Womens' rugby Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

An often heard refrain is that just putting the men's structures onto the women's game doesn't work. One of JC200022's recurring points is about elite Vs participation rugby and the 10% who want the elite performance environment Vs the 90% who don't. We can probably assume most of the 70 who you would see as poached are in the 10%.

So I think what might be more like the answer to the problem you mention is for the AIL and provincial leagues to be regarded as completely separate in the same way the provinces and clubs are on the men's side. So maybe the same 70 players are still doing the bulk of their training with UL but UL release loads most weekends to play for the non-AIL clubs ( see now sydthebeat suggesting something a bit similar).

I'll also go back to the "big 3" Dublin issue. There's another angle where young women are more prone to move to Dublin anyway for university or work but of course there is also the elite performance environment aspect where there's certainly very good arguments to be made that the IRFU should be throwing resources at e.g. Bohs, Galweigans, Cooke to help them have everything an elite athlete wants spread around the country (so I hear what syd says about a midlands team though I suspect at least for now that's a bit further down the road).

All of this is kinda the big picture point though, right now there's no real plan and structure or if you take the IRFU at face value the plan is to centralise a lot more with the AIL being on the same level as touch rugby!

Its the same as listing players clubs with the mens senior 15s side. Tradition. All irish squads will list a club for a player. As others have said 7s can be very inconsistent with some clubs not competing ever and some clubs only occasionally and even then its for a social weekend

Now if IRFU were to be serious about 7s they would work with the existing 7s tournaments especially the big ones like Kinsale... they would create a 7s series and clubs or even a group of mates could enter a team and try win a series. So you would have the existing 7s tournaments like Kinsale, Midland midnight in Tullamore, Clifden, etc.

Yeah very much social focused and you dont have anything like the take up of it here compared to a lot of countries. ive family and friends who play in england and for some of them theyre club compete every year in 7s and they even have a slightly separate club identity for a 7s team.

And thats even including some of the players who only play rugby with the UL college team in SSI competitions. Ive been saying it about Bohs for ages. And Bohs dont even field u18 girls teams. they did have a 16s so hopefully this will change for next year. Shannon and Ballina-Killaloe and other nearby clubs field good numbers at underage but lose plenty of stronger players to Bohs at adult level which doesnt help anyone.. Id definitely agree about transfers. possibly even a limit on interpro players etc. Munsters interpro squad has basically been Bohs and a few others for years now which is wrong and doesnt aid development.

At least Dublin has a few clubs competing and then Wicklow as you say have done great work with locally based team. Munster doesnt have near enough clubs at highest level. Max squad numbers should definitely come in and would really help.

The Munster league had a tipperary team last season, primarily based in Thurles and just called itself Thurles this season and there were Waterford and Ennis-Kilrush teams. Get them coaching assistance and it would be great...

Buccs have had a womens set up. But not sure if they did this season though

Good start by the women in green today, going toe to toe with this serious French outfit, however got quite easily overwhelmed in their own red zone to concede on 9 mins.

And as I speak they just footballed their way to a second try. Fortunately their 10 couldn't hit a barn door with a bazooka, so 10-0.

Bit harsh...God love Ireland they are trying their best...you'd feel sorry for them...

Again very harsh...they tried their best and that is all you can ask...God you'd feel so sorry for them....

You do know that they only start contested scrums here at U16 right? The girls are still only learning, give them a break.

As a side note, I find your posts difficult to read sometimes, is it that English isn't your first language?

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Interesting times.

It's free to view?

It is getting absurd from both parties.

The IRFU are just basically playing the media game. When there was that 30 Recommendation thing, the IRFU just flat out said yes to every thing. You'd think there would be some issues, some negotiations on certain things but no. It was a flat out, no thought, yes to everything. Why? Because basically they and the PR department wanted the thing to go away because the media were running with it, on the teams side.

The team have been using the media and playing the game, that a PR/Marketing department would be proud of.

It's basically 2 PR/Marketing departments having a tiff on the behalf of each party. It is pathetic.

Meanwhile I tried to work out earlier how the WXV 2024 will work and got nowhere, does anyone know? Specifically will our place in the 2024 Six Nations decide our WXV 2024 spot or is that a one off for 2023? If the 2024 6 Nations result has no bearing on WXV we might have a rough time trying to qualify for the 2025 World Cup despite the fact it has expanded to 16 teams! How they split the pools in WXV 3, which I also couldn't find any info on, could mean we have to win all 3 games.

BS. The IRFU is rotten to the core when it comes to the attitudes to and structures around women's rugby. You also call this a team, given the wholesale changes in personnel over past few years, they've had no chance to gel as a unit.

If you don't want to support the players, don't bother. They need support and empathy not negative diatribe like you've posted.

We're not going to get results with the current set up. That article is the tip of the iceberg but all of this goes back years. More will come out.

And this article didn't come out after a bad result, it came out on travel day to Italy. It's bad timing for the players but it needs to come out.

I think many of the contracted players see it as first step towards long term more sustainable and liveable contracts just like with mens game and first pros here were on relatively little.money.

That link shows qualification process.

https://www.world.rugby/news/624265/world-rugby-launches-new-global-competition-and-aligned-calendar-to-supercharge-the-womens-15s-game

Absolute nonsense. These stories have came out after big wins as well and these stories help show why some of the defeats are as bad as they are as its shows the lack of attention the set up is given by the powers that be.

Not excuses at all. The players are not getting the support they should which would give them better performances/results.

While South Africa aren't the best womens team (by a long shot) no one in Africa will challenge them and they will sail into the African championship this year and next year.

You are right about the Asian tournament being up in the air. Japan or Hong Kong are realistic competitors. Oceania also could be up in the air with Fiji or Samoa being likely to qualify but if Australia doesn't beat USA in pacific 4s Australia may be trying to qualify through Oceania.

Getting into WXV2 is the easiest route to the world cup. I suspect our team would be stronger than the Oceania or Asian qualifier.

Our easiest route to the womens rugby world cup is probably to beat Scotland to claim 5th in the six nations this year qualifying for womens xv2. Beat either or both of Fiji/Samoa and Japan/Hong Kong to retain our spot in WXV2. That of course assumes that the split into pools allows us to face one of those teams. It may not which could see us screwed (facing the other six nations qualifier, the 4th place team in pacific 4s and South Africa).

South Africa seem to be on the up from a low floor with the most distant challenger(s) so I'd agree it would be the biggest shock of the 3 if say Kenya nipped past them but all it takes is one surprise result and between teams close that could be one early red card mistake (or a red and the wrong injuries/other cards). Oceania is a little nuts and I guess we'd want Australia to be 4th in P4N and then take the Oceania WC spot to make sure Fiji/Samoa can't do the flip-flop and both qualify without WXV results.

If we somehow beat Scotland and get 5th then we'd probably have to beat at least one of Australia/USA, South Africa and Japan/Hong Kong to survive in WXV 2 (wikipedia says it's the 2 six nations and Oceania in one side and P4N, Asia and Africa in the other). Given what we saw in Japan and the trajectory South Africa seem to be on I wouldn't be very confident. If we don't beat Scotland you would hope we could win WXV 3 with something like Spain, Hong Kong, Samoa, Kenya and Colombia but I wouldn't be rushing to put money on it!

The PR machine will be going into overdrive for the next week now. Who knows what kind of stuff will be leaked out this week.