Lichfield Ladies Rugby Union Football Club is a women's

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club based in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. They play their home matches at Cooke Fields and play in the

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 It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by Premier ...

. They are also the women's team of

Lichfield Rugby Union Football Club Lichfield Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club based in the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire. The first XV currently play in Regional 1 Midlands, a fifth tier league in the English rugby union system, following their promotion from Mid ...

History

Lichfield Ladies were initially founded as part of Lichfield Rugby Union Football Club. They eventually managed to make their way to the Women's Premiership, after three successive promotions, where they have been playing since before 2002. Lichfield Ladies have a local rivalry with fellow Women's Premiership club,

Worcester Ladies Worcester Warriors Women, currently known as the University of Worcester Warriors for partnership reasons, and formally known as Worcester Valkyries, are a women's rugby union club in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. They were founded in 1993, ...

. In 2009, they hosted a festival of rugby designed to raise awareness of the

2010 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in England. The International Rugby Board Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limite ...

which was being held in England. The festival was also intended to gain more players for Lichfield Ladies. Lichfield Ladies' second team plays in RFU Championship Midlands 2. In 2011, they were the only team to defeat

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 ...

in the league. Richmond had previously gone unbeaten until they played Lichfield. Between 2010 and 2013, Lichfield Ladies finished in third position in the Women's Premiership for three consecutive years. In 2006, there were plans for Lichfield to install an

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

pitch at Cooke Fields. In 2017, Lichfield were disappointed not to be selected for the new

Women's Super Rugby 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 ...

. After losing an appeal, they commented that they considered the selection system had been flawed, not based on results, as Lichfield came 3rd in the Women's Premiership, more based on the promise of a future supply of international players as well as bias in the selection process.

Notable players

Lichfield Ladies have had a number of international players play for them. Since 2005,

England national women's rugby union team The England women's national rugby union team, also known as the Red Roses, represents England in women's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Women's Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. ...

captain,

Sarah Hunter Sarah Alice Hunter, (born 19 September 1985) is an English rugby union player. She has represented since the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup and currently captains the team. At the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup Hunter received her 138th internati ...

has played for Lichfield Ladies.

Emily Braund Emily may refer to: * Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name Music * "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily'' * "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...

Victoria Fleetwood Victoria Fleetwood (born 13 April 1990) is a rugby union player and personal trainer. She represented at the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup and the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. International career Fleetwood made her England debut in 2011. Sh ...

, Georgina Gulliver,

Natasha Hunt Natasha (russian: Наташа) is a name of Slavic origin. The Slavic name is the diminutive form of Natalia. Notable people * Natasha, the subject of '' Natasha's Story'', a 1994 nonfiction book * Natasha Aguilar (1970–2016), Costa Rican sw ...

Justine Lucas Justine Lucas (born 3 May 1990) is an English rugby union player. She represents England and made her debut in 2013. She was named in the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad for England. Lucas began her rugby career at the age of 20 in her final y ...

Harriet Millar-Mills Harriet Millar-Mills (born 16 April 1991) is an English rugby union premiership, English rugby union player and a member of the England Women's Rugby team. International career Millar-Mills made her debut for England in 2011 for the U20 team, ...

Emily Scarratt Emily Scarratt (born 8 February 1990) is an English rugby union player. She currently plays centre and fullback for Loughborough Lightning and for England. She is also a qualified teacher. Club career Scarratt played for Leicester Forest b ...

and

Tamara Taylor Tamara Taylor (born September 27, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She appeared in the role of Dr. Camille Saroyan, head of the Forensic Division, in the forensic crime drama ''Bones (TV series), Bones''. She also appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

all played for Lichfield Ladies and England after being included in the England Women's elite playing squad.{{cite news, author=Sara Orchard , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24013615 , title=England omit Watmore and Richardson from elite squad , work=BBC Sport , date=2013-09-09 , accessdate=2014-02-28

References

Women's rugby union teams in England Lichfield