From West Park Leeds to Eden Park: The story of four Yorkshirewomen in the Rugby World Cup final between England and New Zealand

“We were having to go down to Bridgnorth, a three-hour drive away, just to get a fixture,” recalls Kurt Nutchey, the coach who helped complete the merger. “There were only four teams in Yorkshire.”

Fast forward to Saturday morning, and there are four women from Yorkshire representing England in the Rugby World Cup final; Zoe Aldcroft and Ellie Kildunne from the start, Tatyana Heard from the bench and Morwenna Talling, one of the youngest members of the squad.

The quartet share one common club in their journey to the pinnacle of women’s rugby - West Park Leeds.

"We would never have envisaged this back then,” says Notchey who is still active at the club, “not for one second.

"We’ve worked really hard with the Yorkshire union to develop a women’s and girls group.

"We hit the schools to try and get women and girls interested in playing. I went in to three, four local schools and I’d take evening and PE sessions from them. From there the numbers have increased.”

Despite the relatively short lifespan, none of the four girls ever played on the same West Park Leeds team together, a fact that suggests this was not some wonder class they happened upon but a testament to the continued recruitment and development of women’s rugby players. Heard was the first. Born in Italy but raised in Kirkbymoorside, the now 27-year-old centre was one of the first members of that merged team to come over from Malton and Norton.

A couple of years behind her was Aldcroft, who travelled 70 miles from Scarborough to play on the weekends. The 25-year-old lock was last year voted the best women’s player in the world. Next came Kildunne, who scored England’s opening try Saturday’s World Cup final defeat to New Zealand, who originally played at Keighley before joining West Park and representing them at Under-15s and Under-18s.

Talling, from York, is only 20, and followed the same path as Heard in moving across from Malton and Norton. She played with West Park’s Under-18s.

“We’ve helped nurture them,” says Nutchey. “I’d like to say I’ve been privileged to be part of their journey, so I’m very happy and very proud.”

West Park Leeds is unrecognisable from the women’s section of 12 years ago. Now they have four junior teams at ages Under-12s, 14s, 16s and 18s, and two senior teams. They have nearly 90 girls on their books and another 50 women.

Their growth has been mirrored across Yorkshire, which now boasts a thriving women’s rugby union scene. "It’s a completely different ball game because the girls and women’s game has branched out so much. There’s now 80 teams in Yorkshire in comparison to the four or five we originally had,” says Notchey.

It makes recruitment that much harder. Because of their history and their facilities at the Sycamores in Bramhope, West Park Leeds remain a magnet for the best players but are not just competing with rugby union clubs.

“The battle we’ve got is between the two codes,” continues Nutchey.

“Some schools prefer league to union, so it’s trying to entice girls to play union or keep the league coaches away from your school.”

They lost one battle. "We’ve actually got another potential World Cup finalist in Fran Goldthorp in the Rugby League World Cup, she played the same time as Morwenna, but was drafted by the Rhinos.”

Nutchey hopes the legacy of England reaching the women’s World Cup final is more rugby being taught to girls in school.

There is also a broader picture for West Park Leeds. Three years ago they put in an application to the RFU to join the women’s Premier XVs, the elite club competition in England in which the likes of Aldcroft and Heard play their club rugby.

They were denied, and were on the verge of applying again in this cycle before withdrawing their application when men’s institutions like Wasps and Worcester started financially imploding.

Adam Falkner, who helps oversee the women’s section at West Park Leeds, explains: "We had a decent financial package based on the last bid but it hit home that if the Premiership men’s teams aren’t able to continue then we would struggle.”

They have acted on the feedback they received from their last rejection in 2019 and confident of one day getting a women’s rugby union team into the top echelons of English club rugby.

“From the last application we had to show we had England pathways, through the Yorkshire academy into Bishop Burton where there’s a diploma and into the universities, and we’ve also got partnerships now with Sale Sharks,” explains Falkner.

"We are trying to provide the best pathway which Zoe, Tatyana etc had a bit of but not as much as we can possibly offer now with the exception of the Premiership club in Yorkshire.

"We are still under the impression that Yorkshire could be a sleeping giant in terms of women’s rugby in the Premiership.”

Four women in the England’s World Cup final squad suggests the talent is there.