1994 Women's Rugby World Cup

1994 Women's Rugby World Cup

Tournament details
Host nation	Scotland
Dates	1994-04-11 – 1994-04-24
No. of nations	12
Champions	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
← 1991 1998 →

The 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second world cup for women. It was originally scheduled to be held in the Amsterdam, Netherlands (April 10–24) but was cancelled only weeks before. However, a replacement competition has been organised around the same dates in Scotland.

The official reason for the cancellation was that the event organisers failed to get official endorsement of the event as the "Women's World Cup" from the International Rugby Board (IRB). The minutes of the 1993 Interim meeting of the IRB state the following about the "1994 Women's International Tournament":

"The Council agreed to defer consideration of participation by member unions in the tournament until such time as a formal request is received from the organizers."^[1]

Hence not only was there uncertainty to whether it really was the "Women's World Cup" or not, but the IRB refused to endorse it regardless of its status – the "deferral" (above) was in practice a refusal to endorse as the next scheduled IRB meeting was only days before the event was due to start. It was not until 2009 that the IRB officially endorsed the event as a "world cup" when it published, for the first time, a list of previous winners.^[2]

Because of this, the Unions of some countries decided not to pay team expenses (including New Zealand, where women's rugby was by now fully integrated in the national union, and ultimately others as well) or withdrew their entries. Several team members decided to go ahead and raised the money themselves, but the surrounding uncertainty of the event status and the financial risk from teams pulling out prompted the event organisers to (rather abruptly) cancel it.

The women who had trained so hard, and had gone to much trouble raising money etc., were so disappointed at the cancellation that an alternative tournament in Scotland was soon organised. despite the IRB threatening sanctions against unions taking part in this unendorsed event, it went ahead.

Officially it (and its predecessor in 1991) were never endorsed by the IRB the Scottish organisers did not pursue the issue. However, all of the participating teams regarded it as the "real" World Cup.

Eventually eleven of the original sixteen entrants took part – as well as New Zealand, Netherlands also withdrew from both participation as well as hosts, and Spain pulled out very late – after the groups had been drawn – and were replaced by a Scottish Students team. Italy and Germany were also notable absentees.

Once the event was underway proved to be a great success,^[3] England exacting revenge for their 1991 defeat to USA, beating the defending champions 38–23 in the final.

Pool stages

Pool A

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
United States	2	0	0	232	0
Japan	1	0	1	10	126
Sweden	0	0	2	5	121

[92]
	1994-04-11	Sweden	0–111	United States	Melrose	[10/15/1]

[95]
	1994-04-13	Japan	10–5	Sweden	Melrose	[3/11/2]

[98]
	1994-04-15	Japan	0–121	United States	Melrose	[4/16/1]

Pool B

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
England	2	0	0	92	0
Scotland	1	0	1	51	26
Russia	0	0	2	0	117

[93]
	1994-04-11	England	66–0	Russia	Boroughmuir	[19/1/1]

[96]
	1994-04-13	Scotland	51–0	Russia	Boroughmuir	[4/2/1]

[99]
	1994-04-15	Scotland	0–26	England	Boroughmuir	[5/20/1]

Pool C

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
France	2	0	0	108	8
Ireland	1	0	1	18	36
Scottish Students	0	0	2	13	95

[-]
	1994-04-11	Scottish Students	8–77	France	West of Scotland RFC	[-/-/-]

[-]
	1994-04-13	Scottish Students	5–18	Ireland	West of Scotland RFC	[-/-/-]

[100]
	1994-04-15	France	31–0	Ireland	West of Scotland RFC	[26/3/1]

Pool D

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
Wales	2	0	0	40	13
Canada	1	0	1	33	11
Kazakhstan	0	0	2	8	57

[94]
	1994-04-11	Canada	5–11	Wales	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[16/10/3]

[97]
	1994-04-13	Kazakhstan	8–29	Wales	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[2/17/1]

[101]
	1994-04-15	Canada	28–0	Kazakhstan	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[11/3/1]

Plate competition

Round robin

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Ladder
Kazakhstan	3	0	0	83	12	9th
Sweden	2	0	1	46	56	10th
Russia	1	0	2	37	57	11th
Scottish Students	0	0	3	24	65	12th

[102]
	1994-04-17	Russia	13–20	Sweden	Kirkcaldy	[3/12/1]

[-]
	1994-04-17	Scottish Students	0–27	Kazakhstan	Kirkcaldy	[-/-/-]

[-]
	1994-04-19	Scottish Students	12–14	Sweden	Gala	[-/-/-]

[107]
	1994-04-19	Kazakhstan	25–0	Russia	Gala	[4/4/1]

[112]
	1994-04-21	Kazakhstan	31–12	Sweden	Stirling County	[5/13/1]

[-]
	1994-04-21	Scottish Students	12–24	Russia	Stirling County	[-/-/-]

Plate final

[115]
	1994-04-23	Kazakhstan	29–12	Sweden	Boroughmuir	[6/14/2]

Championship

Quarter-finals

[103]
	1994-04-17	United States	76–0	Ireland	Boroughmuir	[17/4/1]

[104]
	1994-04-17	England	24–10	Canada	Gala	[21/12/2]

[105]
	1994-04-17	France	99–0	Japan	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[27/5/2]

[106]
	1994-04-17	Scotland	0–8	Wales	Melrose	[6/18/2]

Championship semi-finals

[108]
	1994-04-20	United States	56–15	Wales	Gala	[18/19/2]

[109]
	1994-04-20	England	18–6	France	Gala	[22/28/3]

Shield semi-finals

[110]
	1994-04-20	Canada	57–0	Japan	Melrose	[13/6/1]

[111]
	1994-04-20	Scotland	10–3	Ireland	Melrose	[7/5/3]

Shield 3rd/4th (7th place)

[113]
	1994-04-23	Ireland	11–3	Japan	Boroughmuir	[6/7/1]

Shield final (5th place)

[114]
	1994-04-23	Scotland	11–5	Canada	Boroughmuir	[8/14/1]

Cup 3rd/4th place

[116]
	1994-04-24	France	27–0	Wales	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[29/20/1]

Cup final

[117]
	1994-04-24	England	38–23	United States	Edinburgh Academicals RFC	[23/19/3]

1994 Women's Rugby World Cup Winners
England First title

See also

• Women's Rugby World Cup
• Rugby World Cup
• Rugby World Cup Sevens
• Scottish Women's Rugby Union

References

External links

• Previous World Cup Women's Rugby results