There have been protests with regard to the growth of the women’s rugby league in Ireland for a while now. All of the women’s clubs in the country are hoping to get together and make their presence felt. They are targeting the lack of respect which is being shown by the IRFU when it comes to women’s rugby.
Women’s players are also very disheartened by the way in which David Nucifora, the Performance Director at IRFU, spoke about one of the newest teams to join this league. This is because he has hardly ever stood for a league match, and one which the union has hardly taken any interest in, developing as a good platform for aspiring players.
There’s no denying the fact that competitions need to be sustainable and meaningful. But, demeaning a competition is not going to do any good to anyone. It only helps demoralise clubs like Tullamore RFC, which have been working very hard for 4 years just so that they can be a part of the league.
Nucifora also said that they needed to increase the number of coaches as well as their quality. They need to connect the pathways if women’s rugby is to go anywhere. Again, this is a stupid allegation and one which he would have been much better off not saying. Nonetheless, all of the AIL women’s clubs are still waiting to hear how this should be done, and how much the IRFU is going to invest in it.
The IRFU had a new slogan for the Women’s World Cup this year. They said that 2,017 women and young girls were going to start playing the sport this year. But, is there space to accommodate 88 new teams? That’s the most important question, and one which Nucifora steered clear of answering.