Vintage Ladies Rugby T-Shirt Emily Valentine Ecru

\nThe Vintage Ladies Rugby T-Shirt Emily Valentine�by Ellis Rugby is 100% peach cotton Ecru colour. It is an exceptional quality�T-Shirt inspired by the history of Ladies�Rugby. \n \nFollowing research by�John Birch, the earliest ever�record of a female playing rugby is the Irish-born�Emily Valentine.�She played rugby as a girl in 1887. \n \nWhile most rugby fans have heard of the legend of William�Webb Ellis and his exploits at Rugby School in 1823. The story of Emily Valentine is less well known. \n \nEmily's story is remarkable because there are no other records at all of any other female rugby players in the nineteenth century. There are some vague suggestions that the women's rugby teams may have been�played in France,�and possibly New Zealand, in the 1890s. It is not until 1917 that we know of another female player 16-year-old Mary Eley. She played for Cardiff Ladies (a team formed from women working at a local�brewery). This team beat Newport Ladies 6-0 at�Cardiff Arms Park on 16th December 1917. Mary died in 2007 at the age of 106. One of the sports oldest players (though, being a woman, she is unlikely to appear in any�record books). \n

Emily Valentine the First Lady of Rugby in 1887

\nAfter that a handful of photographs, and less than two minutes of film shows that women's rugby played in France, Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s and 1930s. But there are no records of who played and�how popular it became. And�these pioneering attempts ended with the War, after which there are no records of any women playing rugby until the 1960s when the game played in the UK, North America and�France. Women's clubs began to appear in these�countries and New Zealand 1970s, and the first international played in 1982. \n \nBut until 1990, over 100 years after Miss Valentine fought to get her school team. When it started, Ireland's first women's club had formed. \n

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