Change of the Guard at RFUW

January 24th, 2008

This appeared on the Eastern Counties Blog today, and I am sure Vincent would not object to a bit of cut and pasting to acknowledge the service of someone who has done wonders for the Ladies and Girls game in this country.


Most of us at grassroots level know little if anything of who does what amongst the senior management of the RFUW.Yesterday, a change was announced which is worth recording.
Carol Isherwood is stepping down as Director of Rugby.

Why is this important to us? Two reasons:
Firstly, it is worth recording the departure of one of the longest serving and most dedicated servants of women’s rugby. Isherwood was a founding member of the RFUW in 1983 (i.e long before many of those who read this site were born!).
Her profile on the RFUW site includes the following information:
As a founding member of the RFUW in 1983, Carol Isherwood also sat as its first secretary. From there, she was appointed to a number of volunteer board roles over the next 15 years. Her achievements in sport are many, from working for the Westminster City Council for 10 years as the Sports Development Manager, to being the first Captain of the Women’s Great Britain Squad (1986) and the Women’s England Squad (1987). Carol is also a Level 3 coach, and has coached Richmond (girls, second and first teams), the South Division, England Emerging and the England Squad (Assistant Coach). Carol was recently awarded an OBE (2003) for Services to Women’s Rugby.
The other reason this change is worth marking, is Carol’s prime responsibility to
Direct and manage strategies for the development and growth of women and girls rugby.
Organisations change as they grow, and the RFUW’s capacity to support junior grassroots rugby has evolved and improved very swiftly over the last few years.
Given that “The RFUW Board will be reviewing the current staffing structures before any further announcements”, her departure seems bound to have further implications for our area of the game.
We wish her all the very best in whatever she does next.