If you can’t beat them, join them – wives and girlfriends of rugby players from a club in Rochester decided to give the sport a try to raise money for charity.

The Old Williamsonian Wags, headed by Rebecca Humphreys and Beth Lambert-Williams, played their first touch rugby match against the Medway Women’s rugby team on Saturday.

The women decided to organise the match after watching their partners play for Old Williamsonian RFC, who are based at Rochester Math School in Maidstone Road.

Miss Humphreys, 25, from Rochester, said: “We thought, ‘How hard could it be?’

“We asked other girlfriends and wives as well as friends if they wanted to play and luckily they were up for the challenge.

“We’ve been training since the start of January with our coach, Dan Harrison, who has given up his Sunday morning to teach us the basics because we’re all rugby novices.

“Everyone has been really committed to training and we’ve all really enjoyed it.”

The ladies are aged between 13 and 25 and are former pupils of Rochester Grammar School and Rochester Math School.

The match raised £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Miss Humphreys, who works for the charity, said: “Our boyfriends are really proud we’ve done this and are so surprised because we’ve never played before and we aren’t very sporty.

“I don’t think any of the boys thought we’d keep up the training but we have. Everyone has enjoyed it so much we’ve talked about carrying on.”

More in Friday's Medway Messenger.