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RugbyFest 1990
Tournament details
Host nation New Zealand
Dates1990-08-19 – 1990-09-01
No. of nations4
Final positions
Champions  New Zealand
Runner-up  United States
Tournament statistics
Matches played7

RugbyFest 1990 (officially the "Women's World Rugby Festival") was a two-week festival of women's rugby, held in Christchurch, New Zealand between 19 August and 1 September 1990. The event has been inflated sometimes to the status of a mini-world cup. In reality with only four teams taking part, and lacking major nations such as France, England and Canada, it was never that. However it was still a significant step forward – the first ever world-wide multi-regional women's rugby tournament.[citation needed] Held only eight years after the first women's international it was a sign of how much the game had already expanded.

Status of RugbyFest internationals

Teams from Asia, North America and Europe took part alongside local sides in a series of 15-a-side fixtures. Participants included four "national" teams (originally there were to have been five, but Japan withdrew) and featured what are held by many to be the first internationals ever played by New Zealand and USSR/Russia.

In practice, there is some dispute about how "official" the national teams were, not least because in some cases there was not yet a national women's governing body to grant official status.

For example, the USA RFU considers all games by the USA team against "national" XVs at the tournament to be official "tests" whereas the New Zealand (or at least the New Zealand rugby almanack) lists the games as unofficial "New Zealand XV" fixtures - but includes data from the tournament in its official player statistics.[1]

As the IRB provides no official ruling or listing of women's rugby internationals (the only list of any sort appears here), it can only be for the reader to decide on the status of these games.

"International" fixtures

Final table

Pos Nation Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1  New Zealand 3 3 0 0 73 3 +70 6
2  United States 3 2 0 1 73 9 +64 4
3  Netherlands 3 1 0 2 12 98 −86 2
4  Soviet Union 3 0 0 3 4 52 −48 0
Source:[citation needed]

Results

26 August 1990
New Zealand 56–0 Netherlands
Christchurch
28 August 1990
New Zealand 8–0 Soviet Union
Christchurch
29 August 1990
Netherlands 0–38 United States
Christchurch
30 August 1990
Netherlands 12–4 Soviet Union
Christchurch
30 August 1990
New Zealand 9–3 United States
Christchurch
31 August 1990
United States 32–0 Soviet Union
Christchurch
1 September 1990
New Zealand 12–4  World XV
Christchurch

Other "national team" fixtures

The festival also included a number of games between the "national" teams and local sides. Results were:

 Netherlands:

19 August 1990
Canterbury "B"4-12 Netherlands
20 August 1990
Crusadettes20-0 Netherlands
20 August 1990
Burnside-Merrivale6-12 Netherlands
21 August 1990
Canterbury "A"34-4 Netherlands
22 August 1990
Netherlands w/oTokyo
23 August 1990
Paremata-Plimmertonbeat Netherlands
(score not recorded)
24 August 1990
Netherlands beatNagoya
(score not recorded)
25 August 1990
Netherlands beatTokyo
(score not recorded)
27 August 1990
Wellington10-4 Netherlands
1 September 1990
Auckland25-0 Netherlands

 United States:

27 August 1990
Canterbury0-12 United States
28 August 1990
Auckland0-6 United States

 Soviet Union:

19 August 1990
Canterbury "A"20-0 Soviet Union
20 August 1990
Paremata-Plimmerton0-0 Soviet Union
26 August 1990
Belfast16-14 Soviet Union
27 August 1990
Auckland25-0 Soviet Union

See also

References

  1. ^ New Zealand Press Guide for the 2010 World Cup
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