Inaugural Swiss Rugby Ladies’ Day

17.05.2019 / created by Christa Herrmann

Thun, 11.05.2019 - 56 brave rugby girls & women from across Switzerland had a great time at the inaugural swiss rugby ladies’ day under the dramatic mountain scenery of Thun.

After more than one year since the last official development activity for women’s rugby in Switzerland, we had heard one or the other rumours of new women’s sections forming in various clubs across the country: It was time to launch a day dedicated to these new teams! Initiated by dynamic president of TV Thun, Lorenz Zellweger, the FSR developed a new format fully dedicated to the old-school rugby spirit: The Swiss Rugby Ladies’ Day. The main objective of this day is to have as much fun as possible while testing and practising rugby skills and living the values of the game - solidarity, respect, integrity, passion, and discipline. While every (new and experienced) rugby girl and women from 16 years onwards was invited, the main stars of the day would be the players new to the game.

It quickly proved that interest was huge, with 10 clubs from West to East signing up players, and we were excited to welcome 56 players who brought along 6 coaches in Thun on this grey and wet Saturday morning. The motivation was big, and we started with a lot of smiles in the joint warm-up with everyone, where players were challenged to climb around each other: No shyness allowed! The participants learnt and practiced important basic skills like tackling, passing, fixing the defense, and fighting to move forward in an atelier-style training session in the morning which was coordinated by the FSR women’s commission and coached by the club’s coaches. The players deserved their lunch break after all this work, and TV Thun proved it’s reputation as a great host true and served delicious pasta salad for everyone.

15 players were introduced to the secrets of refereeing by FSR referee Michele Catarinella in a 30-min workshop in the cozy gym, while the clouds opened up and poured down what they could outside. In the meantime, the coaches built 4 joint teams for the tournament in the afternoon and distributed real playing kits, so our players would look great while putting on their rugby show later on. Just in time for our start of the tournament afternoon of the day, the sun reappeared, which allowed for team pictures with the newly-formed teams.

The 4 teams played each other in 3 games, 2*10minute-halves, that makes for a whole 60 minutes of rugby for everyone! The experienced players did a great job passing on their knowledge and helping out the new players, who had a blast discovering the game of rugby. Final scores don’t count at this day - the winner is the team who has the most fun throughout. It was actually impossible to define that, as everyone was having a blast!

The players were tired but happy after those 3 games, and got to enjoy a real rugby-style 3rd half while cheering on the Thun men vs Basel, which played right after we finished. Of course, we assigned 4 team player awards to players who showed exceptional team spirit within their teams, and the tournament “rugby spirit” award went to Fabienne from RC Uri, who might have been the smallest player of the tournament, but didn’t hesitate once to take on the biggest girls in front of her!

Congratulations to all the players, a big thank you to all the coaches who joined their players for this day, and a special thank you to TV Thun for the fantastic organisation and Löru for the motivation to revive the women’s development activities.

Outlook / Feedback from all sides was extremely positive, and the idea to launch a regular “ladies day series” with 2-4 events per season is taking shape. If you are interested to host such a day and/or help us build these series, please get in touch! women(A)suisserugby.com

Participating clubs: