Towcester Roses going from strength to strength as they get set for new season

And that certainly appears to be the case on a local level, too, when you look at what is going on at the Towcester Roses rugby team, based at Greens Norton Road.

Towcestrians men's side is well-established, and so too now is the women's team.

So much so that there is now also an Under-18s outfit who train with the first team.

There are 22 players currently assembled ahead of the new season, with the Roses blossoming.

And according to scrum-half Darcy Whitcher-Christmas, the only way continues to be up.

"We've got a really good team going now," said Whitcher-Christmas.

"We've started an Academy so that's going quite well and there's a good atmosphere.

"The team formed five years ago and we've got some players who were there at that first session. One of them, our captain, was there for some of the first few sessions so we've got a few original players.

"We had a time when the team went down to about five players but we've gradually built it back up to 22 players.

"We're seeing more and more people come and give it a try so we're just rebuilding the whole team and making it a nice place to play while also winning some games.

"It's not the sort of sport that you pick up and continue at school like netball and hockey so we want women to give it a go.

"If they don't like it then fair enough, but if they enjoy it they can stay longer and we'll see how far they can go.

"We've got some girls who play in the Loughborough Academy, we had a girl go off to Leicester Tigers trials, we've got a few in the East Midlands.

"Whether you just do it for a social or you want to go out and give it a decent go, we just want people to have that opportunity."

And when it comes to encouraging women and girls to give the game a try, the efforts of the England team clearly plays a part.

It seems likely that many girls will be inspired by the England women's recent footballing achievements.

And Whitcher-Christmas says the reason she got involved with the Roses was because she had seen what the England women's team were doing in rugby.

"I only started playing in January 2020 and that was mainly off the back of watching the Women's Six Nations and the World Cup," said the 23-year-old.

"It inspired me to give it a go and now I've ended up trying to encourage others to give it a go.

"I'd never played before I joined the team.

"I was on the wing and then we needed someone to play scrum-half so I did that.

"I found I could get my hands on the ball a bit more when I play nine and I'm now allocated as the team's scrum-half.

"I seem to just chat a bit too much so I'm definitely turning into a nine already."

Whitcher-Christmas does plenty of talking on and off the field for her team as she takes charge of spreading the word on social media.

A head of digital marketing by day, she looks after the Towcester Roses Twitter and Facebook accounts in her spare time.

And she clearly loves being part of such an inclusive Towcester team.

"The nice thing about our team is that we support everyone," Whitcher-Christmas said.

"We've got people from different backgrounds.

"We've got single mums on the team, we've got students, we've got lawyers, we've got all sorts in the team - and everyone backs each other.

"It's a very friendly team."

The Roses recently returned to pre-season training and they remain keen to attract new participants while also promoting from within.

"Our first game is looking to be mid to end of September," Whitcher-Christmas said.

"We started pre-season last month and we're just building the academy and seeing how that goes.

"We're trying to integrate the academy into the senior team because we've not done that before.

"The Under-18s have been going for a few years but this year is the first that we'll train as one, the same as the Colts do, so we have Under-18s coming up into the senior team and playing the odd game.

"They've always got the opportunity to play with us as long as their parents allow them to play senior rugby, which is obviously a big thing."

The Towcester Roses train at Greens Norton Road on Monday and Wednesday evenings and if you want to know more about them, you can follow them on Twitter (@towcesterroses) find them on Facebook.

You can also head to the Towcestrians website, which is located at pitchero.com/clubs/towcestriansrfc, or get in touch by emailing [email protected]