One cannot help but feel that World Rugby made a premature call in postponing the Women’s Rugby World Cup, due to be held in New Zealand, for another 12-13 months.
No one has a crystal ball, but the Olympics are going ahead in Tokyo, albeit before local-only crowds, and the vaccine rollouts mean there must have been a chance we could have hosted a whiz-bang, bells and whistles, global rugby jamboree.
But big events need some form of certainty. The qualifying was incomplete and there was still the shadow of 14 days’ quarantine hanging over 11 of the 12 competing nations.
It’s a real shame, but World Rugby has said it is committed to delivering a “spectacular” event in 2022. That will make it five years between World Cups, a long time between drinks.
The women’s game is going gangbusters globally but the Black Ferns, after all the progress made with regards to contracts and semi-professionalism after that 2017 triumph, have played just 13 times in three years, and their two matches in 2020 were against the NZ Barbarians due to Covid-19 restrictions.
They are just not visible enough. They weren’t before Covid and now the virus will be used as an excuse as to why they do not assemble more often. Sure, it would help if the borders open, but will they be restricted to a diet of trans-Tasman internationals this season? It’s looking that way.
Don’t get me started on the Black Ferns Sevens, the most successful New Zealand national team, male or female, since 2016. They have not been sighted in well over a year, but have Tokyo gold in their sights.
We should really be running a Super Rugby competition for women, as Australia does with its Super W. It will cost, but this is a must for the next 2-3 years, as is a women’s Heartland Championship.
World Rugby has come up with a solution for a more streamlined, rather than ad hoc, international calendar. As they taketh, now they giveth.
The world body is going to implement a 16-team, three-tiered WXV global comp, from 2023. In the first two years, World Rugby will invest $NZ12 million. This sounds promising.
The Black Ferns will be in the top tier (WX1) alongside the likes of France, England, Canada and the USA, plus possibly Australia. There is no promo-relegation in the first two-year cycle.
Though the WXV is long on rhetoric and short on solid detail, for now, at least, the signs are positive. There will also be a collaborative commercial model to grow the sport. It is still foolish to try and compare commercial revenues with the elite men’s game, but at least the ball is rolling.
It would have been superb to see Portia Woodman, Kelly Brazier and Sarah Hirini running around for the Black Ferns in Whangarei and Auckland this spring. We will just have to catch them on the box in July from Tokyo.
We will just have to be patient. It kinda feels like players, supporters and advocates of women’s rugby have had to be patient for many years. But good things do come to those who wait. Once we kill this virus, we should see the full flowering of women’s rugby on a global stage.