IRFU seeking to deliver on women's rugby front

FOCUS-POINT: IRFU chief executive officer Kevin Potts. Pic: Dan Sheridan, Inpho

The IRFU has placed women’s rugby in Ireland front and centre in its latest four-year Strategic Plan and CEO Kevin Potts is looking at an immediate window of opportunity to grow the female game over the next 18 months.

Thursday’s publication of “Rugby in Ireland 2024-2028: Inspire, Connect, Thrive” moved away from setting tangible targets as both Potts and new Performance Director David Humphreys admitted previous plans set targets that were not met. 

The 2019-23 plan, for instance, laid out a consistent top-three finish in the Women’s Six Nations and one championship win as well as qualification for and a top-six finish at the 2021 World Cup for a period that proved to be the most turbulent in the history of the Irish game with Ireland missing out on the Covid-delayed World Cup and suffering a whitewash wooden spoon in the 2023 Six Nations, which saw the national team consigned to the third tier of World Rugby’s new WXV competition.

Those failures led to claims of institutional neglect of the women’s game in Ireland with Potts enabling root and branch reform, the award of professional contracts for female players and the recruitment of Scott Bemand from the world-leading England women’s programme as Ireland head coach last summer.

Ireland claimed their first wins since 2022 in this year’s Six Nations and finished third, earning qualification for the 2025 World Cup in England and promotion to WXV1 this autumn.

The strategic plan identifies women’s rugby as the sport’s biggest growth opportunity and the IRFU has committed to widening its contracting of players down to provincial level while seeking to appoint a new Women’s Strategy Implementation Lead by the end of 2024 to coordinate the delivery of these commitments both on and off the pitch.

“I think that would be a view around the world, that a true area for growth in our sport is with girls and women. We fully embrace and believe that, that's why we are giving it a major focus over the next four years,” Potts said at the Aviva Stadium launch.

“We had three Six Nations games at home this year, record crowds, each of the events made a small profit which is very positive.

“In England, where obviously they are far more advanced than we are in terms of their structures and competitions, they're getting big crowds at their games. We're engaging with potential sponsors all the time, there's greater interest, and the numbers of girls and women that are turning up at our mini-rugby and play rugby programmes is phenomenal.

“I think, without doubt, it's a true area for growth, and we in the IRFU and the provinces re committed to really giving it a boost over the next four years.

“I also think the Rugby World Cup next year in England will have a real defining moment for women's rugby. I recall looking at the FIFA Women's World Cup around eight years ago, that was a moment where the soccer really took a step forward. 

"Next year in England, full stadia for most of the games, and huge increase around the world from sponsors and partners, potentially, will give women's rugby the boost we think it will get. We are definitely committed to building on that.

“You look at how our women's XV's finished third in the Six Nations, and qualified for the Rugby World Cup, and we have our women's Sevens team about to go into the Olympics. There's a window in the next 18 months which really enables us as a sport, IRFU and the provinces, to really try and maximise the window of opportunity, and we intend to do so.”