Later this year the rugby women’s World Cup will be held in New Zealand. It is expected to attract large crowds and a high viewership, but this competition does not exist without controversy. Ireland were the only country in the Six Nations, Europe’s biggest competition for international rugby teams, not to qualify. This came as a massive shock and led to a major change in coaching staff, but noticeably there was no change in the amount the players were paid. Ireland, unlike most Six Nations teams, don’t pay their players. France and England are both fully professional teams, Wales has over a dozen contracted players, Italy more than twenty, Scotland have ten professional players, and more than thirty supported players. In contrast to this, Ireland’s players remain unpaid. Women’s rugby, both worldwide and here in Ireland remains on an uneven footing, from pay to facilities or even basic kit.
Even when women’s players are paid, there is still a massive disparity between men and women’s pay
Ireland’s interprovincial teams (Ulster, Munster, Connacht, and Leinster), don’t receive travel expenses for training. Many of them drive across the country on their own money, they aren’t paid, they train for 3-4 months, and only play 3-5 games a season. Because of this, both National and Interprovincial players have to have other jobs, which means they have very little time to recover between matches and training sessions. Even when women’s players are paid, there is still a massive disparity between men and women’s pay. The England women’s team, the first professional women’s rugby team in the world, receive an average of £24,000 a year, while the men’s players receive an average of £20,000 a game. The winners of the men’s Six Nations receive £5 million, while there’s no prize money for the women’s competition.
While the pay is certainly the most glaring difference, there’s also a massive disparity in terms of changing facilities and kit. In a recent interpro’s game between Connacht and Ulster in energia park, Dublin, both teams were left changing in an area next to bins and rats. Women’s interpro players aren’t considered elite, and so under the covid guidance at the time they couldn’t have access to indoor changing rooms. This scandal led to an apology from the IRFU, but the fact that it happened in the first place is an indication of just how much the IRFU cares about women’s rugby.
In this year’s Six Nations, Ireland lost 69-10 to England. Part of this was down to Ireland’s inability to take the time to train together and recover after their match only a week previously because players need to work other jobs. However the massive points difference is also partially down to the fact that Ireland had lost five of its best players to the sevens game. There are two main types of rugby, sevens and fifteens. Ireland mainly plays and cares about fifteens; the Six Nations, the interprovincials, and the World Cup are all fifteens. But the IRFU decided to invest in sevens and pulled some of Ireland’s players from the Six Nations to play in a sevens competition in Canada. England meanwhile has almost completely separate squads, meaning they and the other six nations teams didn’t face this problem. This situation would be inconceivable in the men’s game.
Women’s rugby kits exist. There are even companies specifically dedicated to creating women’s kit, for example Ruggette, founded in 2018. Yet many clubs will only buy men’s kit and just expect the women’s players to suck it up and play in kit that doesn’t fit their body and is uncomfortable. Yet everyone would be up in arms if men’s players had to play in women’s kit. And it isn’t just players’ kit, fan merchandise faces this problem as well. When Canterbury released their new Ireland jerseys in 2020 they modeled it using famous male players such as Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw, while the women’s jersey was modeled not with women’s players but with models.
Women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing games in the world. Over a quarter of registered players are women, a growth of 28% in five years, with over 40% of rugby fans being women. And yet, as I’ve outlined above, women’s rugby and women players are constantly ignored, neglected and pushed out of the way to make room for the men’s game. Women’s games aren’t given the same broadcasting quality, and their games were far more likely to be postponed due to Covid, despite having smaller crowds.
There has recently been talk about creating a women’s United Rugby Championship, a tournament with sixteen teams from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, and South Africa. This could be a massive step forward for the women’s game in these countries. I talked to Catherine, a teacher in our school who’s been playing rugby with Connacht since 2018, about her thoughts on a potential women’s URC. This is what she had to say: “That would be amazing I think. So what happens with the interpros is that we would train for maybe like three, four months and then we only get three games, which isn’t ideal, you only really play your other provinces, which is a lot of training for not that much reward at the end of it, not that much game time, so it would be nice to extend it a bit and to develop it, play a bit more … but yeah, that would be incredible. Just that opportunity to play games is exactly what you need to grow the game here.”
The IRFU and World Rugby need to be doing more to promote and protect the women’s games
Women’s players deserve to be paid. Everyone can agree on equal pay for equal work, yet still this problem persists. The IRFU and World Rugby need to be doing more to promote and protect the women’s game. Fans of the game deserve equality in broadcasting and venue. I asked Catherine what she thought readers like you could do to boost the women’s game. “Definitely attending matches and viewership,that’s huge… to fill stadiums and to show that a lot of the arguments against professionalizing the women’s game and talking the women’s game down is that it doesn’t make enough money. Which isn’t a great argument in itself anyway, but just for that [viewership and attendance] to keep growing, it really shows that the women’s game can hold it’s own and deserves a bit more recognition.”