RFU appoints first female President as England to host the Women's Rugby World Cup
For the first time in its history, the Rugby Football Union will have a woman President, with Deborah Griffin taking on the role as England hosts the top women’s teams from across the globe at the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, with the final at the Home of England Rugby.
Deborah steps up to this prestigious position which, in addition to the title role, involves chairing the RFU Council and fulfilling other constitutional responsibilities. In this crucial year for the women’s game, both in England and worldwide, having the host union presided over by a woman is particularly fitting.
And it is fitting that it is Deborah who becomes the first female President, having become the RFU’s first woman Council member in 2010 and, in 2014, its first elected female Board member.
“Now we have almost equal numbers of women and men on the Board, so we’ve made great progress,” she says.
“I’m excited to be taking up the role of President but, as the first female, I have some trepidation because there is bound to be a lot of scrutiny. I want to be myself and bring a female perspective but also honour the presidential role and represent the RFU, encompassing all our clubs, players and volunteers.”
Camper van venture
There will be a great deal of presidential work surrounding the world tournament, and to ensure she can watch as many of the 16 competing nations as possible, across as many of the eight venues as she can, Deborah will be on tour in her camper van.
She’ll be driving to Sunderland, Manchester and York, before moving on to Northampton and Exeter, then onwards to Brighton, before parking up in Bristol for the quarter-finals and semi-finals. She’ll return to London for the bronze and final matches at Allianz Stadium.
Innovation and adventure are in her nature. When there was little rugby for women and she was studying for a BSc Economics degree at University College London in 1978, “With a group of girlfriends, we challenged King’s College to a game of women’s rugby. If you didn’t take up the challenge, your challengers took the points, so, after some sessions almost entirely in an old gym, we played them.
“We’d roped in girls from sports like hockey and netball. When I came off the pitch, I thought the match was the best experience I’d ever had. We started asking other universities to play us.
“Then, when most of us had left UCL some time earlier, we went to play at the club of our coach at the time, which was Finchley RFC. Five marriages came out of the two years we were there, but eventually we left because the then club committee refused us membership. The players welcomed it, but the committee were, I think, nervous about becoming the first club to have female members – although they’d been glad to have us making the teas and paying to play on their pitches.”
She was one of the founding members of the Women’s Rugby Football Union (WRFU) in 1983, which at the time included Wales and Scotland as well as England, before the England-only version became the RFUW in 1994. Deborah also helped organise a Great Britain v France match at Richmond FC’s Athletic Ground in 1986.
Rugby with pioneers
“Richmond were keen to have a women’s side, so we moved there,” said Deborah, who continued to play at the club for seven years alongside others like Carol Isherwood, who captained England, Sue Butler, who captained Wales, and Debbie Francis, who played for England in the first Rugby World Cup and later for Scotland when they created a women’s team.
Having qualified as a chartered accountant, Deborah worked initially in the hotel industry, then as a consultant in corporate finance. She joined Homerton College, Cambridge, as Bursar in 2012, retiring in September 2022.
With a daughter, Victoria, and a son, Laurence, who was playing for Old Hamptonians until recently injured, she experienced all the challenges of being a busy working mother.
“I would literally be on the go from the moment I woke until late at night, and holiday time or time off was devoted to rugby. I used to think: everyone talks of athletes needing recovery time, but mums never have any!”
Taking the women’s game forward
Her rugby commitments saw her putting in almost the equivalent of a second job. She chaired the organisation of the first Women’s World Cup in Cardiff in 1991; was RFUW Finance Officer and later Chair of the Board; and she also saw the RFUW through to full integration with the RFU in 2012.
“Integration really had to happen. Whereas in most other countries the women’s game grew up within the men’s set-up, for some three decades we operated independently, had Sport England and UK Sport funding, and were in control of our own destiny. But there is nothing like the power of the RFU, particularly for the community game, and we knew we’d eventually have greater access to resources through integration.
“In 2005, integration failed to get voted through, but after a Governance Review, the RFUW was given a position on Council in 2010, the RFUW Board nominating me. By that time, we were working very closely together. I was the first female Council member and later the first elected female Board member, and I have always felt very welcome. I always knew, however, that it was important to be visible, to ask questions. As women’s and girls’ representative, it was important to give them a voice.”
Having spent nine years on the RFU’s Audit Committee, she chaired the Women’s Performance Management Group, served as women’s and girls’ representative on the RFU Council until 2018, and then as World Rugby representative. She also chaired World Rugby’s Audit & Risk Committee. In the 2011 Birthday Honours, she was awarded an OBE for services to women's rugby.
Fantastic rugby from all nations
She says that the day of the 58,498 world-record attendance for a standalone women’s Test, the Red Roses’ Grand Slam-winning match against France at Twickenham, was “incredibly emotional.”
“I invited my parents, both well into their eighties, and I found the day emotionally exhausting, knowing all the work, all the planning that had gone into us being able to get to this point, by so many people. There was a peak of 936,000 watching on TV. This year’s world tournament is a wonderful opportunity to attract young people to the game. Ticket prices are affordable and the atmosphere will be joyous, with fantastic rugby from all nations involved. The quality of rugby continues to improve across all countries, and it’s a wonderful chance for us to take our sport to a whole new audience.
“Ticket sales are setting records and it’s fabulous that it will be on terrestrial television and shown around the world. I’m very confident that we will fill Allianz Stadium for the bronze contest and final – and I’m sure there will be two great games.”
Deborah was at the last final in New Zealand. Having retired on 30 September, she flew out to watch her nation come so close, and the Black Ferns win a sixth title.
This time, she will be representing the host nation, but is sure to think back to the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 and the journey she and the women’s and girls’ game have been on ever since.
