(CHILDREN PLAY IN BACKGROUND) (WHISTLE BLOWS) (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) (CHEERFUL VIOLIN SOLO) (WOMEN CHUCKLE) My wife deplores the fact that women are playing rugby. I play the game as a man. I know it's a hard game for women to play. Something was not right about these delicate, blushing girls playing rugby. A legitimate tackle would end up being a bit of a scrap ` pulling of the hairs. I didn't think rugby was a sport for women. I tolerate it, but I don't think it's a game for women, really. (TEAM CHEERS) Some games suit women better than others. Today, the game of rugby is more popular than ever ` played in 121 countries. (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES) In 2019, it's the largest sporting event in the world. But while rugby is global, it's not universal... yet. You give everything physically of yourself in rugby, and so you just have to love it. Threw me a ball and I ran through the people and that was it. It gave me, as a woman, freedom. It made me feel free. Once exclusively played by rich, white English schoolboys, rugby is now an international sport for men and women everywhere. # Me nga tini roimata. # Me nga tini roimata e maringi whanui e. # Ru ana te whenua. # Ru ana te whenua whatiwhati te moana. # # Aue te aroha. # From its Dublin headquarters, rugby is driven by a big, hairy audacious goal ` to be the game of as many people as possible. (TEAM CHEERS) (SLOW EPIC MUSIC) Captions by Kristin Williams. Edited by James Brown. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (SLOW EPIC MUSIC BUILDS) (CROWD CHEERS) (CROWD ROARS) (PEACEFUL MUSIC) Before splitting in two after an argument in a London tavern in 1863, there was only one game people knew as 'football'. Today, there are many versions. Rugby, the fastest-growing team sport in the world, and football ` AKA soccer ` the undisputed number one. (SPEAKS SPANISH) (SPEAKS SPANISH) (CROWD CHANTS) Football is the dominant sport of the world. I think it's got great simplicity. Nobody understands the rules of rugby. The players don't. (CHUCKLES) Most kids today don't dream of being rugby players. They want to be soccer stars. (CROWD CLAMOURS) (CROWD ROARS) (SPEAKS SPANISH) (JUBILANT MUSIC) (CROWD CHANTS) And as the sport of the people, soccer presents a massive obstacle for rugby to overcome. (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) Today, rugby is played in pockets in the world and is not necessarily played in America, in Asia, in more countries in Europe. Italy is a case in point. While its rugby green shoots promise much, the game remains in the shadow of a country whose national DNA is found in a round ball. (BELL TOLLS) Soccer is a game of improvisation. Rugby is a game that is quite structured ` from the lineout to the scrum ` so that's why soccer is the people's game and will remain the people's game. (AMBIENT MUSIC) I think that rugby can really get in every single country. The difference is that people think that they have to overtake football. No. I think we are in a very, I call it multi-tasking, double-click, opening 20 windows society, you know? You can love three, four sports at a time. And rugby is determined to be one of them. (TENSE MUSIC) (TENSE MUSIC) If the game is gonna go forward, it needs visionaries. It needs people to look at the future of the game and what is it gonna look like. We have to be smart. We don't wanna be like other sports. We're trying to spread the gospel, but we're not doing it very well. Some people might look at our sport and go, 'Actually, it's not for me,' you know, 'I'm not from that background or I don't have that money.' (SPECTATORS CHEER) For it to become an A-list sport in the world, it's important that it's got more of an appeal to a wider audience. That's what upsets me. I don't want anyone to look at our sport and go, 'I can't play it.' Since the early 2000s, a quiet realisation has taken place in traditional rugby circles. To have the future it wants, rugby must embrace a constituency it has always neglected ` women. In such a male-dominated sport, the notion of women rugby players was considered somewhere between ludicrous and insulting. If you were lucky, there was a club near you. And for many women in Ireland, there was nowhere. You had to really care about it, because it was not easy for you to play. I started playing in Cork, and we would play matches. We would drive six hours up to Belfast. We would drive four hours up to Dublin. There were lots of people ` mostly older men ` who reacted very negatively to it. 'Women shouldn't play. It's not a sport for you. It's too physical. 