In 1995, teams from Adelaide University and Old Collegians lined up for the first women’s rugby match to be played in South Australia . Played to Under 19’s rules, the first women’s rugby season consisted of five games between these two teams. University was undefeated.

In 1996, a handful of players from University left and formed a new women’s team at Burnside Rugby Club.  Woodville RFC and Elizabeth RFC also established women’s teams, with Elizabeth drawing largely on the local air-force base for its players. The competition moved from Under 19’s rules to ordinary senior rules.

The first Women’s State team was selected that year. The Nationals were held in Sydney with the South Australian team playing well but recording no wins.

In 1997 Old Collegians, University, Burnside and Elizabeth, were joined by a strong team from Brighton as well as sides from Port Adelaide, Onkaparinga and North Adelaide .

That year, the Nationals were held in Adelaide with the Adelaide team scoring its first wins (against Victoria and Australian Services).

In 1998, the Port Adelaide team folded and Onkaparinga and North Adelaide eventually merged with Woodville and Burnside respectively. Thus the women’s competition in 1998 consisted of six teams – Old Collegians, University, Brighton, Elizabeth, Burnside/North Adelaide and Onkaparinga/Woodville (“Wonkaville”). Games started being played on Saturdays instead of Sundays and the women’s teams were now truly a part of club culture.

By 2001, the Women’s Competition in South Australia had continued to shrink, despite the efforts of South Australian Rugby Union to promote women’s rugby. Old Collegians, Burnside and University continued to field teams however, the women’s teams at Onkaparinga and Brighton closed. The players from those two teams, in addition to some from Burnside formed a new team with Southern Suburbs RFC. The team from Souths was immediately dominant in the competition and won all the premierships from 2001 to 2007. years. The competition was effectively only 10 a-side in 2001, but returned to the men’s “home and away” format. The difficulties with the competition led to South Australia not sending a team to Nationals that year.

In 2002, attempts were made by the teams from Old Collegians, University, Southern Suburbs and Burnside to rebuild to a 15s competition. Port Adelaide attempted to enter the competition, but could not find the numbers. As Burnside had struggled to field a team in 2001, Port Adelaide and Burnside merged (to be known affectionately as “Pornside”). South Australia did not field a state team in 2002.

Burnside folded in 2003 and Port Adelaide threw their lot in with Woodville to form the fourth women’s team. The remaining teams from Old Collegians, University and Southern Suburbs continued. However, renewed enthusiasm the following year saw Burnside return to the competition in 2004, providing five team competition – Old Collegians, Southern Suburbs, University, Port Adelaide and Burnside.

Unfortunately, in 2005 Adelaide University , one of the two founding clubs, was forced to withdraw from the competition in 2005 due to insufficient numbers.  The remaining three teams (Southern Suburbs, Old Collegians and Port Adelaide/Burnside) have been the only teams since 2005.  Despite the drop in numbers, South Australia still fielded a reputable State Representative Team – the Southern Warriors – in the National Women’s Championships in 2005 and 2006 as well as to the Darwin 7s in 2007.

Three South Australian Southern Warriors players were selected in the Australian Women’s training Squad for the 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup; Lito Fata, Kerry Telford and Rachel Stevens. At the completion of the 2006 National Championships, our own Lito Fata was selected for the Wallaroo Team who flew to Canada for the Women’s World Cup that year.  Lee is the first SA girl to play for Australia!

In 2008, Port Adelaide/Burnside rose to prominence and sailed through the season undefeated.

At the end of the 2008 season the girls from all four clubs banded together to rebuild women’s rugby in SA.  Known as “the Women’s Advisory Group” and hoped to see four teams on the pitch in 2009 and five in 2010, and a state team at the Nationals in July 2009.

A series of working groups were planned to run initiatives and promotions in 2009 such as ”come and try” days and a return to the national competition for SA.  These initiatives were quite successful, with each of the existing teams swelling their numbers to allowed XV aside games to be played again, plus the addition of a fourth team to the competition (Adelaide University RFC).  Enormous fundraising effors sent a state team to the Nationals in the Goldcoast, not only for the first time since 2006 but also at no cost to the players for the first time in our history!

Similar initiatives are being run in 2010, with summar training being offered by the state coaches for any interested player, further “come and try” days planned for February, March and April and numerous recruiting and findraising drives. Unfortunately, the University Team did not attract enough regular players to be self sustaining at that club has elected not to support the team again in 2010. However, it is hoped that those girls will stay in the competition in other clubs.  There will hopefully be five teams in 2010 anyway; the increased numbers from 2009 have allowed Burnside and Port Adelaide to split back into two teams, although the Port Adelaide girls will be moving from that club to nearby Woodville under the tender care of their new coach, Mr Chitty – a great rugby man and long-time support of women’s rugby.  Onkaparinga will also hopefully be fielding a team in 2010.   Meanwhile, the state team will be travelling to Canberra in June with the hope of improving on their 2009 performance.