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Missing Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy found in attic after 15 years

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The Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy last won by England in 1994

The Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy, which England won in 1994, has been found after 15 years – in an attic.

England Rugby said it was found in an administrator’s parent’s attic during a clean-out.

A new trophy was made for the 1998 tournament and it had resided in the World Rugby Museum in Twickenham.

Former England player Gill Burns, part of the 1994 side, was worried it had been “melted down somewhere” and has been “searching for it for a while’.

“It was in the museum briefly before it went back out on tour again and then a few years later we started asking ‘does anyone know where the World Cup is?’, and nobody knew where it was,” she said.

Burns, who played for England between 1988 and 2002, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I used to point at it at the museum and say ‘here it is girls, that’s something for you to aspire to.’

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“One of the administrators obviously ended up with the trophy at her parent’s house.

“All the old minutes of meeting and handbooks had been stored in a box along with a box that had the World Cup in.

“I don’t mind that it was lost because we found it again so I’m very happy.”

The trophy will be returned to the museum.

-BBC

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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