Royal London and The British & Irish Lions continue to invest in women's and girls’ grassroots rugby with latest £40k award

• The 2025 Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award recognises a club from each of the four Home Unions with £10k grants to support their work in women’s and girls’ rugby.

Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual pensions, protection and investment provider has announced the latest winners of its Championing Women & Girls’ Rugby Award, in partnership with The British & Irish Lions, with four more clubs across the Home Unions getting an equal share of the £40k fund for 2025. The grants demonstrate Royal London's commitment as Founding Partner of the first British & Irish Lions Women’s Team to invest in grassroots rugby and support the next generation of future Lion’s Women’s players.

The Championing Women & Girls’ Rugby Award, now in its second year, will provide funding to the latest cohort of successful clubs; Lancaster Lionesses (England), Buccaneers RFC (Ireland), Greenock Wanderers RFC (Scotland) and Ynysddu BG RFC (Wales), who each receive a trophy and a £10k grant to invest in their rugby programmes. The Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award goes to a club in each Home Union that has driven inclusion, equality, and growth for women’s and girls’ rugby through innovation and impact, and the newly awarded clubs are really leading the way.

Lancaster Lionesses – Lancaster, England

Built in partnership with the successful Lancaster University Women’s Rugby Club, Lancaster Lionesses showed entrepreneurial spirit to set-up as a female only rugby club in 2023. With an all-female leadership team, they have created a community rugby experience that starts with women and girls — not as an afterthought — and has a welcoming, no-pressure space to try rugby for the first time. The team actively volunteers across towns and villages in Lancashire, building genuine community connections including planning youth rugby camps and forming relationships with schools and after-school clubs. Lancaster Lionesses are focused on removing the financial and social barriers to playing rugby in their local area.

Buccaneers RFC – Athlone, Ireland

The team at Buccaneers RFC is committed to ensuring that women and girls of all ages and backgrounds feel welcomed, supported, and inspired to play rugby. Although only recently formed, they actively promote the game through outreach to schools and community groups, and cross pollinate with other sports, through inclusive ‘give rugby a try’ sessions, this is important as they are in an area where rugby isn’t the main sport. Their female coaches, mentors and international role models provide a visible and achievable pathway, showing that rugby is for everyone, regardless of culture, ability or experience. Buccaneers have a long-term sustainability strategy in place and have a focus on women’s issues and women’s health.

Greenock Wanderers RFC – Greenock, Scotland

Girls as young as seven and women in their forties now play for Greenock Wanderers, with mothers and daughters sharing the pitch. They’ve had rapid growth, increasing their membership from less than 40 to more than 150 women and girls in three years. The club is committed to ensuring that physical and financial barriers to joining the club are as low as possible. They support people from underprivileged areas into rugby through a Scholarship Programme and encourage new mums to stay in the sport for longer through its Maternity Policy for players. This includes provisions such as pausing club fees, increased help from physios and safe breastfeeding spaces at the club.

Ynysddu BG RFC – Ynysddu, Wales

Celebrating its 40th season, Ynysddu is proud to have 41 active players aged 21 to 42, including seven who have represented the Welsh Deaf Squad at the World Cup. A small club in a deprived area of the Valleys, Ynysddu ensures accessibility by offering fee reductions to make rugby available to girls from all socio-economic backgrounds and to further foster an inclusive atmosphere. The club aims to create a safe and nurturing environment for girls to play rugby and ensures that coaches are trained to be culturally sensitive and supportive, tailoring their approach to different needs and abilities. Ynysddu is encouraging members in all aspects of rugby with camps set-up for both touch and contact rugby, as well as offering coaching opportunities for women and girls.

Susie Logan, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Royal London, comments:

“As Founding Partner of The British & Irish Lions Women’s Team, we’re proud to continue to work with the Lions on our Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award.

“The decision of which club to award in each of the unions is getting more difficult as there are so many amazing applications. The amount of work, time and effort being put in across women’s and girls’ rugby clubs by coaches, players, parents and club volunteers is phenomenal. We are committed to playing our part in shaping the future of women’s rugby, and I can’t wait to see what the winning clubs will do with the funds to make a difference to their players and their communities.”

The award is a flagship element of Royal London’s sponsorship as Founding Partner of the first ever British & Irish Lions Women’s Team. Alongside the grassroots award, the sponsorship includes a ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ investment of £3 million, which is designed to inspire more women and girls to participate in rugby and to foster equality and opportunity at every level of the game.

Findings from recent Royal London research* show that while overall sentiment for women’s sport is positive, there is still more funding and support needed. The research exploring public sentiment around women’s sport in the UK, particularly the accessibility of team sports for women and girls, shows there is a significant opportunity to inspire and increase the number of women and girls playing sport across the Home Unions.