Club partners support AAC teams and events. See current partners

Menu
1989 – 2004

The two decades before the first title.

AAC’s women had a stable team by 1985–86 and a first national title in 2007–08. The twenty years in between are where the section was built.

← Back to the archive

Two teams in January 1989

On 6 January 1989 Het Parool reported that AAC had grown to two women’s teams. The first side beat Canterbury University II 32–0 at De Eendracht.

That was the position that season. AAC’s women’s section today is a single XV.

And the resistance

The same article recorded the resistance the players met inside the game. The result belongs beside that context: the section was growing while the women were still arguing for equal recognition.

It is recorded here because it is in the source, not in spite of it.

Recruiting by post and market stall

On 3 October 1992 De Volkskrant described an AAC recruitment campaign led by Fransje de Waard: direct mail, posters, market stalls and a six-week introductory course.

De Waard led this 1992 campaign. She was not a founder of the section: contemporary records from 1983–84 place her at Wageningen, and AAC already had a stable competition team in 1985–86.

A tournament of their own

According to the archived official Amsterdam Sevens website of 2004, AAC’s women had by then been staging their own international women’s sevens tournament for more than a decade.

Into the main tournament, 2004

In 2004 women competed within the main Amsterdam Sevens, with Friday added as Dames Day. That is the year the contemporary source gives.

From two teams to the first title

The first women’s national title came in 2007–08, two decades after the two teams of 1989. Seven more followed.

6 Jan 1989
Two women’s teams; the first beat Canterbury University II 32–0
3 Oct 1992
Recruitment campaign led by Fransje de Waard
before 2004
AAC’s women run their own international sevens tournament for over a decade
2004
Women compete in the main Amsterdam Sevens
2007–08
First women’s national title

What is missing

No verified team photograph from these two decades has been located online. If you played for AAC in those years, or knew someone who did, please get in touch.

Sources. Het Parool, 6 January 1989, for the two teams, the result and the resistance. De Volkskrant, 3 October 1992, for the recruitment campaign. Both via Delpher. The archived 2004 Amsterdam Sevens women’s pages for the separate tournament and for 2004 as the first year in the main event. The page on how women’s rugby took root carries the story on from the first title.