have to fly to Europe… bringing us again to the issue of funding. But, we make the most of it!

In general, women's rugby is on a constant rise here for the past three years. Our player numbers have more then doubled, by the end of the 2014-2015 season we expect to have 6 active women teams in the country, and that in return will allow a strong selection to the national team who we all feel is in a for a remarkable year.