Rugby Union Football (RFU): First Woman President!
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
In its 154-year history, Deborah Griffin has become the first woman President of the RFU, with the aim of driving transformation within the sport.
Her new role is the culmination of a life dedicated to rugby and she first took up the sport when at university.
She remarked that:
"I just thought this was the most amazing thing I'd ever done; I just loved the game."
And added that:
"It's given me so much that I only ever want other people to have the same thing."
A founding member of the former Women's Rugby Football Union in 1983, she is one of four women, who organised the first women's Rugby World Cup in 1991, and, in 2010, became the first woman to be appointed to the RFU Council and, in 2014, the first elected female RFU Board member.
She is a qualified chartered accountant and spent nine years on the RFU Audit Committee.
Her appointment to this high office is yet another example of the increasing role that women are playing in sport around the world both as administrators and players.
Long may that continue!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
