A new 'New York - Boston' Sports Rivalry is Launched as the Women's Elite Rugby League Opens Its Season
by Warren Rosenberg, MetroSports Magazine - March 22, 2025
On Saturday March 22nd a new sports team, in a new league, opened their 2025 season in one of the NY Metro region’s newest stadiums. The New York Exiles, a women’s professional rugby team and one of six teams in the new Women’s Elite Rugby League (WER), took to the pitch at Memorial Stadium in the Westchester County city of Mount Vernon, a suburb of New York City.
In the spirit of the long standing Yankees/Red Sox, Knicks/Celtics, Rangers/Bruins and Giants/Patriots rivalries between the Metro New York region and the Metro Boston region, the New York Exiles inagugral game at their new home stadium was against the Boston Banshees. In addition to this being the Exiles and Banshees first match, it was the inagural contest of the new Women’s Elite Rugby League..
As noted on the Women’s Elite Rugby League website, the New York Exiles take their name from a passage in the Emma Lazarus poem, ‘The New Colossus’, noting that “the statue of Liberty is known as the Mother of Exiles and as the landmark for opportunity, the team name and crest reflect this nod to Lady Liberty. The city of New York requires grit, determination, and resilience, and through their performance on the field, the Exiles will reflect that culture and community.
The team crest holds three, hooded heroes representing not only Ellis Island’s impact on the city, the journey to a new life, but also the boldness to step out in a sport that is often seen exiled in mainstream sport culture. Additionally, these figures within the crest give a nod to the superhero typography associated with New York.
The crest also utilizes the torch to tie in the city’s symbolism for liberty and illumination. The team colors of Night Navy, Liberty and Shadow Teal, and Torch Orange mirror and unite with the teal-based color palette of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) New York Liberty, Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) New York Sirens, and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), New York Gotham. The New York teal palette unifies women’s professional sports fans and we are happy to enhance this city-wide vision.”
The Boston Banshees take their name “in keeping with the rich history of rebellion in the city of Boston and the New England area. A banshee is a female spirit of Irish/Celtic folklore whose shriek signals impending doom. As New England is known for its ties to witches/folk-lore and also a strong Irish community presence, the Banshee is a seamless fit for the city. The team crest holds a wailing Banshee in the center signaling the unstoppable force the team will place upon their opponent; a team that will not be silenced, immersed in the colors of Moonlight White, Ghostly Gray, Blood-Moon Red and Midnight.
The presence of competitive womens rugby in the New York Metro area is nothing new. Women have been competing in the physical sport of rugby for years and many of the local, regional, national, and international teams at the high school, college, and semipro levels have long competed in the New York Sevens Rugby Tournament (NY7s) held every November in New York City and covered in MetroSports Magazine. Women’s rugby was officially welcomed into the Olympic Games in 2016.
Of the 30 players on the NY Exiles, most had previously played on the NY Rugby Club’s women’s team.
The fighting spirit displayed by these two teams, and the fierce and physical competition serve to disprove the words of Baron Pierre de Coubertain, founder of the modern Olympics who said that “an Olympiad with females would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper," largely because “no matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.” He went on to specify that the Olympics should feature "the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism, based on internationalism, by means of fairness, in an artistic setting, with the applause of women as a reward." Thankfully this has been disproven time and again in modern athletic competition. The New York Sports Photo Group and MetroSports Magazine have been proud to feature women athletes highlighting their fierce competitive spirit as they participate in their chosen sport.
In a hard fought contest on Saturday afternoon’s inaugural WER match, the New York Exiles scored first and dominated the first half, running up the score to a 17-5 lead at the half. Opening the second half, the Exiles put 2 more points on the board before the Banshees regrouped and began their scoring drives. Unfortunately for the home team Exiles, the Banshees came out victorious with a final score of 29-27.
The Womens Elite Rugby League was conceived and founded by ,Dr. Jessica Hammond-Graff, Ed.D., a former US rugby 7's player, and retired NCAA Division I Deputy Athletic Director, creating empowered women to lead in the sporting space is my passion. Whether it is in the classroom or building professional playing opportunities for future rugby players, women belong in sports at all levels of the organization
