Women’s World Cup has strong future, pledge game’s governors
World Rugby have reaffirmed their support for the Women’s Rugby World Cup with Katie Sadleir, their general manager for the women’s game, speaking of the detailed review process that will take place upon the tournament’s conclusion.
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Pete Steinberg, USA head coach, accused the governing body of “discrimination” towards the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
This is something World Rugby strongly refutes as they, and 2017 host union, the Irish Rugby Football Union, are investing almost £7million in the tournament, and World Rugby is investing an additional £13.5million into the women’s game for the period 2015-19.
Steinberg, who has coached the American women to the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time since 1998, was critical that the governing body paid for two extra players and six extra staff for the men compared with the 28 players and six staff afforded to the women.
A World Rugby spokesperson speaking to The Telegraph on Thursday said: “The USA coach’s remark that women are being discriminated against is entirely false. The model that is operational at Women’s RWC 2017 is the same one that is employed at elite men’s competitions, including U20 Championship, Nations Cup, Tbilisi Cup, the Americas Pacific Challenge and others. It is also the format that was approved by all participating teams, including USA, long in advance.
“As Mr Steinberg knows, there will be a full review of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 after the tournament has concluded and all views will be taken into account when considering how we continue to develop this tournament and build on recent success.” Sadleir was keen to talk about the importance of the review process that will take place when the tournament ends, pointing out that a reassessment of the structure would be one area up for re-evaluation.
“I know World Rugby are very diligent about asking for opinions back from players, coaches and unions about how we can improve competitions and what are the lessons learnt,” she said. “That feeds into a plan from World Rugby’s perspective about what we are doing in terms of developing the women’s game. One of the areas we are looking at is what is the structure that is going to make the most of performance, going forward.
“All these things are going to go into consideration post World Cup, in how do we, over the next eight years, over the period of this plan, look to close this gap.”
Meanwhile, England are preparing for their semi-final against France in the 18,000 capacity Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Tuesday.
One area of speculation for the Red Roses throughout the tournament has been head coach Simon Middleton’s squad rotation policy, with the focus now going on which players will be picked.
One of England’s standout performers, openside flanker Marlie Packer, realises the decision is up to the coaches but knows how hungry all squad members are to start.
“The squad rotation has nothing got to do with us,” she said. “The coaches make those kinds of decisions. As players, we back our coaches in making the right decisions. Obviously, all of us players want to play, want [to] play 80 minutes of rugby all the time, but they know what is best. They get the strength and conditioning and all that input, the decisions are made out of our hands.”