Ian Ritchie has announced a blueprint to promote the development and growth of women’s rugby in England through all levels of the game from grassroots to elite. Speaking at its Twickenham launch, the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive also declared his organisation will be “straining every sinew” in its efforts to ensure England retain the World Cup they won in France two years ago when the competition is staged in Ireland next August.
As part of its innovation, England Rugby has announced 48 professional contracts for players in both 15-a-side and sevens on a full- and part-time basis. The first sponsored series of autumn internationals will take place next month when, under their new branding of the “Red Roses”, England Women play France, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada in matches sponsored by Old Mutual Wealth.
Presented to each player on their international debut, the rose is the emblem of England rugby and according to the RFU epitomises the unique qualities of England Women as strong, relentless and glorious. “I think it’s a very important priority for sport and for women as a whole in this country,” said Ritchie of the RFU’s plan. “Rest assured that we as an organisation, from top to bottom, are very much behind this and want to see the continued expansion and growth and success on the pitch of women’s rugby.”
Having hit their target of increasing the number of women playing contact rugby in England from 15,000 to 25,000 a year ahead of schedule this summer, the RFU plans to double the number of participants by 2021. Other goals include increasing the number of women’s teams by more than 75% to 800, the number of active women’s clubs to more than 400 and getting more women involved in the sport as referees, coaches and volunteers.
“The health of our clubs is dependent on this,” said the RFU director of rugby development, Steve Grainger. “We believe it is a fantastic, very inclusive sport that women and girls are telling us, in their thousands, that they want to experience and take part in.”
Throughout a presentation also attended by England players past and present, including Maggie Alphonsi, Sarah Hunter, Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarratt, repeated mentions were made of the coverage afforded to women’s rugby during the sevens competition at the Rio Olympics. Despite controversially removing 20 of the best players from England’s 15-a-side programme and putting them on professional sevens contracts in the two-year buildup to the Games, Great Britain failed to win a medal after losing out to Canada in the bronze-medal match. In the absence of their best players, the squad they had left behind came up predictably short in the Six Nations.
“The priority now is the Women’s World Cup next year,” said Ritchie, when questioned about the plan to focus on Olympic gold at the expense of the 15-a-side game that backfired in spectacular fashion. “That has to be the focus and those players who played out in Rio are now coming back into the 15s squad. What we’ve got to do now is make sure there are more players coming through at the bottom level of the pyramid. The more people we get to play, the more opportunity we get for a better elite performance across the board.”
Despite the ubiquity of the victorious Team GB hockey team on their return from Rio, Grainger seemed unperturbed England Rugby may have missed a trick in the battle for young female hearts and minds. “I think from our perspective, the fact is we got great exposure because of the time of day it was on and the stage of the Olympics it was on at,” he said. “People are still talking to me about it, so let’s face it: the importance is growing that opportunity now.”