'I wouldn't want my daughter playing,' those are the kind of things that you hear. You know, for me, I always found that made me more determined to play. From birth, we decide what a child's interests are going to be based on their gender. If you're a boy, you're gonna have a babygrow with a motif of a football, and if you're a girl, you're gonna have a pink babygrow with some flowers or a butterfly. Most importantly, let's go out and enjoy. Let's enjoy playing together and enjoy playing rugby. Remember your support, OK? Now let's start to get our head in the game. (SPRIGS CLATTER) I don't give a shit about the score, OK? It's the performance, OK? If you come off the pitch giving 100%, that's all that matters. (SPRIGS CLATTER) OK, girls, after three! One, two, three! ALL: Dungannon! (LIVELY MUSIC) (WHISTLE BLOWS) Get it away! Get it away! Rugby is really the only truly contact sport for women. Women's hockey is nominally contact, but there's very little checking. Even soccer, you know, anybody who would suggest that's a contact sport is stretching it a bit. I think there's a certain freedom all of a sudden to be able to play a sport that is intensely physical. At the age of 10 years old, I was this size. You know, I was 5'3" and 73kg, so I was quite a big unit. But when I came into rugby, they were like, 'Wow, you've got strong thighs. Wow, you're muscly. 'You're gonna do really well,' and that felt so good. I could tackle people and hit them as hard as I wanted to. This is great. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) (PLAYERS SHOUT) The physicality ` if you enjoy it and if you're good at it, this is the most satisfying thing in the world. That's what attracts you to it. It's a sort of release, isn't it? Run! Run! Go for it! (WHISTLE BLOWS) (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) Emily! You gotta use your brain. (PLAYERS SHOUT) (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES) (LAUGHTER) (LAUGHS) The harsh reality about women's rugby is that it was considered a bit of a sideshow that administrators had to tolerate. Sexism exists in sport, right? It's not just rugby. I think what you have in rugby is women came to it quite late, so there were deeply ingrained views about what women should be doing. ALL: Yeah. 19th century Irish schoolgirl Emily Valentine is often hailed as the William Webb Ellis of women's rugby. While that's open for debate, it is beyond doubt women's rugby has operated below the radar for decades. Sport has just forever been so structurally male, and for women to engage in it in any kind of way has been a radical political statement. ARCHIVE: The 71st Boston Marathon even attracts a leggy lady, K Switzer of Syracuse, who did not finish. Officials tried to jostle her off the road. Shamefully, the 20th century sniggered at women's participation in most male sports. ARCHIVE: ...when they got their heads together in the scrum. No touchdown, but a little touch-up. Whatever a player's sex, offensive weapons must be left on the touchline. Because it's so physical, they take the mick a bit. So, they say things like, 'Oh, there will just be scratching and hair pulling.' A lot of stereotypes around it. 'They can't pass. They can't kick.' To Sochat. Sochat. People don't know what they don't see. A brilliant run by Madoussou Fall. People who think women shouldn't play rugby ` well, they don't know anything about it. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC) For a sport to be enjoyed by the many, its members must include the largest, most influential, most powerful sporting market on the planet ` the United States of America. Therein lies rugby's problem. I think a lot of Americans who went to the UK fell in love with rugby, but the traditional game of rugby has never really broken out of that box in the US. The US is where world rugby envisages a golden future. But American rugby has a perception problem. It's such a vast place. The US has been an emerging country for about 50 years. It's a huge country with millions of athletes. (SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC CONTINUES) TEAM PRAYS: ...for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Whoo! All right. (LIVELY BLUES MUSIC) The calibre of athlete is still not quite there. And the big rush we thought there would be with NFL rejects coming in, that hasn't really happened. It's like that promising young player you keep on talking about, and he's always promising and he was still promising when he was 46. (PLAYERS SHOUT) Men's club rugby is very passionate. You know, people are proud to wear the rugby jersey on the weekends, you know, to the bar. Even in its leanest years, there were enough players to fly the flag for American rugby. The problem was no one was interested in watching them do it. I think you have to have star power if you're gonna succeed in America as a sport. I know very few Americans who can name a single world-class rugby player. Most people don't wanna play football. They wanna watch it. Most people don't wanna be in MMA ` Mixed Martial Arts ` but they wanna watch it. They wanna see blood and gore and guys pounding on each other, but they don't wanna do it themselves. I'm not sure if rugby is that kind of sport. It was about camaraderie, first and foremost. (TEAM CHEERS, YELLS) The reason why I fell in love with rugby is the social aspect. It's just a great safe spot for guys to enjoy each other's company. Anywhere you go in the world of rugby, the 'third half' is one of the game's most enduring traditions. It's also one of the biggest reasons rugby was a male-only sport for so long. Hey, have you finished the sandwiches yet? Oh, don't worry. They're bound to win. They'll be ages rejoicing in the showers. 