Early 1980s: building a team
The club history uses 1984 as its milestone, but contemporary reporting shows a section built over several years. In January 1986, Het Parool reported that AAC had a complete women's team for the first time that season, playing weekly in the national competition with a stable core of about eighteen.
Anja Stoffels, then 22, said she had spent seven years trying to build the team. The same report placed Agnes Pelk in the regular core for about three years. They are the earliest women directly connected to the development of AAC women's rugby in a contemporary source.
2007 – 2011: the first cluster of titles
Twenty-three years after the section was set up, AAC's women won their first Dames Ereklasse title in 2007–08. It started a four-year run at the top of the Dutch women's game: titles in 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11, four in a row. Few clubs in the Dutch game, men's or women's, have managed that.
2016 – 2019: two more titles
AAC won the Dames Ereklasse again in 2016–17 and 2018–19, taking the total to six after the first run of four straight titles.
2022 – 23: title number seven
On 29 May 2023, AAC beat Blue Waves/Bassets 29–21 in the final to secure the women’s seventh national title.
2024 – 25: the eighth title
The most recent men's national championship is from 1976–77. The most recent women's title is far closer to today: 24 May 2025, at the National Rugby Centre Amsterdam, with a 17–0 final win over RUS.
Eight Dames Ereklasse titles place AAC second on the women's all-time table behind SRC Thor, a position the club's own pages identify plainly.
2025 – 26: the final again
One year on, AAC reached the final again, a Dames Ereklasse decider against RC Waterland on 30 May 2026. Waterland won 39–12, and AAC finished as runners-up. The 2026 squad is built around a senior core that has been together through multiple Ereklasse seasons, blended with younger players promoted from the youth section.
The line, in one place
The history in a small set of numbers:
- Early 1980s: training and recruitment are under way
- 1984: the traditional milestone in the club history
- 1985–86: first stable full competition team
- 2007 – 11: four national titles in four years
- 2016 – 17 and 2018 – 19: titles five and six
- 2022 – 23: seventh title, 29–21 over Blue Waves/Bassets
- 2024 – 25: eighth national title, sealed 17–0 over RUS
- 2025 – 26: Dames Ereklasse runners-up, lost final 12–39 to RC Waterland
- A senior women's XV and a full youth section underneath
What survives, what doesn't
The 1980s and 1990s of AAC women's rugby are thinner in the archive than the modern era. Squad photos, fixture lists, player letters and captain's reports from those first two decades would all help fill in the gap. If you played in those years, or knew someone who did, please get in touch.
Sources. Het Parool, 24 January 1986, for Anja Stoffels, Agnes Pelk and the first stable competition team. Club records for the 1984 milestone. Rugby Nederland for the year-by-year titles. The 2026 Dames Ereklasse final page for the 2025–26 final.