10/05/2026
The Pioneers!
As we celebrate 10 years of ARK Ladies entering the DM tournaments, I (Coach Lucy) wanted to uncover the foundations of women’s rugby at the club. This post is long, but please have a read! I really enjoyed messaging with some of the former players and they really enjoyed sharing the stories.
I first came to ARK in 2013 as an exchange student (promise this post isn’t about me. My blog post writing skills are at 0 but ones I have read like to set the scene). Just a couple of weeks after setting foot in Denmark, Anna Vedel, one of the club’s very few women players at the time, encouraged me to join her on a trip to Speed for a 7s tournament, playing with Grenaa rugby team. My first experience of women’s rugby in Denmark. Grenaa was a mix of students, mothers, women of all ages and of all backgrounds. I asked HOW did they end up playing rugby?! “A friend of a friend”, “my colleague encouraged me”, but the most popular story started with “I was sat in a pub and got talking to…”.
I’ve been witness to the growth of women’s rugby in Denmark within the past 13 years. Teams built on approaching women at pubs, relentless leafleting, posting on social media (graphic design has come a long way…just look at the examples in the photos!). And this is why I love women’s rugby. From grassroots to the national team, it’s a story of determination and absolute stubbornness! Individuals knowing how enriching being part of a rugby team is, individuals knowing their players’ full potential and the opportunities they deserve to experience. And this is where I start the story of women’s rugby at Aarhus, because it is a story of determination and absolute stubbornness!
The first women’s rugby world cup in 1991 was, did you know, an unsanctioned event. It was organised by a group of women, voluntarily, despite the IRB (now World Rugby) telling them they couldn’t do it. They stuck two fingers up at them and organised it anyway! The IRB would not recognise the 1994 tournament either but eventually did in 1998. It was in 1998 that ARK had their first female player (that I could find!), Gunvor Ryagaard Jørgensen. I can’t say the two events are linked, I just really like that world cup story. She played from 1998-2005 and was joined by Karina Clemmensen and Kelly Keenen Fjelstrup from the period 2000-2006. They played within the men’s team, the men’s 2nd team and even the U17 boys’ team. Any rugby they could possibly get. Fortunately we’ve come a long way since then as one of their memories was sharing the changing room with the men…they didn’t say this directly but I imagine it could have been a thing of nightmares! That probably sums up women’s rugby at that time though. Existing, but had to squeeze itself into spaces not designed for it…yet.
Heidi Sørensen joined ARK in 2007, she was for a long time the only adult women’s players. She played matches with the men’s 2nd team (pictured!), though always wanted something for women’s rugby. She said “I remember thinking that if women players were going to keep playing, then playing with the men was not an option, especially for the future of women’s rugby and the national teams. Girls needed to play with women players! For me it was just for fun and I liked playing but for rugby as a sport then there needed to be something just for the women.” Jyllands Posten wrote an article called “Heidi and the boys” (I’ll link it in the comments) about Heidi as the only woman on the team and her plea for women to join her! Along came Ellen Brandt. I first met Ellen at the 7s tournaments and have had the absolute honour to organise recruitment events and training games with her, and just generally have her as a friend. She has one of the biggest laughs I’ve ever witnessed, and if anyone was going to get a team going, it was the power personalities of Heidi and Ellen. With the help of others around the area, Jyske Rugby Kvinder (Jutland Women’s Rugby) was born!
Together with Stine Sigh from Odder and Elisabeth Kjeldsen from Sønderborg, Heidi and Ellen didn’t just create a team, JRK was a determined rugby project for women across Jutland. It was a combined side bringing together women from Aarhus, Odder, Hammel, Sønderborg, Grenaa and Erritsø. Most of the players trained separately at their local clubs, usually with the men’s teams (although the first Wednesday of every month there was a JRK training session!), then came together at weekends for the tournaments. No team coach, barely any resources, no proper women’s kit. Ellen told me how they would borrow whatever men’s jerseys their respective clubs weren’t using that weekend, or even borrow from other teams at the tournament, so they were never wearing the same kit! Later though came the “legendary sponsored Netto kit”, described perfectly by Ellen as “it wasn’t great, but it was ours”.
While this was happening, youth players from Aarhus and nearby were building the future generation of women’s rugby in the city. Maria Kjellerup, Anja Skaarup Gyldenløve, Helen Woldeselassie, Susan Lybech, Leonora Cluzeau, Stephanie Kjellerup, Michelle Kristensen, Maria Jensen and Ditte Overgaard made up a huge chunk of youth rugby in the area and stepped up to help JRK grow. Ellen told me that Leonora was only around 14 years old when playing, which meant her mother and a doctor needing to sign permission forms for her to play!
The story of JRK from roughly 2009-2013 is a story of commitment and community. And, not to sound too cheesy, but women’s rugby survival and growth have been thanks to these communities. These players travelled from different corners of Jutland to train, play and even take their admin duties seriously. Ellen very proudly showed me the AGM notes from 2011, location “McDonalds, Aarhus train station”. Despite having players, a sponsored kit, national team representation though, these pioneers still faced barriers and an official Aarhus Ladies team would still have to wait. The team never gave up though. JRK kept building connections across clubs, supporting new players and arranging shared trainings long enough for the foundations of ARK Ladies to emerge. Heidi said the “soul” of JRK was to give something for women’s players in the area. They did just that.
Eventually players moved cities and individual women’s teams emerged. The story of women’s rugby at Aarhus, as we know, definitely doesn’t end here though. But this story of borrowing men’s shirts and changing rooms, AGMs at McDonald’s, building teams from nothing and stubbornly refusing to let women’s rugby disappear, is the start.
The next post will be about the next group of ARK women, continuing joint initiatives across the area and again, a story of stubbornness. At this point women's rugby at ARK was still squeezing itself into a closed space, but it does get better. I really hope you enjoyed reading and please remember, when you pull on your team’s shirt, there is a whole lot of history behind it!
Rugby love ###
PS. If there is anything to add to the story, names misspelt or anything (!) please directly message and I will correct it. I have tried my best to collect a whole lot of information and put it into a nice story!
