LUCY: What is it like being a club or society in 2020?
JOY: The pandemic has meant it’s been challenging – I didn’t expect this when I ran for committee! It’s been particularly hard as a rugby club because social distancing and contact sports don’t really work together. The changing restrictions have made it hard to plan things in advance, but it has made us more flexible as a club.
LUCY: Has your club adapted well?
JOY: Yes – before the pandemic we held training sessions twice a week with contact, but we’ve adapted to training once a week, playing touch rugby without contact. We’ve actually also adapted a new type of covid-safe rugby which we play internally as a competitive activity! Our group has been split into two sessions to adhere to limits on numbers, but that has been a challenge when those numbers change due to people isolating.
Luckily everyone can still get involved with our online sessions, which have included a Christmas dinner, Halloween challenges and funny presentations held via Zoom.
LUCY: What has been the best thing to come out of the pandemic for your club?
JOY: It’s been a great year for us in terms of membership – we’ve grown from 76 members last year to 89 this year. We’re one of the few societies who have been able to train during the pandemic, which I think has made us more attractive to students.
LUCY: Are you worried about the future of your club?
JOY: No, I’m not worried about the club’s future. The one challenge will be for future committees to adjust to life after Covid – where we haven’t been on tour this year or last year, they won’t have experience of how things were done before the pandemic! They’ll adapt though – we did and future committees will be able to as well.
LUCY: Any projects you’d like to tell me about, or any in the pipeline?
JOY: We’re going to be posting members a self isolation pack which includes activities, games, workouts and quotes from leaders, and we’ve also got a podcast called You Play Rugby? which you can find on Spotify. We recently spoke to Carol Isherwood, a founder of women’s rugby!
LUCY: How do you think clubs and societies help people make friends?
JOY: Clubs and societies are a great opportunity to meet people from many different places and cultural backgrounds – especially those with similar interests.
At Women’s Rugby we all rely on and support each other. It feels like a family, and any age gaps don’t matter – it’s a great support network for us to help each other outside of Uni.
LUCY: How can people get involved with Women’s Rugby Union?
JOY: We’re hosting a Give It a Go session in January and we’d love for anyone who wants to try Women’s Rugby to come along to that. You can also follow and contact us on Facebook and Instagram and we’ll let you know if there are any free sessions to try coming up.
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