28 Aug 2017

Not enough competition for Black Ferns contracts - NZRU

From Morning Report, 8:38 am on 28 August 2017

After the Black Ferns' fifth Women's Rugby World Cup victory, there are renewed calls for female players to have professional contracts and wages like their male counterparts.

The England side that they beat for the title did have professional contracts in the lead-up to the World Cup, but those have now lapsed. The English rugby bosses have opted to focus on the Sevens Olympic programme and are now offering contracts for the shorter format of the game.

"One of the advantages they have in the northern hemisphere is there competition is close at hand ... so they can play Six Nations," New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew told Morning Report.

"The nearest competition we've got is Australia and right now they're not as competitive as we'd like them to be, so we have had to spend a lot of money over the last 24 months getting our team the right game preparation, which has been against England, Canada and Australia.

"Even if we found the money, what would our women do all the time because there is no one to play on a full-time basis," he said.

"It's not isolated to women's rugby, it's a matter for a lot of our sports - a lot of our Olympians go away uncontracted making big sacrifices."