RUGBY, England — Rugby Borough are preparing for the biggest game in their history. Currently in the Women’s National League North — the third tier of the women’s game in England — the semi-professional team are the lowest-ranked side still left in the FA Cup, with 21 spots separating them from Sunday’s Women’s Super League (WSL) opponents, Liverpool. But their clubhouse is abuzz with excitement.
“Is something happening on Sunday?” one staff member said jokingly as the players are corralled into various rooms to carry out their prematch media duties.
With just a few days to go until the TV cameras move in to broadcast the FA Cup fifth round’s most eye-catching fixture, it’s a reminder of what the competition means to clubs at this level.
“I think Sunday will be a great experience for all of us,” defender Bethan Roberts tells ESPN. “A lot of the girls haven’t played against WSL standard so it’s a chance for us to see where we’re at. We’ve all said there’s no pressure on us. It’s about going out there and enjoying it and showing what we’re about.”
Rugby Borough are the underdogs going into the weekend’s showdown in Warwickshire at their stadium that can fit 1,000 fans. Originally founded in 2013 as Coventry City Ladies, the club merged with nonleague outfit Coventry United in 2015. But in June 2023, after Coventry’s relegation from the Women’s Championship, the club relocated from Coventry and began playing under the Rugby Borough banner.
Though they are a semi-professional club, there is a determination from those within to ensure that they operate with the utmost professionalism.
“When you get to this point in the competition, you want to get a WSL side,” head coach Lee Burch tells ESPN. “We’re the lowest-ranked side still in the competition, alongside Wolves [who are three places above Rugby Borough in the league] so we knew whoever we got would be really tough. We have big games either side of this weekend, but we’re all excited for this.”
“We’re looking to grow”
Life in the third tier of the women’s game is tough. The Women’s National League is split into a northern and southern division and, until the 2023-24 campaign, only one side could gain promotion to the Championship. At the end of the 2022-23 season, for example, Nottingham Forest — who had lost only two league games en route to topping the northern division — were denied promotion after narrowly losing their one-legged playoff with southern division winners Watford.
Though the two regional champions both earn promotion, playing in the Women’s National League still has its challenges, particularly for independent clubs like Rugby Borough.
“The majority of us either have jobs or are at university so we’re doing other things alongside football,” says Roberts, who juggles her playing career with studying part-time for a degree in sports science and health. “We know all the challenges that come with that, but we’ve worked really hard this year to put on an extra training session, for example, and make sure we’re as professional as we can be. We’ve got the title of semi-pro, but actually we treat it as if we’re professional and what we’re doing at the training ground is just as important as what we’re doing away from it.”
For forward Mai Moncaster, a product of Leicester City’s academy, her average week is dedicating five out of seven days to either training or playing for Rugby Borough, while the 23-year-old is also working off the pitch to lay the foundations for a successful coaching career in the future.
“I’m due to do my UEFA B licence in the coming months, which will be fully funded by the FA,” Moncaster tells ESPN. “I’m just trying to get on as many webinars, coaching courses and talent ID courses as possible. I’m coming for Lee’s role one day!”
Rugby Borough train and play matches at the Nationwide Windows Arena; a £2.5 million facility set in 35 acres of countryside. One of the cornerstones of the club’s ethos is giving back to the community, with several senior players involved in coaching local youth teams, but the ultimate goal is for the first team to climb the football pyramid.
“We have a hybrid structure at the moment so we’re in a good place, but the ultimate goal is to get back into the Championship and continue to push the club and become professional,” Burch says. “Ten years ago, there were only a handful of WSL sides that were professional and now we’ve got a handful of National League sides that are professional, so you can see the direction the game is going in.
“We have a great owner here, we have a great club that is trying to push things forward, a good facility. We’re in a place where we need to keep pushing forward but as a club, we’re looking to grow. As Rugby Borough, we have to try to challenge ourselves to compete with some of those bigger names.”
“We want to put our club on the map”
Burch will get his wish this weekend when two-time WSL champions Liverpool travel to the West Midlands. Matt Beard’s Liverpool side have endured a mixed campaign and are seventh in the league table but are still an ominous prospect.
Liverpool have been fully professional for more than a decade and have their own £13m training base, the AXA Melwood Training Centre, which is equipped with an array of state-of-the-art facilities, including a steam room, sauna and two full-sized training pitches.
In the summer, they broke their transfer record by signing Canada international Olivia Smith for around £210,000 from Sporting CP and have 15 full internationals in their squad. This weekend’s matchup offers a potent reminder of the disparity that exists between the third tier and the game’s elite.
Indeed, Rugby Borough began in the first round with a 7-0 win over Lincoln City before beating Peterborough (7-1), Mancunian Unity (3-0) and London Bees (6-0); Liverpool, meanwhile, joined in the fourth round and beat West Ham (5-0).
The prize money for winning in the women’s FA Cup fifth round stands at £80,000 which, though only a fraction of the £225,000 sum awarded to teams who triumph in the same round of the men’s competition, would go a long way to helping bolster Rugby Borough’s infrastructure.
“Everyone knows about the financial aspect, and it is growing, though it still needs to get bigger,” Burch says. “For us, it is about pushing the brand, getting the club out there a bit more.
“This [game vs. Liverpool] is really important to put our club on the map and help people understand who we are. We’ve got a lot of good players, some players who’ve played against WSL opponents before and some who haven’t. Ultimately, it’s about putting us on the map and that’s what this run has done.”
The prospect of Rugby Borough making it out of the third tier is made more difficult because several of their league opponents are backed by Premier League outfits. In summer 2023, Newcastle United — off the back of the club’s takeover by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — became the first women’s third-division side in more than two decades to turn fully professional. They won promotion to the Championship that season.
In the northern division this term, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, Burnley and Stoke City are among Rugby Borough’s opponents.
“It’s a tough division,” Moncaster says. “It’s been particularly tough the last couple of years because more men’s clubs are putting money into their women’s teams. That’s why the FA Cup is so important to an independent club like ours.
“We want to do it for the club, we want to do it for each other, so the FA Cup campaign has been really important for us. It’s difficult in the third division but we’re up for the challenge and our time will come soon.”
Should Rugby Borough’s time come this weekend, it will be a game that instantly becomes part of women’s football folklore. Whatever the result, though, it looks set to be a memorable afternoon for a club who consistently look to punch above their weight.
“It’s a sellout this weekend so hopefully the people who come to see us, maybe for the first time, want to return,” Burch says. “We want our crowds to continue growing and we want to put on a good show for the new faces that are coming. It’s not just about them coming to see Liverpool, it’s about coming to support a local club and that will hopefully continue to drive us forward.
“The players deserve to enjoy themselves on Sunday. People talk about the magic of the club but there’s not too many shocks in the women’s game in the FA Cup, it’s probably more so in the men’s, so someone is due to do it soon.”