Sale Sharks Women and Manchester Met: Why collaborative thinking can grow the game in the North-West
Polly Bowman in action for Sale Sharks in their Premiership Women's Rugby opener against Saracens
©Sale Sharks Collection via Getty
The silverware keeps coming for England.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Red Roses added another trophy to the Allianz Stadium cabinet after defeating Canada to be crowned back-to-back WXV1 champions.
Their hard-fought 21-12 victory out in Vancouver was a 20th successive win for John Mitchell’s side and England’s momentum going into next year’s home World Cup continues to gather pace.
Over the last month, the number one ranked side in the world have seen off their nearest rivals in Canada, New Zealand (twice) and France, and the talent pool of the Red Roses is only growing.
In this international window, Mitchell handed debuts to Phoebe Murray (Bristol Bears), Georgia Brock (Gloucester-Hartpury) as well as Loughborough Lightning’s Lilli Ives Campion and Bo Westcombe-Evans.
In particular, the Loughborough pair - plus Brock - have perhaps benefitted from not only their development in Premiership Women’s Rugby but also because of the environment at their clubs.
All three racked up a solid number of PWR appearances in 2023/24 but over the last couple of years, they also featured for the respective universities connected to both PWR teams.
In 2021/22 and 2022/23, Brock appeared for a dominant Hartpury University side while last term, both Ives Campion and Westcombe-Evans represented Loughborough in the BUCS Women’s National League (recently rebranded to Women’s BUCS Super Rugby).
Granted, the trio weren’t regular names on their teamsheets each week but it does highlight the value of constructive relationships between universities and PWR clubs in the progression of aspirational and talented individuals.
And that is something which Manchester Met University are looking to emulate alongside Sale Sharks Women.
The overarching aim of the partnership - which was formalised last October - is to provide ambitious players with a pathway into the game alongside educational opportunities, but it is also about trying to encourage players from the North-West or players who are studying in the North-West to stay in the region.
“It is fantastic that Sharks Women are doing what they are doing,” Manchester Met Head of Rugby Rob Jones tells TRU. “It is fantastic we are working collaboratively and we are both investing so much into the athletes to make a brilliant offer to girls looking at university but also a university which is attached to a Prem club.”
“My role is to develop a pathway for us at Sale Sharks ideally to produce elite players and enable players from the North-West to stay in the North West, but also raise the profile of the women’s game in the region,” adds Sale Sharks Women’s Head of Player Pathway and Manchester Met’s Women’s Head Coach Mark Luffman.
“We are dealing with the North-West but it is the same rugby landscape across the country whether your Gloucester-Hartpury, Loughborough, Ealing etc.
“We need to grow the women’s game. We want to grow the women’s game so having these links so we can grow a club - in terms of a university club - and provide PWR players, is what we want at Sale Sharks.”
Unlike Hartpury and Loughborough, Manchester Met's are not in the top tier of women’s university rugby.
The 1st XV are in Women's Northern Tier 1 (level three) so it immediately feels like an uphill challenge to convince players who want to compete at the highest level to come to Manchester, but Sharks forward Polly Bowman is someone who can take down that theory.
The 19-year-old - who grew up in Cumbria - was originally going to head south to begin her higher education but instead, she was impressed by Sale’s progressive links with Manchester Met.
“From when I got selected for North-East and Cumbria, I started a pre-season at Sale Sharks and then the option was available for me to come to Manchester Met and study Sports Business,” Bowman - who made her debut for Sale last season - tells TRU.
“I was originally going to go to Uni down south but then with the opportunity of Sale, I knew the link with Manchester Met was really good so I can study, get a degree but also play alongside that.
“Say if I have a big training day on a Tuesday with Sharks, they [Manchester Met] can balance my minutes on a Wednesday. It is a really good link because you have those open discussions really easily.”
For Bowman - who made 12 appearances for the Sharks last term - the ‘academic flex’ on offer at Manchester Met was clearly a selling point but she, alongside university teammate Pheobe Hoey, were keen to go into more detail.
“Being at Sale, Manchester Met has everything I want so I can keep developing both on and off the pitch,” Bowman says.
“The setting, the environment, the understanding between university and club, the direction the programme wants to go in, it all made sense for me.”
“The real standout factor of Manchester Met is also the inclusivity,” Hoey adds. “Especially in the women’s team, when I started two years ago, you had people coming in who had never touched a rugby ball in their life and now they are brushing shoulders with [Manchester Met] scholars like Polly, people who have been playing at higher levels. I think that just really brings together the whole environment around rugby at Manchester Met to the next level.
“We are sat in the gym now. You look at this gym and you think it is a professional gym. I can’t think of any other Unis that aren’t in BUCS Super Rugby that have this facilitate. The whole professionalism element around sports - and specifically around rugby at Manchester Met - is a really enticing factor for anyone who would want to join.”
In relation to Manchester Met’s partnership with Sale, Hoey believes it “has gone absolutely through the roof” over the last year and perhaps current players like Bowman as well as prop Alice Iwanejko - who came off the bench in Sale’s opening PWR game against Saracens on Saturday - are at the heart of that.
England Under-18 international Lucie Sams is another example to add to the list and for coach Luffman, it is an exciting environment to be working in.
“To get the chance to run a programme at Manchester Met allows players access to really good strength and conditioning, really good coaching, really good experience from matchdays which will develop them over the next three, four years in a university setting to make them ready or even more ready for PWR,” Luffman says.
“The ideal is we are producing PWR players for Sale Sharks and they are coming out with an excellent degree from Manchester Met so it is a win/win situation.
“We know the nature of university rugby means this is not going to be their [the players’] final point. They will all go on to somewhere else after university and hopefully stay in the game, whatever level that is, and maybe even stay in the North-West! Hopefully they will have developed some skills under this programme.”
The introduction of a 2nd XV - driven by committee members Bowman and Hoey - has added another strand to Manchester Met’s programme, with the 1st XV also targeting promotion from Northern Tier 1 this term.
MMU might not have the bright lights of Women’s BUCS Super Rugby shining down on them each week, but their evolving partnership with Sale Sharks isn’t a world away from what some of the top universities in the country have fostered over the last few years.
And looking at the bigger picture, that can only be a positive thing if women’s rugby in England is to continue leading the way.
