From Hatton Garden to parents' loft: Women's Rugby World Cup trophy history

We hear so often about teams lifting silverware and perhaps not so often about the silverware itself, but the trophies usually have stories behind them.

And, as everyone begins thinking more and more about the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup with 100 days to go until the big dance in England, the first-ever trophy contested at this level certainly has its own unique tale.

Sue Dorrington, Deborah Griffin, Alice Cooper and Mary Forsyth put so much effort into organising the first Women’s Rugby World Cup in Wales in 1991, and the trophy was one of the last things to be put in place.

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

“I wanted something different, something that could be associated with women’s rugby,” Dorrington said.

As a result, in the lead up to the event Dorrington found herself in Hatton Garden, the London street well known for its silversmiths.

“I went into Hatton Garden and found this cup and have since learned through Phil McGowan at the World Rugby Museum that it was commissioned in 1924,” she stated.

“It just looked different, it was more feminine. I know that one shouldn’t choose one’s trophies on that basis, but it stood out for me and it was the biggest one I could afford because then they got bigger and got more and more expensive.

JB Jewellery and Antiques invoiced the organising committee for just over £1,000 for the trophy, a figure that would increase with engraving and a figure that was quite large given the budget for the event was not huge.

Following a 19-6 win over England in the final at Cardiff Arms Park in April 1991, the trophy was handed over to the American team captain Mary Sullivan.

The Americans soon discovered it was a difficult trophy to celebrate with because the lace detail that had caught Dorrington’s eye made it almost impossible to drink from, but Sullivan and co were just happy to be lifting it aloft.

And three years later, at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, it was England skipper Karen Almond’s turn to lift the trophy for the Red Roses after they defeated USA 38-23 in the 1994 final.

Fittingly, Dorrington was in that squad and was able to get her hands on the silverware that she had sourced.

Following England’s 1994 victory, the trophy was taken on tour and was displayed during road shows put on by the Rugby Football Union for Women.

Engraved on the front of the trophy were the words ‘Women’s Rugby World Cup’ and on the rear, the names of the two nations to have lifted it in the shape of USA and England.

By 1998 – after Dorrington and co had organised the 1991 event and a group of Scottish players had organised the 1994 event – things had changed and the IRB [now World Rugby] had taken over the stewardship of the tournament.

As a result, a new trophy for the Women’s Rugby World Cup was unveiled ahead of the 1998 tournament in the Netherlands.

New Zealand lifted that trophy in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 before England did in 2014 and then the Black Ferns did again in 2017 and 2022.

So, where had the original trophy gone in its ‘retirement’?

Well, after its tour post-1994 – and bar a brief appearance at an exhibition at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham – it seemed the original cup had been lost.

 

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“From 2008, the World Rugby Museum began to receive occasional enquiries as to its whereabouts,” the aforementioned Phil McGowan explained.

“Although never a part of the museum’s collection, the trophy had been displayed in the museum several times, and records showed that it was taken on the road in 2006 and never returned.”

“We’d decided that someone had pinched it and melted it down because it’s a silver cup,” England’s 1994 tournament-winning No.8 Gill Burns said.

Burns put out an appeal for the trophy on social media a few years ago, but it came to nothing, until 2021, when she received an email out of the blue from a former administrator at the Rugby Football Union for Women.

Helen Ames was clearing out her parents’ loft when she came across two boxes with one contained a stack of meeting minutes and, amazingly, in the other was the first Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy.

“It was quite emotional, really, because we just thought it had gone and we treasured the odd photograph that we had holding it,” Burns continued.

“We laughed about the memories of trying to drink champagne out of it and then tipping it up, and all the champagne fell through the lace all over us, so that was quite funny to remember.

“But to actually have it in the end was very special.”

In 2021, Burns picked up the trophy from Ames on the same day that she was due to visit the then-England squad with a group of former players, including Dorrington and 1991 player Carol Isherwood.

“The modern day girls were genuinely totally engaged and interested to hear about the trophy – and what a story it has,” Burns concluded.

The first and second Women’s Rugby World Cup trophies are currently in the World Rugby Museum.