'I played rugby for a club team in Thames.' Here come the Indians. Better get cleaned up. And after the game, we didn't have a clubrooms, so we'd go to a pub and we'd drink till 6 o'clock, and then we'd get a whole lot of crates of beer, and we would go to some poor unsuspecting woman's house ` a wife of one of the players ` and there would be a massive party there all night. And then everybody would lurch into the night, and I presume that the poor lady was left to clean up afterwards. When I first came to England to play, these songs that people sang were just absolutely horrendous with the lyrics, and they used to sing them in public when there were girls present. (TEAMMATES CHANT) (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) ALL: Today is a holy day. Saturday's a rugby day! ALL: Saturday's a rugby day! Friday's a fucking day! ALL: Friday's a fucking day! Is everybody happy? ALL: You bet we're fucking happy! Is everybody happy? ALL: You bet your ass we are! Thursday's a drinking day! ALL: Thursday's a drinking day! Wednesday is a mmm. ALL: Wednesday is a mmm. (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) Monday's a whacking day! ALL: Monday's a whacking day! Suddenly, you throw a women's team into the mix of that, and it's probably quite scary, isn't it? (CHEERING) Come on, bitch! That's my teammate! That's my teammate! (TEAMMATES CHANT) * (BIRDS CHIRP) (ROCK MUSIC) In 1987, at a time of crisis in the game, rugby initiated the first ever World Cup. No one gave the tournament much of a chance. It was a runaway success. Four years later, it was the turn of women to seize the day. Their journey had been a whole lot tougher. When you look at the history of the women's game, it is full of stories of women just getting their act together, getting people together, starting the structure. Women's rugby's road to recognition began in Europe over three decades ago. The story of women's rugby in the '80s is fascinating, because people were really keen to play, but they didn't really have the support of the governing bodies, and they always had to prove themselves to their own governing bodies that their own sport was worth playing. Men's couldn't-care-less attitudes towards women's can-do abilities backfired spectacularly. In 1991, there was a World Cup in Cardiff organised by the girls themselves. They used to go around in cars picking each other up, and they all lay on the floor. I think there were 10 to a room and all that sort of stuff. But they got it going. ARCHIVE: Rugby is hoping that this will be the sport's coming of age ` the first ever World Cup being played for in Wales by teams from 12 nations. Hupane! Kaupane! Whiti te ra! The inaugural Women's World Rugby Cup was a triumph of never-say-die from all the teams who hustled and bustled the tournament into existence. Watch us. (CHUCKLES) Come and watch a game. It's a game we love, and the contact side isn't really a problem. It's no more a problem for us than it is for men. In retaliation, the all-male International Rugby Board threatened sanctions against any country if there was ever a second. New Zealand, Sweden and Germany all withdrew, but the tournament ignored the threat and went ahead regardless. Scotland just took on the World Cup with three weeks to go because it was supposed to be in the Netherlands, and they pulled out. So, the game was full of women just kind of sticking two fingers up to people who think, 'Actually, women shouldn't be playing rugby,' when not only are we playing it, we're playing it quite well and we organise ourselves. So, you know, your opinion doesn't really matter. (PLAYERS SHOUT) Rugby sort of finally realised there was a second sex and that they had to try and involve women in the game. Long-in-the-tooth critics, both male and female, changed tack, swapping open contempt for subtle condescension. I think what is interesting about the idea that rugby has been sexist over the years is that, at the same time, people were very careful not to be outwardly sexist. So it manifests itself in other ways. We sometimes had bulk-standard, 'Here's your playing kit,' but it's all done on men's sizes, and, therefore, it wasn't quite our women's sizes cos our women props aren't as big as the men's. But here's your XXL and XXXL jersey, anyway. We would use the back pitches with one floodlight, which... It wasn't great. Didn't help with our quality of training. We'd always get the changing room with broken glass, and it was freezing in there. I can remember one World Cup and we didn't have enough jerseys ` like, we could not each have a jersey. They're just little things that you just did, and you just got on with it. What does that tell you about how your union feels about you? They might not be saying to you, 'Oh, it's because you're women,' but obviously the evidence is there, because you're wearing rubbish kit and you're on a rubbish pitch. Women's rugby wasn't the only area of the game which had to undergo animosity, prejudice and humiliation on its journey to mainstream acceptance. Gay rugby was an even more firmly defined no-go zone. I remember the story of this guy Clark, who was a great player, who came to the club just because he played in college and he'd seen the website. And after his second, maybe third practice, he goes to one of the guys on the team, and he says, 'Uh, so, um, I don't really care, but it just seems like there are a lot of gay people on the team. 