Taking stock of rugby on International Women’s Day
Forever grateful to all the women in our lives that allow us to play the game we love. Partners, mothers, daughters, doctors, physios, referees, administrators and fans. Appreciate you every day ❤️#IWD2022
Followers of rugby may remember this tweet released from the All Blacks on International Women’s Day last year. It’s difficult to comprehend what exactly the social media manager thought before hitting send, the tweet duly met with criticism for its depiction of women as little more than facilitators of the mens game. The fact the Black Ferns, the New Zealand women’s team, were at the time the reigning world champions and five-time World Cup winners, was embarrassingly and inexplicably ignored.
Since then the Black Ferns have gone on to win another World Cup, this time in New Zealand in front of 42,000 fans at Eden Park in an incredible upset against an England side with 30 consecutive wins to their name. If that achievement wasn’t enough in itself, the feat has contributed to a predicted 40% increase in participation numbers on 2022.
With an extended Rugby World Cup 2025 drawing clearer on the horizon, the women’s game is in a period of hyper-acceleration. To put that attendance figure at Eden Park into context, the whole of the 2017 World Cup drew just 45,412 fans.
In England the Allianz Premier 15s, the world’s most established league competition, has embarked on a 10-year strategy towards professionalisation which has already seen the establishment of Women’s Premier 15 Limited as a stand-alone operating company. The RFU, leading the pack with its consistent investment in the women’s game, also announced a ‘ground breaking’ maternity policy last month.
To the west in Wales, the WRU recently awarded 25 full-time professional contracts to double the number handed out just over a year ago. Chief executive Nigel Walker said: “The investment we put into the national programme last year paid clear dividends both on the field in terms of performances and results, and off it in terms of the all-round athlete development.” The return on investment in women’s rugby is finally being recognised and appreciated.
On the other side of the world in Australia, which will host the Rugby World Cup in 2029, central part-time contracts for the Wallaroos have been introduced, alongside a minimum payment for the Super W league and parenting and pregnancy guidelines. Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, the Super Rugby Apuiki competition was inaugurated in March 2022 despite the efforts of Covid to halt it in its tracks.
Furthermore, the recent World Cup saw the emergence of nations such as Fiji onto the international stage, their attacking brand of rugby and landmark 21-17 victory over South Africa boosting them into the world top 20 for the first time and into the hearts of so many fans. South Africa themselves, having taken a four-year break from the international scene, were welcomed back to their first World Cup since 2014.
The game has also seen the return of historic powers from the wilderness. Sweden, one of the pioneers of women’s rugby, returned to the scene in 2017 and replaced Russia in this years Rugby Europe Women’s Championship.
Alongside the launch of a new a three-tier global international competition, the WXV, in October of this year, World Rugby have stylised 2023 as the year the women’s international rugby landscape will be reset as competition, commercial and fan engagement opportunities are supercharged.
It’s quite the list of recent advancements, and this is far from exhaustive; indeed, I haven’t even touched on rugby 7s. These next few years feel seminal for the future of the game, and as such it is an incredibly exciting time to watch it grow.
However, returning to the outset of this piece, it is simultaneously true that there are baby steps still to be taken. Attitudes such as those displayed in the All Black’s tweets have not and will not dissolve overnight. Investment is always a barrier, but cultural forces are many times more potent.
Elma Smit, host of the The Good, The Scaz and The Rugby podcast, has astutely highlighted how material investment alone cannot be the answer to the global advancement of the game.
Speaking of her home nation of South Africa, she said: “We can funnel endless funds into the women’s game but if a father won’t let his daughter play the sport because he thinks it’s not for girls, then we won’t get anywhere.”
Writer Alice Soper, speaking of the culture in New Zealand prior to last years World Cup, was similarly eloquent in her identification of social barriers.
She said: “Our role within the game is still viewed as that of a tourist. We are visiting the men’s domain and they are quick to remind us who stamped our passport.”
As the women’s game carves its own path in the rugby landscape, things seem to be changing for the better. A space is being constructed where women are no longer defined simply in terms of functionality, in terms of reproductive capacity, altering what society conceives femininity to be. By no means is the work done, nor will it in the near future, but as players continue to defy feudal expectations things will continue to move in the right direction.
It has been just over 30 years since four women came together to organise the first ever Women’s World Cup in 1991. The game is unrecognisable to what it was then, and this should be celebrated. Yet on days like today it shouldn’t just be a moment of reflection, but a source of motivation to strive for what is waiting to be achieved.
