IRFU vs Irish Women's Rugby

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

https://www.independent.ie/sport/ru...rom-irfu-undermines-womens-game-36992026.html

It's a interesting one.
I can understand the lack of funding compared to the men's game, because it makes sense but to turn down prime time tv slots that where on offer and a Aus tour to go with the mens game with all but the plane tickets paid for is crazy.

Don't get me wrong the writer over eggs some things like "And there also would be the possibility of cross-pollination of ideas, views and expertise between the players, coaches and management teams which would have been mutually beneficial" Not sure what the mens team would be lacking that the womens team knows about.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

I can understand that the IRFU do what they think is best. No sexism here, just a business mind.


A little bit of me kinda wants to see the men and women's games merged (as long as there was no quotas) and just see what happenes. It would be a laugh and stop any accusations of sexism at the same time. Maybe do it in a BaBas game? Obvs will never happen but would be bants

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think the IRFU want 7s to be the women's game, they promote that heavily comped to 15s. Not really fair and depriving amateurs of a once in a lifetime tour like that is unfair in the circumstances. I don't care much at all though, the women's game just doesn't interest me.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I think the IRFU want 7s to be the women's game, they promote that heavily comped to 15s. Not really fair and depriving amateurs of a once in a lifetime tour like that is unfair in the circumstances. I don't care much at all though, the women's game just doesn't interest me.

Despite what some try to say that is the case with most womens sport IMO. There just isn't the interest in things like Womens Football and Rugby.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Despite what some try to say that is the case with most womens sport IMO. There just isn't the interest in things like Womens Football and Rugby.

Aye, just doesn't seem to work for field sports.

Athletics and Tennis, sure...

 

[Leinster Fan]

It's a bit silly not to go for the tour, it was a once in a lifetime chance for some of those players. I don't think the IRFU hates women's rugby or anything but some of the things they've done over the last 12 months have been silly and poor from a PR POV as well. I'd agree with other posters re interest levels and sevens.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

It's a bit silly not to go for the tour, it was a once in a lifetime chance for some of those players. I don't think the IRFU hates women's rugby or anything but some of the things they've done over the last 12 months have been silly and poor from a PR POV as well. I'd agree with other posters re interest levels and sevens.

This. There have been a few PR disasters with respect to women's rugby from the IRFU.

If the women's team did tour and trained on their own rather than hold joint sessions with the mens team, I can't see any issue with touring. If the ARU were footing the bill, it was a no brainer. I can't see what the men's team would gain from joint training sessions with the women's team. Standards are quite poor and it would detract from preparations for the test series with the Wallabies. They're there to try won a test series, not de facto coach up the women's team.

I'd like to know when the proposal to hold a joint tour was made. If it was late in the day, perhaps it wasn't possible to put a coaching and management team together in time for it? Perhaps they felt they couldn't get enough quality players to get time off work to tour. Would like for David Nucifora to come out and explain the rationale even if it's the fact that they're prioritizing Sevens.

 

[Leinster Fan]

The players ability or lack theorof to get time off is the most reasonable explanation if it is the case. They're amateur athletes at the end of the day so a lot of them could have holidays booked/needed to work/whatever. Especially if the offer was made later on because there's no reasonable way for someone to get three weeks off at such short notice. The problem now is that any excuse now will look like the IRFU trying to dig itself out of a hole even if it is in fact perfectly reasonable. I'd agree that joint training sessions would have been daft though. This added on to all the other PR stinkbombs in relation to women's rugby this year especially against the backdrop of the Paddy Jackson/Stuart Olding rape trial makes the IRFU look very bad rightly or wrongly.

The IRFU definitely is more interested in sevens when it comes to women's rugby. I'm not sure there's much of a future for women's 15s given that sevens is growing much faster worldwide and women's 15 isn't established anywhere the same way men's rugby is in the Tier 1 countries + Georgia, and the Pacific Islands.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

It could also be a nice stunt by the ARU to show they're promoting the women's game. It could have been an offer that looked good on paper but was a logistical nightmare for the IRFU that likely would have more than doubled the travel cost considering how long they had known about the men's tour.

The Aussies look great on a topic they know people will overreact to when in reality they made an offer they knew was too good to be true, if it had been accepted it's a good result too. We all know the IRFU are as shrewd as they come and rarely make big errors so I'm skeptical as to whether they're the bad guys here and think they're probably the voice of reason or on the end of an ARU stitch up!