'What's with that?' And Raul says, 'Oh, honey, didn't anyone tell you?' After the game turned professional in 1995, rugby's new administrators faced more than gender equality issues. Sexuality in rugby was on the table too. There is less of a facade of putting on a suit of macho nonsense among our team. As soon as people are out of the field, they are incredibly serious. Let's go, boys! Go! Go, boys! (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) 18 years ago in our division, we were the cellar dwellers. We just got murdered in every single match. Territory ` final thing, boys. They're fuckin' shocked, man. They're shocked that a... Today, the Gotham Knights just won their division. We are the division three champions here in New York City. (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) (PLAYERS SHOUT) (PLAYERS CHANT) There was a tournament where we were playing another team where they said, 'Wait a minute, is there anyone on your team who's HIV positive?' So, playing into a stereotype. And they said, 'We will not play you, just in case.' (CHEERING) Awesome. Thank you all for coming. Thank you to the two to three Hudson Valley guys that are here. (CHEERS, APPLAUSE) There have been games when very few people from the other team showed up. That was a real concern of mine. I feel like the social aspect is a very important part of the game. You know, the concept of a gay rugby team seemed outlandish. 20 years ago, homophobia was everywhere. Now, fast forward to today, where is homophobia? Almost everywhere. Overlooked in the debate was that American rugby already had its first true national hero ` a gay hero. Uh, Mark Bingham is` was a legendary person in our community. (GLOOMY MUSIC) On 9/11, he was one of the leaders of the passengers in United Flight 93 that was heading towards DC who stopped that from hitting a major landmark and killing God knows how many people. So in honour of Mark, we have the Bingham Cup. The Bingham Cup is now held every two years around the world for gay and bisexual rugby players. Ottawa 2020 will be the 10th tournament. Being gay can mean a lot of different things. Being a rugby player can mean a lot of different things. When you see a rugby tournament of that scale ` we're talking thousands and thousands of gay players ` people can see, 'Wait a minute. That's an option.' It's an incredible sport, and not enough Americans know that. Right? We get force-fed soccer and football here in the US. What a missed opportunity. Every sport has risen or fallen based on the people who are its ambassadors that are explaining it to us, and that's what rugby will need. You need Rugby Jesus to just walk through the door in the US and just make it all make sense to us. * (INTENSE DANCE MUSIC) Some believe rugby's future has already arrived. The game's mini version of itself is called sevens. This is the beginners guide to rugby ` fast, furious,... all-out attack, desperate defence. # I'm in trouble. # Yeah. Yeah. I can't keep still. I can't keep still. # And it's all over in minutes. The fitness levels required felt like they were superhuman, you know? Your lungs had to be the size of an elephant just to last a tournament. You've gotta be super fast, super fit. You've just gotta be everything. With tournaments lasting two days, sevens is like a festival of rugby. Party time on the stands. A ratings hit on TV. The popular appeal of sevens led to a significant breakthrough for world rugby ` a coveted invitation to the Olympics. (FESTIVE MUSIC) This was rugby's fifth appearance at the games. And though it failed to capture the public's imagination in the first four, in Brazil, rugby dazzled. Fiji won gold for the men, Australia the women. (EERIE MUSIC) However, once Rio's golden glow had faded, the status quo reverted for women's rugby. The irony was not lost on some that even in an era of professionalism and so-called equality, women players were still amateur. I think the challenge has been ` and it remains ` money and the idea that because women's rugby hasn't generated lots of money, nobody should invest in it. Prevailing wisdom held that women's rugby was so vastly inferior to the men's game it would never attract commercial support. The reality couldn't have been more different. You watch the New Zealand women's team and you watch England play and Ireland play, standards, I think, are going through the roof. (BLACK FERNS PERFORM HAKA) (EPIC MUSIC) (EPIC MUSIC CONTINUES) Their game management's good. They're super fit. They're well coached. Incredibly athletic. These women, they can pretty much do everything. (CROWD CHEERS) Women's rugby ignored the naysayers and kept on making the right sort of headlines. If I look at my England team, when we won a lot, we started to get more attention. From Taylor to Alphonsi. It's Waterman. It's Danielle Waterman. And then when we won a World Cup, people can't ignore you. People are like, 'Wow. We have a women's team, and they're really good.' The feeling is that these women may well have achieved a sport-changing victory. Thanks to their triumph, stars like Maggie Alphonsi became household names. Jack, if you go in there, maybe as the tackler. Maggie... I'm not gonna tackle a lady. This is Maggie, one of our greatest ever rugby players. So how about we swap you around, then ` Maggie tackles you? I'm good with that. OK. Fine. Yeah. All