Rugby Union

Players left in limbo by suspension and worried at being used to trial new laws, writes Fiona Tomas

It has been a dismal year for women’s rugby. The Premier 15s had paused in January for the Six Nations, a competition which was widely criticised – from cold showers for the Wales team to no prize money or title sponsor.

So the game was struggling even before the pandemic hit. When coronavirus did take hold, all Premier 15s activity – namely group training – was suspended.

The Rugby Football Union voided all rugby in England on March 20 with the exception of the Gallagher Premiership. There was no mention of any efforts to restart the Premier 15s in its press release.

Kate Alder, the Wasps Ladies captain, has not played for five months and does not know when she will return to a team training environment.

“As the lockdown eases, we might be able to do small, skill-based sessions, as and when we’re allowed to, with three or four people two metres apart,” she said.

“But because the whole point of our sport is contact-based, we haven’t got a clue.”

Reducing scrummaging and limiting numbers in a maul were among 10 optional law trials approved by World Rugby this week.

Given its growing profile but meagre attendances, elite women’s rugby is often lumped with the community game – where the trials are expected to be applied – and therefore the Premier 15s could be exposed to such changes to a greater extent than men’s rugby.

Introducing such measures could devalue the league at a time when it is searching for a new title sponsor after Tyrrells decided against renewing its contract.

“In terms of making all these changes to allow us to play, you wonder at what cost,” Alder said. “If you say, ‘Right we’re changing this because we want players to come back and play’, is it necessarily the best way forward? To change the nature of the game, I don’t think it’s going to be very beneficial or realistic.”

That Premier 15s squads are being trimmed from 60 to 40 from next season is timely, given the concentrated efforts to lower transmission of the virus.

For now, clubs are awaiting updates from the Rugby Football Union on when group training can resume.