Apparently the event organisers (whoever they were) failed
to get official endorsement of the event as the Women's
World Cup from the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB).
The minutes of the 1993 Interim meeting of the IRFB have the
following to say about the "1994 Women's International Tournament":
It would be foolhardy (at this stage anyway) to apportion
blame for this sad sequence of events. The main lesson
to be learnt is that all involved should talk to each other
a lot more in the future.
Anyway, here is the schedule:
Cancellation
The reasons for the cancellation as I understand them are
as follows.
The Council agreed to defer consideration of participation by
member unions in the tournament until such time as a formal
request is received from the organizers.
Hence there was uncertainty (in the minds of some) as to
whether it really was the Women's World Cup or not. Because
of this, the Unions of some countries had decided not to
pay team expenses. (I'm not sure how many countries were
in this position but New Zealand, where women's rugby is
now fully integrated in the national union, was one and I don't think
that they were alone.) While the team members had (in some
cases anyway) decided to go ahead and raise the money
themselves the surrounding uncertainty of the event status
and the financial risk from teams pulling out seem to have prompted the
event organisers to (rather abruptly) cancel the event.
Note that the next IRFB meeting was not scheduled until
a few days before the event and so a late endorsement
wouldn't have done much to alleviate the perceived
problems.
Replacement competition
The women who had trained so hard, and had gone to much trouble
raising money etc, were so disappointed at the
cancellation that
an alternative tournament in Scotland was soon organised. It looks
like this one is going ahead. However, its official status is far
from clear. To the best of my knowledge, it has not been endorsed
by the IRFB. While it is possible that a late endorsement might be
obtained it seems that one will not be sought. All of the participating
teams are regarding it as the real World Cup but note that
not all of the original 16 countries, e.g. New Zealand, appear to
be sending teams. It looks like the flak from this one will still
be falling for quite a while.
From rec.sport.rugby Tue Mar 15 14:00:14 1994
From: jkl@epcc.ed.ac.uk (Kim Littlejohn)
Subject: Womens Rugby World Championships --- Programme
The Womens Rugby World Championship 1994
----------------------------------------
The following programme is that which was released to the press at
the press launch on 9th March.
Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
USA England France Canada
Sweden Russia Spain Wales
Japan Scotland Ireland Kazakhstan
GROUND for 1st ROUND:
Melrose Boroughmuir West of Edinburgh Acads
Scotland
1 v 2 Monday 11th April
2 v 3 Wednesday 13th April
3 v 1 Friday 15th April
Championship Quarter Finals - Sunday 17th April
----------------------------
Q1: A1 v C2 (Boroughmuir 2pm)
Q2: B1 v D2 (Gala 2pm)
Q3: C1 v A2 (Edinburgh Acads 4pm)
Q4: D1 v B2 (Melrose 4pm)
Championship Semi-Finals - Gala, Wednesday 20th April
--------------------------
winner (Q1) v winner (Q4) 12 noon
winner (Q2) v winner (Q3) 2.30pm
3rd/4th Playoff - Edinburgh Acads, Sunday 24th April 12 noon
------------------------------------------------------------
Championship Final - Edinburgh Acads, Sunday 24th April 3pm
------------------------------------------------------------
Shield Semi-Finals - Melrose, Wednesday 20th April
------------------
loser (Q2) v loser (Q3) 3pm
loser (Q1) v loser (Q4) 5pm
Shield Final - Boroughmuir, Saturday 23rd April 12 noon
Plate Competition (Round Robin)
------------------
A3 v B3 Kirkcaldy, Sunday 17th April, 2pm
C3 v D3 Kirkcaldy, Sunday 17th April, 5pm
A3 v C3 Gala, Tuesday 19th April, 2pm
B3 v D3 Gala, Tuesday 19th April, 5pm
A3 v D3 Stirling County, Thursday 21st April, 2pm
C3 v B3 Stirling County, Thursday 21st April, 5pm
Well, the competition was held; the US lost to England
and handed over the trophy. Here are the
results.