Early in January the Women’s Six Nations Championship was postponed due to Coronavirus fears in France. Besides the natural comment, it sparked several ‘trolls’ on Sky Sports social medial channels to comment; “We don’t care”. These were aimed, at the time, against Wales and Bristol Bears Fly Half Elinor Snowsill. Fellow Bristol Bears player, Stefania Evans then launched the ‘I CARE’ movement. It was quickly taken up as a call for Women’s Rugby players and fans alike, to show their support for the female game.
The Ladies at Macclesfield Rugby Club were quick to join in the campaign, in their own unique fashion, asking members to produce their own ‘I CARE’ video clips. These were stitched together to produce a compelling support video that includes all factions of MRUFC. Speaking to Liz Jarrett, who got the Club involved, she had this to say: “I was really pleased with all the contributions for the Club’s #wecare campaign – especially having seen Maggie Alfonsi’s tweets after yesterday’s match, highlighting more negative comments from trolls. It was great to get videos from across the whole range of the Club’s members, and it has been shared across all our Social Media, and I’ve also tagged a few big names on Twitter.
The Ladies team have also been active in other ways this month, 15 of the team are taking on a challenge, set up by Rugby Mental Health Charity, ‘Give A Ruck’. The challenge is to walk, run or cycle as far as you can throughout February, each exercise creates points based upon the distance travelled these points are then converted into tries. The team with the most tries at the end of February will win a small cash prize and equipment for the Team.
Alongside this, the team decided to give themselves the extra incentive to work hard by fundraising for The Samaritans, whose job has never been tougher than it must be in this third lockdown.
Liz Jarratt, part of the Club’s Mental Health and Wellbeing team had this to say; “As a team, we all agree that this particular lockdown feels much harder than previous ones and so this challenge is a brilliant way for us to engage together as a team in some competitive camaraderie and to get us out of the house doing something really positive, both for charity and for our own personal health and well being”.
At the end of week one, they have already travelled over 300 miles and ‘scored’ 22 tries, putting the team in a fantastic 5th place in the ‘GiveARuck’ leader-board. They have also already raised over £1300 for The Samaritans, something which they are all incredibly proud of.
Liz says: “We hope that our challenge will inspire other members of our community to get out of the house and keep active, as well as reminding everyone that it’s so important to stay connected and keep touching base with friends and family.”
