Payments to players transforms our game
Richmond Women have been the most successful club in England over the last 30 years. They were pioneering as one of the first women’s squads to establish in 1986 and continued to forge ahead, running three teams for a number of years.
Most rugby clubs at the time struggled with the concept of running one women’s team so to run with three on a regular basis was quite some achievement.
They have had a vast number of internationals play for them throughout this time and were regularly sitting pretty at the top of the league table. When their men’s team hit difficulties, they continued to prosper with players travelling many miles and devoting hours of travel time to don the Richmond colours.
Success breeds success and Richmond, for many aspirational players, was the place to be. Other clubs were envious, they were the club many of us loved to hate but now, the boot is on the other foot so to speak.
They have struggled for the last three seasons, their long-time coach Karen Findlay left to join Harlequins, they have not attracted the calibre of payer required to compete at the top of the table and the Richmond reign has well and truly fallen.
And now there are more problems to add to their woes. Money. Richmond FC were one of the first men’s teams to turn professional in 1996 but this went sour and after reestablishing themselves they now, according to their website, strive to be the best community rugby club in the UK.
They have licked their wounds; they have relatively successfully rebranded themselves. But community rugby and top flight women’s rugby no longer equates.
There have been whispers in the air, educated assumptions and building anticipation but this week we have seen in print (courtesy of Kate Rowan at the Telegraph) that clubs will be paying players.
Worcester, who last week I suggested needed to call on their warrior
spirit, have now also found some inclination to open a few more pockets and offer match fees to their women’s team. Saracens are paying retainers along with match fees and Harlequins are providing a support system to players that helps financially though not in the form of match fees or a pay cheque.
Steve Hill, Richmond director of rugby, told Telegraph Sport this week that he fears a gap is growing. He points to Saracens and Harlequins as the only two teams competing for top spot before the season has even started and has expressed fears that the game is developing in this way.
But, Steve, how do you expect the game to develop? I am sure that the RFU will not be happy about this either because this is most definitely being driven by the clubs. It is out of their control to some extent but in my opinion, this is exactly what is needed.
We need a few clubs to lift the bar. To make the brave decision to invest in their women’s teams so that in the future this decision made by other clubs will no longer need to be described as brave. Richmond have had their day and unless they decide to go down the professional route they need to fully embrace their community club aspirations and say goodbye to on-pitch success.
But really it is not just about decisions to invest, it is about which clubs make this decision. The one’s with deep pockets preferably.
Exeter have announced their plans for their professional women’s team and will tender for a place in the top league for next season.
They have a strong playing population in and around Exeter with the university, college and a local existing club women’s team to call upon, but they know they need to attract some experience to strengthen this.
They need to find 60 players of the calibre required. If anyone can do it, Exeter can. They have proved this with their men’s team; there is a comforting feeling of assurance that they know what they are doing.
I have been in the middle of the community club dilemma. As a player and then coach at Aylesford rugby club in Kent I was part of the move to Harlequins.
I even put on my boots for preseason at the Surrey Sports Park training base thinking that I could play for one more season but my creaky knees had other ideas.
I had aspirations that we could keep the same group of players together and develop as a whole but this was not to be. Eventually all but a handful of original Aylesford players remained and the Aylesford origins of Harlequins are but a distant memory.
But if it was not for that group of players, turning out for their village club, if it was not for that very special group of players hanging on by their finger nails to retain their Premierships status, if it was not for my twin brother volunteering his time to help me coach and keep that team together then I would not be writing these words today.
Harlequins would not have got their Premiership team when they did and, I am certain, we would not have seen the announcements by Worcester, Saracens and Exeter this week. Richmond strive to be the best community club; I know by experience that community is not enough anymore at the top level of the women’s game.
Aylesford have this summer started a women’s team again with a few who made the trip around the M25 to Harlequins back at their club to support their community again.
Rugby is a sport that is hugely loyal to its roots but we must also let it grow. As hard as it might be, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture and embrace this change. Embrace the proactivity shown by some clubs.
There will be casualties, like there were following the shift to professionalism in the men’s game but that is sport and now, in the women’s game too, business. Those of us who have been involved with the game are often asked about its development.
It is a boring question with often a boring answer. But now, at last, we do not have to paint a forced smile on our faces trying to muster some kind of positive and jolly response.
The game now is more than developing, it is transforming. We don’t always have to refer back to where we have come from, it is now time to look forward to where we are going. Bitter sweet.
“Community is not enough anymore at the top level of the women’s game”