One-sided issue:

This may be sacrilegious to say, but you have to wonder what the Farah Palmer Cup is actually achieving. It may seem like an act of heresy to criticise this competition. Let’s be clear: this is not an attack on women’s rugby, but a national tournament that seems to have some fundamental flaws.

Firstly, so many of the matches are one-sided. For a neutral, sport is only exciting when the outcome can’t be predicted.

So far this season, there have been 24 matches in the competition and just two have been won by a margin of less than nine points.

We’ve had six matches won by a margin of at least 50 points and included in that are blowouts of 86-0, 59-0, 73-0 and 88-3. Three of those games were shown live on Sky TV, so what sort of message is this sending out about women’s rugby?

Well, for starters it’s signalling that there isn’t enough depth for a 12-team national competition.

No one got anything out of Wellington smashing Tasman 88-3 on Sunday. There couldn’t have been much of a feeling of achievement from the Wellington players and those from Tasman must wonder why they bother.

It also must be mentioned that the crowds to these games are woefully small and you’d expect the TV viewing figures to be similar.

Good on Sky TV for getting behind women’s rugby, even if their on-field post-match interviews are just as bad as they are for the Mitre 10 Cup.

The way to grow women’s rugby is to make it more competitive at the level underneath the national game.

So instead of having 12 teams, where the gulf in class is all too apparent, how about cutting it down to five, based on where the Super Rugby franchises are?

For Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore, surely he wants his best players playing against each other more often. Just as the All Blacks selectors judge Super Rugby as the place where players prove they can play at the highest level, something similar needs to be in place for women’s rugby.

Let’s make this a five-team competition where everyone plays each other home and away, followed by a final.

Having New Zealand’s best players competing each week at a higher level will only improve the Black Ferns.

Rebecca Mahoney created history

‘‘There isn’t enough depth for a 12-team national competition.’’

two weeks ago by being the first woman to referee a first-class rugby game, taking charge of the clash between Thames Valley and Buller.

Congratulations to her and let’s hope she continues to rise up the ranks, but when it comes to coaching there’s a distinct lack of women.

All 12 teams in the competition have a man as the head coach and it’s the same with the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens teams.

According to New Zealand Rugby’s Farah Palmer Cup media guide, there are only two female assistant coaches, Melissa Ruscoe at Canterbury and Karina Nafatali at Otago. Surely this is an area where a significant improvement needs to be made.