‘We’ve won for women’s sport’: England sing in the rain to celebrate World Cup success

The euphoria and unbridled joy that has been a hallmark of the women’s Rugby World Cup shone through the rain on Sunday as thousands of England fans gathered to celebrate the Red Roses’ victory.

Young girls and women were out in force to cheer on the victory party at Battersea power station, just as they had been at the Allianz Stadium when a world-record crowd of 81,885 watched England beat Canada 33-13.

While a few players were a little bleary eyed – hardly a surprise given that some only called it a night at 6.30am on Sunday – there was little sign of a drop in energy levels as the team led a series of singalongs and revelled in their glory before posing for selfies with supporters.

As they celebrated, England’s coach, John Mitchell, told the crowd how much he admired his team, whom he called “fun but driven”, and what they had achieved. “They are unreal to work with every day,” he added.

The Lionesses star Lucy Bronze and the double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes were among those celebrating, with Bronze – who was part of the England football team’s Euros victory in July – telling the crowd: “This feels like deja vu, it is amazing.”

Holmes, meanwhile, pointed to a sporting summer dominated by the England’s women’s football team and athletes such as Amy Hunt, Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson as showing that “English women are holding the fort” when it comes to sport.

A tournament that captured the nation’s attention and put women’s rugby on the map was given a further boost on Sunday with the BBC reporting that a peak audience of 5.8 million viewers had watched the World Cup final. That was not only a record for the women’s game, but also made it the most watched rugby game of the year.

As the England players celebrated, the Red Roses winger Abby Dow urged those in power to ensure the momentum of the past few weeks was nurtured and built upon. “We’ve got the ball rolling and I don’t want it to stop,” she said. “What is so important is the influence we will have towards grassroots right now. Rugby has the influence to change anyone’s life.

“It is quite stereotyped, especially with boys, that it can be a middle-class sport, but it’s not,” she added. “It really isn’t. I want to see rugby move up to the north, I want to see it flourish across the country, because look at what football has done in the women’s game. It’s got so many girls questioning why they are not doing it and why the boys are getting their knees muddy.”

Dow also put the Red Roses’ victory in wider context, adding: “The most important thing is realising not that we’ve won a medal, but we’ve won for women’s sport and women’s rugby,” she said.

“What we are trying to prove is that, actually, it’s not just a one-off with football. It’s women’s sport as a whole and it is here to stay. I hope that kids will never be limited by it and we are proving that.”

The Rugby Football Union, which runs the game in England, has set the ambitious goal of having 100,000 women and girls actively playing by 2027 – 40,000 more than now.

It has also pledged to create more investment opportunities across the women’s game with the goal of becoming the first union globally with a fully self-sustaining women’s game by 2031.

Another England player, Natasha Hunt, said it was time that other rugby nations followed the RFU’s lead by investing more in the women’s game to help raise standards.

Hunt’s call came after only five out of 32 games in the tournament were decided by under 10 points – with significant gaps in funding between sides such as England, New Zealand and France and the rest leading to few close games.

“You want it to be an even playing field,” she said. “We’re so fortunate that we’ve been so supported by England rugby, but there’s no reason that other nations can’t get behind that and support their girls, because it’s a hell of a spectacle when you do it right.

“And I think England have done an incredible job – like World Rugby have done an incredible job – with what they’ve done with this tournament, and it’s just kind of a blueprint now of how you go.”

As the crowds and players celebrated, Ali Donnelly, whose book Scrum Queens tells the history of the women’s game, said it was worth remembering how far it had come in a staggeringly short period of time.

“I started going to women’s Test matches in the early 2000s,” said Donnelly, who now leads communications at the RFU. “It might sound like a cliche to say that the crowds were mostly family, friends, and the occasional dog – but that was the reality.

“Back then, the women’s game wasn’t even thinking about fighting for equality; it was fighting just to be noticed and battling attitudes that questioned whether women should be playing at all.

“The pace of change in the past three years has been absolutely extraordinary,” she added. “This World Cup has felt like we have captured a perfect storm. The challenge for everyone now is to build on this.”

That is certainly true. But after a tournament that has shattered records and misconceptions, and attracted millions of new fans, the sport as well as England’s players deserve to have a few days to celebrate.

Buy Monday’s newspaper in the UK and receive a 16-page supplement celebrating England’s Rugby World Cup win.

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