right. Go, Jack. (GRUNTS) In 2018, the English women's rugby team were the first in the world to go fully professional. Having that opportunity to fully focus and rugby be your job is gonna have such a huge impact both mentally and physically, both on and off the pitch. The Rugby Football Union would like all England's teams to be treated the same, but I think we're a long way off having a full house here at Twickenham for a women's rugby international. Once, New Zealand rugby had proudly led the charge into the professional era. Since then, they had sidestepped the issue of paying their best women players. The Black Ferns were so unbelievably successful but almost, you know, shockingly so without the investment. They succeeded despite and not because of any help. In 2017, New Zealand's amateur Black Ferns ` the most dominant team in women's rugby history ` defended their title against professional England in Belfast. But they now know if they put this into the stands, they will be champions of the world. Away! 19! England have fought, but they just didn't have enough for New Zealand ` our World Cup champions of 2017. Belatedly, an embarrassed New Zealand Rugby awarded the world champion rugby Black Ferns 30 professional contracts. Heartbreak for England. I think New Zealand Rugby Union didn't invest in their women's game at all, and they got away with it because the team were so good. And now what you're seeing, actually, is people finally realising that if you want to get back something cash-wise, you need to put something in. It's the same in business. It's the same in sport. This has been a long time waiting for us. It just lights the fire in our belly even more that we're not professional athletes. Put it out there that, you know, we need the support. (CHEERING) It's chicken and egg, but at the end of the day it does come back to a bit of money, So if the NZR is serious about it then, yeah, they do need to put a bit more skin in the game, I guess. So that fight carries on, but it has taken on, I think, a new form. But it has always been there. (GLOOMY MUSIC) (DOG BARKS) In its second decade of professionalism, rugby's understanding of what reaching out and inclusiveness meant to previously overlooked minorities deepened. Bedrock rugby values like teamwork, loyalty and honesty took on a holistic, sometimes evangelical meaning when applied in the unlikeliest of settings. Corrections facilities, jails, were one such location. Even behind bars, rugby revealed its power to heal, restore, redeem. This guy from San Isidro Club, Coco Oderigo, he had this mad idea about just teaching rugby in a jail. We should be teaching them some rugby values so we can, in some sort of way, educate them so they are better people when they come out. He started this programme. At the beginning, the jail system was pretty much against it. 'How do you bring a violent game into a violent people environment. Are you crazy?' And he said, 'No, no, no. This is not a violent game, just a contact game where you have rules, 'really strict rules.' I think rugby's given a very important message to society. It's a message of living together. It's not just the sport; it's about life. And the fact that they can learn about leadership, they can learn about teamwork. They're playing up when it's freezing cold and it's difficult and the discipline and all the things that are life messages. (GENTLE MUSIC) If I had not found rugby, who knows? I could be in jail. I could be dead. I dunno. Who knows? I would like to think rugby has certainly influenced me to be a much better person. Usually in Argentina, 65%, 70% of the guys after they finish their sentences, they are free, they go to the streets again, but they commit another crime and they go back to jail. With this rugby programme, only 5% of people after they finish their sentences go back to jail. No matter their past, rugby can prepare some for a better future. (GENTLE MUSIC) It's such a wonderful game, rugby. It can teach, it can educate, and it should be democratised so that rugby can actually pass messages about life as well that I don't think there's many sports can actually do. Espartanos! ALL: Ooh! Espartanos! ALL: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) * (LIVELY ROCK MUSIC) No matter the game, no matter its origins, for sports to be relevant today, their paths all lead to the same destination ` the global capital of sport, the USA. In particular, for rugby to succeed with its international aspirations, change and growth must involve wider American support, which means resetting some long-standing wrongs and making them right. A century after American university rugby was swallowed up and re-emerged as American football, the British game is rebooting itself in the land of the brave. Chicago is one of the United States' greatest sports cities. It's where US rugby now sees its future. Chicago, Soldier Field, has really become the heart of rugby in many ways in the US. It's the place where we're having all these exhibitions, and all of the professional teams and the great teams come. And the stadium's been sold out. The enthusiasm's been very high. We love big events. We love championships. There's a lot of people here in Chicago, I believe, who've seen rugby a little bit and they think, 'Damn, that's a cool sport. 