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Loughborough Lightning (women's rugby union)

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Loughborough Lightning
Full nameLoughborough Students Women Rugby Football Club
UnionRugby Football Union
Nickname(s)Lightning
Founded1970s
Ground(s)Loughborough University Franklin's Gardens
Director of RugbyWales
Coach(es)England Nathan Smith
Captain(s)Scotland Rachel Malcolm
League(s)Premiership Women's Rugby
2022–238th
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.lboro.ac.uk/sport/performance/lightning/rugby/
Current season

Loughborough Lightning are a women's rugby union club based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. They are the Professional women's team of Loughborough Students RUFC and Loughborough University. Together with the netball team and the women's cricket team, the rugby union team is one of three women's sports teams based Loughborough University that use the Loughborough Lightning name.[1] In 2017, they were selected as a franchise for the inaugural Premier 15s season.[2]

History

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LSWRFC were initially founded in the late 1970s during a boom in women playing rugby at universities across England.[3] In 1983, Loughborough Students were one of the founder members of the Women's Rugby Football Union, set up to regulate women's rugby throughout the British Isles.[4] Two years later, they hosted the American touring Wiverns rugby team and provided a number of players to the Midlands Select XV that played against the Wiverns on their tour.[5] In 2009, Loughborough worked with the Nottingham Rugby Union in order to promote more men coming to Loughborough matches.[6] When the British Universities and Colleges Sport rugby union leagues were formed in 2004, Loughborough won the league for the first three consecutive years.[7]

In 2016, Loughborough Lightning bid for a franchise in the new competition originally known as Women's Super Rugby and now as the Premier 15s, which was replacing the Women's Premiership. A year later it announced that Loughborough Lightning were successful in their bid for a place in the top flight of English women's rugby. This made them the only student team that was awarded a franchise to play in the league.[8] This was controversial as Loughborough Lightning had not previously played in the RFUW leagues and Lichfield Ladies who had been in the Women's Premiership for 15 years were excluded.[8]

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References

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  1. ^ "Loughborough Lightning". www.lboro.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Loughborough given Super Rugby berth". Loughborough Echo. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  3. ^ Collins, Tony (2009). A Social History of English Rugby Union. Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 1134023359.
  4. ^ "Women's Rugby: A work in progress" (PDF). RFU. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Wiverns '85 – the tour that changed the game". Scrum Queens. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Lightning teach rugby men new moves". Loughborough Echo. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  7. ^ "BUCScore – Loughborough University Womens 1st Rugby Union Team". BUCS. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  8. ^ a b "Lichfield Ladies left out of new premier women's rugby competition". ITV. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
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