NZ Rugby inspired by England’s growth in women’s game
As England continue to set the pace with the places they are taking the international women’s game, New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson has pledged to take up the challenge being set in the north.
The Rugby Football Union confirmed yesterday that John Mitchell’s England women’s side would host the world champion Black Ferns in an international at Twickenham on September 14 that they hoped would shatter the world record for attendance at a women’s game.
That sits at the 58,598 England drew at Twickenham for their 2023 Six Nations decider against France as they completed the grand slam with a 38-33 victory. In this year’s women’s championship, 48,778 fans cheered on England as they ran in 14 tries to thrash Ireland 88-10 at Twickenham.
The previous record for a women’s international had been set for the World Cup final at Auckland’s Eden Park in 2022 when 42,759 watched the Black Ferns take their sixth title with a nailbiting 34-31 victory over the English.
But since then it has been England making every post a winner in the women’s game as they have gone on to claim the inaugural WXV title in New Zealand in 2023, and continue their dominance in the north, with last weekend’s 42-21 victory over France marking a sixth straight Six Nations triumph.
England will host next year’s women’s World Cup, and are considered early favourites to secure a third global title.
But, far from being concerned by England’s establishment as the power base of the women’s game as they lead the way with bums on seats and eyeballs on screens, Robinson says his organisation is inspired by it.
“We see it as a great challenge,” the NZ Rugby boss told media in Auckland yesterday.
“They’ve been able, by virtue of the size of their country and nature of their market, to invest more. They weren’t as impacted by Covid as we were around competitions and pathways for women’s rugby here.
“We still have clear perspectives on where our domestic competitions have got to go. We’re trying to build year on year on what Super Rugby Aupiki looks like, and that’s a critical part of professional pathways for the future. We’ve openly talked about the possibilities around Australia, Japan and maybe the US in that space.’’
Meanwhile, Robinson lauded figures from Sky TV that show an 11% year-onyear growth in the TV audience for Super Rugby in 2024, though he was a little more circumspect on revelations that live attendance had remained relatively stagnant, with a mere 2.5% increase in tickets sold.
“We were clear last year we were working with World Rugby to build laws and modifications in the game to improve the product and we’re seeing the immediate impact of that already, only 5-6 months afterwards.”
Asked if that needed to translate to more bums on seats, Robinson added: “We’ve seen a small increase and we’d love to see that continue to grow.”