Red Roses star inspires girls at rugby festival

Lark Atkin-Davies was part of the England squad that won the Rugby World Cup playing last month

A grassroots rugby club trying to grow its girls section was joined by a special guest on Sunday, who recently won the Rugby World Cup.

Lark Atkin-Davies attended Dudley Kingswinford RFC's girls rugby festival, handing out advice, getting involved in drills and watching them play.

She was part of the Red Roses squad that celebrated World Cup glory after England beat Canada in the final at Twickenham in September.

"The big slogan for us was: 'For the girls'," she said of the World Cup campaign.

"We wanted to go out and inspire people to take up rugby, to come and support us, to watch, to play.

"I feel my strongest when I'm on the rugby pitch, it really empowers me as a woman... I feel amazing when I'm out there, running around, and hopefully people can experience that and feel that too."

The club hosted a girls rugby festival on Sunday

Atkin-Davies, from Orleton, Herefordshire, which is near Ludlow in Shropshire, went to Orleton Primary School, before moving to Wigmore High School in Leominster.

She said she was introduced to tag rugby while she was at primary school, and her PE teacher at Wigmore High School was a "massive" influence in her development.

"If you love something, just put everything into it and just go for it, because why not?" she told the BBC.

"Having belief in yourself, being confident in who you are... it's going to be tough at times, there's going to be times where there might be a little bit of doubt, or you might question it a little bit… that's life."

Gemma Perks, from the club, said the World Cup had helped encourage girls to get into the sport

"It is a 'for all' game, everybody can play it, no matter what culture, religion, age, gender you are," said Gemma Perks, coach, manager and former player at DK RFC.

On Atkins-Davies coming to the club, she said: "It's just an inspiration to the young girls, the women - all of us were excited for her to come."

She said getting girls into rugby was still difficult.

"I think there's still a lot of stigma around it, but it is going, it is easing."

"I'm a teacher so we've got quite a lot of girls asking me about rugby now.

"They're more inquisitive as to how they can join… it's really nice to see, especially off the back of the World Cup, those conversations have got bigger and wider," she said.

Liv, 11, said she liked the contact element of the sport

"Sometimes people can look at it and just think you're going to get dirty… but actually it's about sportsmanship and we're all working together and it's really nice," said player Liv, 11.

"I just like the sportsmanship and I like the tackling.

"A real Red Rose has actually come and made the effort to come here, which is nice."

Rosie, 15 , said she first joined for the social aspect, before falling in love with the game.

"I met loads of new people, made loads of new friends," she said.

On watching the Red Roses lift the trophy, she added: "It was very impactful... it showed that... there's a chance, that anyone can play rugby."