Welsh Women's Rugby: Support the Girls!

If reports are to believed, talks are taking place that would mean the women's Six Nations next year would be split into a two tier competition, seeing England, France and Ireland in 'Tier 1', with Wales along with Scotland and Italy in 'Tier 2'. 

The teams in Tier 1 would compete in a Tri-Nations type format playing each other home and away, while the Tier 2 sides would play just two games and alternate home and away every other year. 

This would be a bitter pill to swallow for the women's game, and would leave Wales playing just two competitive matches in a World Cup year - hardly the ideal preparation!

With women's rugby arguably getting more recognition and media coverage than ever, what is the motivation behind such a move? As with most things in this world, it looks like this move is coming down to money and the fact that the governing bodies involved with the sides that would move down to Tier 2 would like to reduce the associated costs and travel expenses.

Wales, who secured fourth place in the Six Nations and guaranteeing their spot in next year's World Cup as a result, came within minutes of beating eventual grand slam champions Ireland and also came similarly close to beating England. 

That said, then, a lot of chatter has revolved around whether the Welsh Rugby Union are behind or backing the said proposals? Obviously with no official word from rugby's governing body in Wales at this point, it is all still very much speculation.

In recent years, the structure of the women's game in Wales has been improved having seen a regional competition introduced, meaning the top players can compete at a higher level. Admittedly, the problem of league clubs folding due to lack of players is a very real problem, but the growth of new clubs like Penallta shows just what can be achieved when clubs support their women's sides.

The regional format has also meant that girls that haven't been involved in the age grade set-up have an opportunity to catch the attention of the national selectors.

So clearly in the last few years the WRU has been trying to drive forward the women's game in Wales but if we take a closer look perhaps things aren't quite as rosy. 

The WRU website remains sporadic and unreliable at best when updating anything below the Premiership on the men's side of the game, but if you look at the women’s section the Cup competition hasn’t been updated since 2009!

But if Wales were to drop down to Tier 2, what would it mean for women involved in Wales' national sport? 

This revelation would undoubtedly be a major backward step, not to mention turning our players' elation of securing a well-deserved World Cup place completely on its head. The Welsh women already give up their time not for money but for the love of their sport and the chance to represent their country at the highest level.

The London Olympics had been seen by many as a watershed moment for women both in and outside of the sporting arena, with athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Katherine Grainger starring on the competitive stage, while Clare Balding captured the hearts of the nation with her very human approach to sports reporting. Despite this encouraging change, however, what this situation has shown is that clearly the same obstacles remain for many women in sport.

 From my experience having been involved in many different facets of rugby in Wales, there are still a lot of draconian views entrenched in the cogs of the WRU system – such as the referee advisor who refused to assess my performance as I was refereeing a women’s match describing it as not ‘proper rugby’.

It is not only confined to the WRU; you only need to look as far as BBC Wales' flagship rugby program Scrum V to see the under representation of the women’s game and to be fair, the Welsh Under 20’s side, too. I’m not sure about you but I’d rather see extended highlights of our country's national teams at whatever level than watch Rick O’Shea prance around with the England squad!

At the beginning of the week, I wrote an article in parts that defended the work the WRU did to help bolster age grade and grassroots sport, and if the WRU are supporting this new venture of a two tier women’s 6 Nations, surely Chief Executive Roger Lewis is reneging on his promises to support grassroots rugby.

It would not only disrespect the women who take unpaid leave from work to represent their country, but also young girls playing at age grade who aspire to pull on their national colours one day, all simply because it is an inconvenience to the WRU budget.

That’s why we need to get behind the Welsh women and make sure this travesty fails to come to fruition! Who’s with me?