Harlequins Women, formerly known as Harlequins Ladies, are a

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...

club based in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England and in

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, England. They were founded in 1995 as the women's team of

Harlequin F.C. Harlequins (officially Harlequin Football Club) is a professional rugby union club that plays in Premiership Rugby, the top level of English rugby union. Their home ground is the Twickenham Stoop, located in Twickenham, south-west London. Foun ...

and rebranded in 2017 after merging with Aylesford Bulls. In 2017, they were selected as one of the franchises for the new

Premier 15s The Premier 15s, currently known for sponsorship purposes as the Allianz Premier 15s, is the top tier of the women's English rugby union domestic league system run by the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The league was created mainly from teams in t ...

league, but they also cater for new, aspiring and social players within their 3rd XV squad.

History

Beginnings

Harlequins Ladies were founded in 1995 as the women's team of

They initially played their home games at Centaurs RFC, Grasshoppers RFC, Old Isleworthians RFC and at Harlequins' previous training base at Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

. They won their first league title unbeaten and were subject of a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary. In 2000, they were promoted to

Rugby Football Union for Women The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was the governing body for women's rugby union in England. As of 2014 the RFUW and RFU combined to be one National Governing Body. The headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, London. History Women's ...

Division 1. However, they were later relegated from top flight. Following the RFUW restructuring the leagues in 2007, Harlequins Ladies were placed in Championship 2 South East. In 2017, they competed in the National 2 South East league.

Reformation

In 2016, Harlequins announced a partnership with

Women's Premiership The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership was the top level of women's rugby union in England until 2017. It was formed in 1990 and was run by the Rugby Football Union for Women. It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by Premier ...

club

Aylesford Bulls Ladies Aylesford Bulls Ladies Rugby Football Club were a women's rugby union club based in Aylesford, Kent, England. They played in the Women's Premiership. They were founded in 1998 and were the ladies team of Aylesford Bulls. Following an agreement wi ...

. The agreement stated that Aylesford Bulls would become a part of Harlequins and would wear their colours but initially retain their name and at first split their matches between

Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a village s ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and Harlequins'

Twickenham Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a sports stadium located in south-west London, England. The stadium is home to Harlequins rugby union team, who play in the Gallagher Premiership. The stadium has a capacity ...

. However the elite squad later moved to be permanently based at

Surrey Sports Park The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

at the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

, with the 3s maintaining their links with the local area and keeping Old Isleworthians RFC as their training and playing base. Although in 2021, Harlequins Women 3XV moved to Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club and formed Harlequin Amateurs Women. In 2017, Harlequins Ladies were awarded a franchise for the new Women's Super League, later renamed Premier 15s. In doing so, Harlequins fully took over Aylesford Bulls Ladies with Harlequins being confirmed for the new league in a full merger and would cease using the Aylesford Bulls name. In July 2019, they changed their name to Harlequins Women.

Record attendance

On 10 March 2018, Harlequins Women played in front of a crowd of 4,545 spectators during a game against local rivals

Richmond Women Richmond Women, formally Finchley RFC, is a women's rugby union team based in Richmond, London, England. They were founded in 1986 and played in the Women's Premiership. They are also the women's team of Richmond F.C. History Richmond Women were ...

, establishing a record attendance for a British women's club rugby match. The following season, on 30 March 2019, they beat their own record with an attendance of 4,837 for their last regular season league match of the

season against

Gloucester-Hartpury Women Gloucester-Hartpury Women's Rugby Football Club is a women's rugby union club based in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. They are the unified women's team of Gloucester Rugby and Hartpury University R.F.C. They were founded in 2014 and as of ...

Ground

Harlequins Women play their home league matches at

In their early years they played most of their home matches at

. However, each season they played an increasing number of fixtures at

with four times in the 2017–18 season and a further six times in 2019–20. For the 2023-23 season,

became their home for league matches. On 30 August 2018, it was announced that the Harlequins Women 3rd XV squad would be playing their home matches at the brand new facilities at Grasshoppers RFC.

Current squad

The Harlequins Women squad for the 2021–22 season is:

Club staff

Coaching staff

Season summaries

Gold background denotes champions
Silver background denotes runners-up
Pink background denotes relegated

Club honours

Harlequins Women

**Champions

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

**''Runners–Up: (2) 2017–18, 2018–19''

References

{{Premier 15s Women's rugby union teams in England Sport in Guildford Harlequin F.C. Rugby clubs established in 1995