Marc Bazeley
@MarcBazeley
The interest around England’s exploits in the TikTok Women’s Six Nations shows how women’s rugby continues to grow, but barriers to participation remain; England’s touch rugby players are aiming to break down some of those when their World Cup comes to Nottingham next year
Last Updated: 27/03/23 5:22pm
England will be hosting the touch World Cup in 2024 on the back of hosting the European Championship last year
The ‘sold out’ signs were up at Kingston Park on Saturday as 10,053 spectators turned up to watch England beat Scotland 58-7 in their TikTok Women’s Six Nations opener – another sign of how interest in the women’s game has grown in recent years.
Hope are high of eclipsing the world attendance record for a women’s Test match when the reigning champions host France at Twickenham next month too, with over 40,000 tickets already sold, while the RFU aim to have 10,000 girls and women playing rugby union by the time the 2025 women’s Rugby World takes place in England.
Before then though, the 2024 Touch World Cup will take place in Nottingham next July, which will see the world’s top female touch rugby players competing on the same stage as their male counterparts either in their own tournament or as part of mixed sex teams.
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Rugby’s non-contact variant has shown double-digit increases in participation in recent years, and England Touch Association national development manager and international player Sammie Phillips believes it can be key to helping break down barriers which still exist for females wanting to play the sport.
“There are still lots of barriers to females playing rugby,” Phillips, who played for Saracens and England Students before taking up touch after suffering an injury, told Sky Sports. “You might find some parents happy for their son to play and not their daughter, and it’s still a very real thing about what traditionally are sports for girls and boys.
“Something like touch starts to break down the stereotype; you see a girl with a rugby ball in her hands running around playin …