London Irish to launch top-flight women's team
London Irish will on Tuesday announce the formation of a top-flight women's team, with plans underway to formally apply for a place in the Allianz Premier 15s for the 2023-24 season.
The decision to introduce a women's team was described as "a natural next step" by the club, with former England Women assistant coach Graham Smith, part of the Red Roses' 2014 Rugby World Cup-winning coaching staff, appointed to lead the development of on-field performance.
Smith said: “The club has a shared passion, purpose and vision to take women’s rugby at London Irish to the next level – and I’m very excited to be a part of the journey.”
London Irish Ladies RFC, the club's current amateur side known as 'The Emeralds', have won three successive promotions and are set to play in the Women's Championship South West 2 for the 2021-22 season.
The team's director of women’s Rugby, Mary Fyfe, added: “We are incredibly excited about what the future holds for women’s rugby at London Irish as we prepare to write a new chapter in our history. The desire and commitment to establish an elite women’s team at London Irish builds on the growth of the women’s set-up over recent years and is very much a natural progression for the club.”
London Irish will work closely with nearby St Mary’s University Twickenham, with the club's elite women’s set-up working in partnership with the university, sharing coaches and talent to identify and develop players for on-the-field success, alongside their academic studies.
The professional men's side have re-established themselves in the Gallagher Premiership over the past two seasons and are currently in the top six, with the club also successfully moving to the Brentford Community Stadium from their previous groundshare at the Madejski Stadium in Reading.
London Irish CEO, Mark Bensted, said: “This is a welcome development for London Irish Rugby Club. It is a logical next step for us and we are excited about getting all the building blocks in place in support of our application to join the Premier 15s in 2023. There is a lot of hard work ahead, but we are committed to this project as the club continues to grow following its move back to London.’’
The next intake for teams into the Premier 15s will come in 2023, with London Irish hoping to emulate the successful start that Exeter Chiefs Women have made to life in the Premier 15s this season, sitting in sixth place in their first Premier 15s campaign having been launched back in 2019. Ninth-placed Sale Sharks Women are also competing in their first Premier 15s season.
All 10 of the current Premier 15s clubs will remain in the league until the end of the 2022-23 season, with the sides selected for the competition decided following an independent audit of the 2019-20 teams' ability to deliver the competition’s Minimum Operating Standards and their on-pitch performance. The leading six teams in that regard were then invited to return, while the remaining four slots were left open for the other Premier 15s sides to apply to return, and for new teams to apply to be part of the competition.
Exeter and Sale were subsequently added, replacing Firwood Waterloo Ladies and Richmond Women, with London Irish hoping to follow a similar path in two years' time.
