Rugby Union / Women's World Championship: Understanding the appeal of the oval-ball game: Why is it that women play rugby? Bess Evans, a Welsh international, explains the allure, and assesses the challenge her team face in Scotland

MY first introduction to women's rugby was at Sunderland Polytechnic Freshers' Fayre, where an assortment of weird and unusual sports vied with the more traditional for attention - anyone's attention.

Someone yelled: 'Come and join the women's rugby, you look the right size.' From that point onwards, I was adamant that women's rugby was not for me.

It wasn't until two years later, when I went to study at Cardiff Institute of Higher Education, that I started to play rugby. Why then? Well, I was keen on sport. I played netball to Welsh Students' level, was the college's No 1 squash player, and a keen basketball player. I just joined another club.

The appeal at the time was that it was something different. I didn't think I would stick at it - but I did. For me it was a natural progression from netball, and the fact that I enjoyed it and felt I was good at it meant there was no turning back.

When I went to my first training session, I was asked if I could play football. I replied: 'Yes, I've played a bit.' Which brought the response, 'OK then, you can play hooker.' And from that day on hooker was my position.

In my second season I found myself involved in the Welsh squad - very quiet, shy and nervous. Six years on, things have changed drastically - I'm now confident and pleasantly arrogant.

I've gained my sixth cap against England, always our most intense rivals. The last game between us was in February this year at Bridgend. We lost 11-10 and have still to register a win, but we get better every time. However, in March we had a convincing victory over Ireland which leaves us in good spirits for the World Championship.

On leaving college, I was stuck for a rugby club to join, as there wasn't one in the Cardiff area. Simple solution: I would start one. After a lot of hard work the Cardiff club got off the ground. We won the Third Division in our first season, the Second Division in our second season, and now we battle alongside the big guns in the First Division of women's rugby - Saracens, Richmond and Wasps.

As well as playing, for a couple of years I took on board the job of chair of the Welsh women's committee, where my greatest triumph was gaining access for women to the cathedral of Welsh rugby - the National Stadium.

In 1992, the annual game with England was played on that hallowed turf. It was a major plus for me. Not only had we broken into the male bastion of rugby union in Wales, but as a player I had the honour and prestige of playing there on the first - and perhaps the last - time women took to that field. It was awesome.

People sometimes ask about the safety of women playing rugby. Is it a sensible sport for a woman? Yes, I have received injuries through my playing career but, like any sport, it's the nature of the game. Women play against women, so they play against the strengths and weaknesses of women.

Fitness for sport has become a major area of concern. Previously it was thought that playing sport would get you fit, now people realise that you need to be fit in order to play sport. Women rugby players know they have to train for their sport, and this has made the game more highly skilled and far less injury-prone.

When Wales hosted the first Women's Rugby World Cup, we had Canada and New Zealand in our group. We drew against Canada, 8-8, whereas New Zealand took us to the cleaners - although we put up a strong and unrelenting defence.

This time around in Scotland we are with Canada again and Kazakhstan, a new team we don't know much about, and we will play at Edinburgh Academicals' ground.

The 1991 inaugural women's World Cup was a resounding success for women's rugby. The publicity it received was tremendous, the impact it had on the game was incredible. Let's hope the same can be said of the second.

(Photograph omitted)