Before Coronavirus put a stop to rugby across the country, women and girls rugby in Wales was thriving. No more so than Gowerton based girls hub, West Swansea Hawks. We caught up with Dave Graham-Woollard, the Hub Lead, to see how they were doing.
“We were preparing really well, we had lots of things already in the pipeline and had more coaches in place than ever before. What was really encouraging for us was the number of girls that had already started working hard ahead of the new season. We had a lot of the U15s and U18s coming through as coaches. They were so enthusiastic, and the younger girls loved the fact the older girls were coming into coach them.”
West Swansea Hawks was established back in the summer of 2016 where they originally had around 20 girls sign up. Since then, the hub has gone from strength to strength with over 100 girls involved. The club’s primary aim is to foster, grow and support a sustainable pathway for girls’ rugby in the area, which was developed one year ago, along with the Pontarddulais and Gorseinon Senior Womens teams, with the launch of the senior side, West Swansea Hawks Ladies.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 brought everyone’s season to halt, which gave the side a chance to reflect on the past few months.
“From a senior’s perspective, the Ladies team were doing really well. They were getting used to the new structure and the way the points were being awarded but they were enjoying playing in proper games. It’s well-driven by the girls themselves and they work on their own development."