Woody's 7s, or W7s for short, was created after a boys coach, Woody, fell in to girls rugby in 2009, and was shocked at the lack of festivals, events and opportunities for girls.
"I only knew how to coach the way I was coached, the way in which I had coached the boys previously, and when I started to plan pre-season and a tour, the girls were a little taken back. I realised that not every girls team did anything pre-season or toured back then, and because of that there was not a lot out there."
Woody's 7s had a club name for around 4 years before becoming W7s, and started off as a single day event. The aim was to have an event all about the girls, not profit or to take on the larger multi-sport and music events but to give the girls something just for them. "To be honest 7s isn't my kind of format, I am not a big fan of running too far, but when I spoke to clubs, there were so many who didn't fancy coming as they couldn't field a full team. So I suggested 7s and putting smaller sides together to make 7-10 per team and we suddenly had around 150 girls signed up, this was around 2010 before girls rugby had a growth spurt."
However, when Woody left the club he was asked by a number of clubs if the event was still going ahead. Woody felt that it would be wrong to bang the "I'm doing this for the girls," drum and not take a chance on a new site and challenge.
Woody doesn't take a wage or dividends, and relies heavily on volunteers to run the event. 95% of the volunteers are parents of players coached by Woody, who have now grown-up. "We help Woody because we have seen the benefits of his passion and love for the players and the sport. Most of our daughters played for Woody's girls section, not because he was such an amazing coach that they were guaranteed to play for England, but because of the environment that he created and the feeling that he would go above and beyond for them. This event is him doing very much the same but for as many girls sections as possible."