Spotlight rightly falls on women’s game now
Wasn’t it great to see the Women’s Six Nations finally kick-off yesterday. And wasn’t it interesting to see it standing alone in the rugby calendar.
It might have been a European weekend, but the coverage the women got in the run up to the competition was bigger than I can recall in the past. Perhaps that is the way forward for them – to find their place in the rugby calendar so the spotlight can shine solely on them.
When they have to compete against the men’s tournament and the U20s it often means they are not as visible and squeezes the media space allocated to them.
So I’d love to see them fixing their own date in the calendar to allow them to properly showcase their talents. The Women’s Super League in football is starting to get more and more coverage on TV, radio and in the papers and that is helping it to grow commercially, as well as on the pitch.
That has to be the way forward for women’s rugby as well, eventually leading to full time contracts for the players in all six countries, not merely in one or two of them. Then we will really see the standard improve.
It has been a huge boost to the game in Wales to see our top female talent playing in the Allianz Premier 15s league this season – and so many of them doing so well!
Is there a better wing than Jasmine Joyce in the UK?
Young and old are being exposed to top competition week in, week out and I’m sure new Wales coach Warren Abrahams is delighted at that.
There has been an explosion of interest in women’s rugby this century and rugby clubs around the UK are finally adapting and changing to embrace this new found interest in a game that has traditionally been a male preserve. No longer!
Where once grandmothers,
“Fixing their own date in the calendar would allow them to showcase their talents”
mums, wives and daughters were cast in supportive roles in clubhouses, these days they are not only helping to run the game administratively, but also joining in on the coaching and playing side.
The reason for raising this is that here in Wales were have finally been able to open up our pitches again to allow clubs to return to training and there are concerns that players may not come back in the same numbers as before the pandemic struck in 2020. That’s not what I’m experiencing at Amman United.
I’ll have 24 players this week when my son, Carter, and his U12s return to training. Judging by the activity on the team’s Whatsapp group they can’t wait to get back to see each other and throw a ball about.
I reckon playing with footballs and rugby balls will overtake Forting nite this month. The kids have had enough of computer games, now they want some real action. The clubs need them back as well. While players of all ages, and both sexes, have missed playing, the clubs have suffered terrible financial losses.
Tag and touch rugby festivals were permitted for U18s from April 1 and then all levels of the game, including youth and senior teams, can look forward to a phased return of modified, limited contact train from the start of next month. There will be knock-out competitions between August and November, but the game will then shut down for a winter break in December.
There won’t be league matches until mid-January, so there is still a long wait before teams and clubs get back to anything like normality. Small steps, but at least everyone is able to get back onto a pitch and get a ball in their hands from this week.