'I wanna go see it live, played well.' (ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) Buoyed by the success of its sevens teams, American 15s is also undergoing a renaissance. (CROWD CHEERS) CROWD CHANTS: USA! USA! While there's a long way to go, the sleeping giant is showing signs of life. Rugby's the fastest-growing sport in the US. It's growing at 7% to 8% per annum. We've got over a quarter of a million kids playing the game. And in the US, if you're not 7ft, you can't play basketball. And if you're not 130kg, you can't play gridiron at a pro level, so it comes down to soccer and rugby. And rugby lends itself to the US psyche, right? Rugby is such, like, an addictive sport. It's so fantastic. And once you learn it, like, 'Wait a minute, where has it been my entire life?' It's got all the things we like, and it's the whole reason that we play football in the first place. It's the DNA of what we love. American rugby has done the math. The US sports culture is one of the strongest sports cultures in the world, and there is a lot of money involved in the mainstream sports. If rugby could just have a 20th, a 10th, you know, of the resources that the major sports have, we would be number one. (BRIGHT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) If I look at where women's rugby is now in France, it has grown, like, crazy amounts. They are now filling out stadiums, and if anything now, they're outperforming their men's side, which has made a big difference. It's why you see women on television. It's why you see 17,000, 18,000 people turn up in France to watch the French team. Women's rugby, we have to say thank you to them in France because they are doing so well. (EPIC MUSIC) (SPEAKS FRENCH) (CROWD CHEERS) Players tend to keep the ball in hand more, and there can be a bit more space. It can be less set piece driven, and that creates a lot more spectacle in terms of attacking rugby. (CROWD CHEERS) We just got better at it, so the product became better. Audiences were interested in it, and more and more people were interested in investing in it. (CHEERS, APPLAUSE) Well, now you see sponsors wanna back both the men's and the women's side, which makes such a big difference. Not only does it make their brand look good, but they're actually getting something quite unique and special. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) The more women can see other women playing rugby on television, in the newspapers, the more they will play. That's really, really exciting because there's young girls all over the world now who are thinking, 'Do you know what? I could be a professional rugby player or, 'more likely, I can just play rugby and enjoy myself.' And I can tell you now that if the men worked as hard the women, you know, on some of the aspects of their game, then anything would be possible. And I'm determined not to go anywhere. There's many of us out there who are pushing the cause that it's not about your gender, it's not about your colour, it's not about your sexuality. That's what encourages me to stay as a pundit, as a commentator, as a female rugby player, because I'm not gonna let anyone stop me from having a voice. * (BRIGHT MUSIC) (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) We're at a fascinating moment in rugby's history. I'd love to be around in 25 years' time, cos I think it will have moved massively forward again ` massively. (PLAYERS SHOUT) (SPEAKS FRENCH) I've never known a better team game, because you are so reliant on everyone else ` I mean, physically reliant. The values haven't changed for 100 years. They've had a moral code ` an ethos ` at every level. (TEAM CHANTS) (TEAM SHOUTS) But the sport of rugby has changed. 150 years ago, rugby was a game for the middle and upper classes only. 100 years ago, rugby was fully amateur, and professionalism was beyond the pale. 50 years ago, there was no Rugby World Cup. 30 years ago, a woman at rugby was someone who made the tea or a wife or girlfriend. 20 years ago, a gay rugby player was in the closet. It should be our goal to make sure that regardless of whatever your situation is, we'll find a position for you, cos that's what I was always told when I was growing up, you know, 'If you've got a disability, we'll find a version of the sport for you that you can fit into.' It's about access. It's about opportunities. (GENTLE MUSIC) (SPEAKS SPANISH) (CHILDREN SQUEAL, LAUGH) (ETHEREAL MUSIC) (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) It doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy, when you are 5 years old, if you decide to play rugby, there you go ` your dreams can come true. For me, it was like I needed a release. (CHUCKLES) You know? I grew up in a pretty violent household. And all of a sudden I wake up one day and I'm like, 'I'm pretty angry. 'I need to reconcile these emotions and all these things that happened to me.' Rugby gave me a canvas to just... paint away. (TWINKLY MUSIC) (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) Legend has it that one day in 1823, with a fine disregard for the laws, an English schoolboy picked up the ball in the middle of a football game and ran with it. Some say we're still running. (SLOW EPIC MUSIC) Captions by Kristin Williams. Edited by James Brown.