Singapore women’s national team

The Beginnings

The history of women’s rugby in Singapore has been a short but proud one. The game was introduced by the Singapore Rugby Union through the men’s clubs in 1996.

The first Singapore women’s national 7s team was formed in 1997 and they represented the republic at the Hong Kong International Women’s 7s and the inaugural Asian Women’s 7s in the same year.

Since then, the Singapore women’s national 7s team has grown from strength to strength. One of their significant wins includes becoming plate winners in the Hong Kong International Women’s 7s in 2003

Within Asia, the team achieved it highest ranking in 2004, when it became 2nd in Asia behind Kazakhstan in the Asian Rugby Football Union’s Asian Women’s Championship 7s held in Almaty. The team retained their top three placing the next year when the Asian Women’s Championship 7s was hosted in Singapore.

As an indication of the growth of the game in the region, women’s rugby was included for the first time in the South East Asian Games 2007 in Korat, Thailand and the Singapore Women’s 7s team took the silver medal ahead of Cambodia and Laos.

The Ultimate Game

Whilst rugby union in the 7s format was quickly becoming popular in the late 90s in Asian countries, most of the them had not yet developed the full game in the 15s format. This is with the exception of Japan and Kazakhstan, which are the only 2 Asian countries to date which have qualified from Asia for the I.R.B. Women’s World Cup

With the help of the Singapore Rugby Union, the game in the 15s format was introduced to the clubs in 2005 and the first Singapore women’s 15s league was established in 2006.

The first Singapore national women’s 15s team was formed that year and took part in A.R.F.U.’s Women’s Championship 15s in Kunming. Although losing their first four test matches over 2006 and 2007, the team was not to be denied their first win for long.

The Singapore Women’s National 15s team registered their first victory at the 2008 Asian Women’s Championship 15s in Taraz, Kazakhstan when they beat Kyrgyzstan 38-0. The Singapore Women narrowly lost a place in the finals to traditional power house, Japan, in a game which signaled a significant awakening to the growth of the game within the region.

The Singapore Women’s 15s team is currently ranked 4th in Asia.

Text courtesy Shao Ing

Images courtesy Singapore Women's Rugby