Ask anyone with knowledge about the first women's rugby union World Cup and they will tell you a lot.
31 years ago, it was only 31 years ago, but memories are different and rumour is rife.
The teams were accompanied by KGB agents. Three days before the final, another had to sleep on the floor. A young baby attended talks with the governing body of rugby.
It was only nine days, but the intrigue, as well as its game-changing legacy, has echoed down the decades.
It's a good time to look back at the World Cup of 2022.
A meeting was the beginning of it all.
The 1990 festival of world rugby in New Zealand was not considered a World Cup due to the small number of international sides taking part.
The first World Cup to be closer to home for English players was a priority. What's the simplest solution? Certainly, to host it on their own.
There was a need for a volunteer to organize the event and Deborah Griffin stepped in.
The impact of that decision is still felt today, but as she laughs, "I must have put my hand up."
A streamlined team of women was chosen bygriffin. Before we could even patch people into calls, it was important that they could work together and meet easily.
She picked her club mates. Alice Cooper was in charge of communications and Sue Dorrington was in charge of commercial affairs.
We didn't really know what the problems were so we weren't worried.
It turned out there were more than one.
The first fight was with the International Rugby Board.
There is an exhibition on the 1991 tournament at the World Rugby Museum. She found an "off the books" meeting between the IRB and Griffin.
She mentions the fact that she gave birth to her first child five months before the World Cup, as if it were a small issue in the whole endeavor.
When they found out about the tournament, she was called into the IRB and took her daughter with her.
The men's World Cup was organised by the IRB in 1991, but the women's World Cup was not. They objected to the similarities between the logos for the two events and the fact that the Rugby World Cup was being called.
The international organisation told them off.
The strength of the organizers is that they walk out of the meeting and question why they are in charge of us. We are going to do it anyways.
Griffin and co changed their logo but kept their name because they felt it was sufficiently different because of the inclusion of the word "women's"
The IRB did not want the World Cup to be affected.
How would it work? We did not understand. I can't imagine how it would affect their tournament.
At the time, Dr Furse described a apathy and disinterest in women's rugby.
Paul Nelson wrote about the regrettable sniping of men who saw the game's development as an intrusion into their territory back in 1991.
The women stood firm and set their sport on a path that would eventually lead to World Rugby - the modern iteration of the IRB - removing the words'men's' and 'women's' from World Cup tournament titles.
He has been involved in the progression of women's rugby for over thirty years. She became a member of the World Rugby Council.
She describes the early days of her activism as fighting. There were other challenges that the IRB was not the only one.
There were a lot of bumps.
Just minutes before the draw took place in February, France confirmed they were going to the World Cup.
At that time, New Zealand was at the center of a debate over whether women should perform the Haka with a wide-legged stance.
A sponsorship company was hoping to raise a quarter of a million dollars, but only got a few things in kind, leaving the organizers short of money.
The hotel rooms that England's players had been offered for free were suddenly double booked.
"We're three days from the final and we're looking for bed and breakfasts but they allowed us to sleep in sleeping bags in the conference room, it was just a nightmare," Dorrington told World Rugby in June.
Although England's men's union the RFU would offer help later, the separation was such that the 1991 side wore a different rose on their shirts.
Rugby is seen as a novelty by some newspapers. A piece in the Sunday Mirror on 31 March 1991 was titled "Supremely feminine", with England players posing in evening gowns and the journalist assuring readers the team is "no macho machine"
It isn't entirely a story of misunderstanding, opposition and conflict.
Local authorities offered to pay for a welcoming ceremony and dinner for the host city.
Some male rugby writers took the games seriously after Vernon Pugh persuaded Welsh clubs to host them.
The Japanese team was a big hit. They didn't score a single point in the tournament, which was their first time playing a Test match.
Instead they drew attention with their reportedly pink scrum caps worn by every player, some standing at 4ft 9in tall, and bow to the opposition scorer every time they concede a try.
The Soviet Union was one of the most intriguing teams.
There were hints that the Soviets would attend the rugby festival in New Zealand. When the side arrived at the airport, there were suspicions.
Teams were expected to provide their own transportation and pay for their own food and lodging because of the sponsorship problems. The Soviets weren't able to. They were saved by Carol Isherwood.
There is a rumour surrounding the tournament that the Soviets had a large team. Dr Furse doesn't know if that's true. There is a customs debacle around the side.
The Soviets traveled with goods to trade because they couldn't leave their homeland with hard cash. The side tried to sell alcohol on the steps of the City Hall, pushing their luck too far.
The soviet team were staying at the Cardiff Institute and the customs officers had to go down there to help smooth things over.
Tensions arose with other teams.
The Soviets were left with no money for food and were said to be "hoovering up all the breakfast" at the accommodations they shared with other sides.
The coach of the Soviet team was quoted in a book as saying that they had no money or food. It's a dire situation.
The girls are determined to play well, but the danger is that they will be too weak to provide serious opposition. They have saved everything to come to Wales and it is sad.
The people of Cardiff stepped in to help, with one cafe giving them a daily three-course meal and Marks & Spencer giving them credit for clothes.
The other teams who spent their own money to get there felt a bit put out by the fact that their unions had not given them any money. There was some anger.
The Soviet Union did not participate in the tournament.
Testimonies from Soviet players at that time have been hard to come by, but Scrum Queens writer John Birch spoke to Larisa Masalova in 2009, who said: "For most of us it was the first time we travelled abroad or even got passports. We loved that trip."
The final came around even with all the twists and turns, despite the fact that she didn't sleep while the tournament was on.
The United States was aided by "locks from hell" and "turbo props" as they defeated England 19-6.
It was a celebration of what women were capable of on and off the pitch, but one that left the event's organizers with a mountain of debt. There was a company that promised big sponsorship returns that didn't show up. The soviets had their own accommodations.
The men's game has a moral responsibility to help cover the costs, according to David Hands.
The company was told by the RFU that it wouldn't be paid and that a cheque for the rest of the money would be written.
The men's governing body's tacit support was a step in the right direction, but it wasn't until the turn of the millennium that the women's union was brought into offices.
Some of the best professional packages are offered by the RFU.
The journey isn't done yet. England's players are expected to fly economy to New Zealand with limited funds for women's rugby.
She said there would be a mental health name for how she felt after the tournament. I didn't see anyone for 6 months.
World Rugby is behind this year's event in New Zealand, which should make it easier to play. It will show that the hard work of the volunteers contributed to something larger. The World Rugby Hall of Fame will induct all four of the Chief Organisers at the semi-finals.
The importance of 1991 is hard to understate, according to Dr Furse. The New Zealand rugby union welcomed the sport after the event.
In 1994, the World Cup was held in Scotland and won by England, but the IRB would not recognize it. In April, the names of the first two winners were added to the trophy.
The 1991 tournament brought about a self belief change for those involved.
She thinks people realized we weren't going to leave. It was a case of we are not alone.
They were not the only ones who attended the final. With more than 30,000 tickets sold for Saturday's opening match in Auckland, it is hoped that the city's 60,000-seater Eden Park will be full for the final.
One of the things that has changed since 1991 is the number of people.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
