Kent women's rugby teams tackle fundraising goals

The exhibition match was hosted by the Mayor of Swale at his charity day.   Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00Well, it was a derby day like no other on the Easter weekend. Rivalries were put aside

00:13and new ones formed, with Aylesford Bulls ladies and Maidstone Rugby Club women joining

00:17forces to take on Swale ladies, made up of Sheppie, Sittingbourne and Favisham ladies

00:22RUFC.

00:23As part of the Mayor of Swale's charity day at the Sheppie Rugby Football Club, the two

00:27sides were playing to fundraise for charities like Lupus UK and Cetada, all while promoting

00:31women's rugby in the county.

00:33Women and girls rugby is becoming really big, you know, it's building, of course at the moment

00:39we've got England Roses playing in the Six Nations at the moment, they're playing today

00:44as well, so anything like this is brilliant to get women and girls rugby out there, just

00:49helping our local two teams as well to do the same, build their numbers so that you've got

00:55then extra local teams to then play and be involved as well.

01:01The Mayor selected the charities when he was elected and said he had the idea for the exhibition

01:05match at the club's end of year dinner.

01:07We came up with the idea of actually, we could put an event on, a Swale trophy. Initially we

01:13were thinking of having the three sides take part against each other and then we actually

01:19thought, well no, hang on, Favisham and Sittingbourne are still developing, so why not have a combined

01:24Swale 15 and have a game that way. And Sheppie have been fantastic in getting all this arranged

01:29with the other two clubs, bringing Maidstone and Aylesford over for the competition, and

01:35hopefully it's going to be a really good day and a really good game and we can raise lots

01:38of money for the two charities.

01:39And one of those charities, Cetada, who give advice and support to those struggling with

01:43domestic abuse, credit these kind of events with getting their name and their work out

01:46there.

01:47It's really important, especially at a community event like this, for people to

01:52be aware of what we do. I think people just don't realise that domestic abuse is really

01:58prolific in our communities and with one in four women being a victim of domestic abuse

02:02across their lifetime, we know that our services are never more needed.

02:08In the end, the home advantage wasn't enough and despite leading by more than 20 points for

02:11the first half, Maidstone and Aylesford won by 42 to 35.

02:19Now even though Maidstone and Aylesford women's might have clutched the win here, it's also

02:23a wider victory for women's grassroots rugby here in Kent, with Faversham and Sittingbourne

02:28not often able to play these types of large games due to limited numbers. So even though

02:33it's been a day of tackling your opponent, they've also been tackling larger issues at the

02:37same time. I've been McDermott for KMTV in the Isle of Sheffield.