NZ Rugby provides roadmap for the women's game

Analysis - It didn't take long after the confetti had been swept up for the questions to be asked. How was NZ Rugby (NZR) going to build on the strides taken by the Black Ferns' World Cup win last year? What will be done to make sure that not only the generation of national players will have a pathway, but a sustainable layer beneath them can be created too?

Only five months later, that's been addressed with the release of NZR's 53-page long Women and Girls' In Rugby System Strategy. The most obvious detail is the almost $22 million that is being pumped into the commitment, which may well end up being a key turning point for the game as we know it in Aotearoa.

Money has already been tipped into the top end - the Black Ferns are the highest-paid test side and Super Rugby Aupiki players are compensated for the five-week competition - but really, that's the easy part for NZR. After all, the Black Ferns had already won five of the eight World Cups held up until last year anyway, so the talent is always going to be there to maintain a tradition of winning. Paying them is the most efficient way of making already world-class players an awful lot better.

It's what's underneath that elite level that's far trickier. NZR head of women's rugby Claire Beard says that "it's been a long time coming to create a map on where we're going with women's rugby".

"This is for all women in rugby, not just players. Administrators, referees, coaches, volunteers - there is a place for all types of women in this strategy."

While it's a free hit to critique aspects of NZR's attitude towards any level that isn't the All Blacks since the game went pro, you can't accuse them of not committing to this in a way that hasn't been seen before. The strategy covers many aspects on and off the field and has a lofty goal - 50,000 female players by 2033, with unions, clubs, schools, the Māori rugby system, and other community partners collaborating across the country to deliver that.

"We are very confident of that target," says Beard.

"We've already seen registrations double what they were four years ago, so that momentum that we generated from the World Cup … we have an opportunity to think differently about the women's game. We can't offer rugby the same way it's offered to boys, so it's made us think about the constraints and environments we're delivering it in - because women are different. That could open up a conversation about where we take the game as a whole in the future."

NZR does deserve praise for something that should really be set straight - they were the ones who successfully bid to host the World Cup in the first place (if they hadn't, it's unlikely anyone would've raised an eyebrow) and the tournament, along with the undeniable way it captured the country's emotions, were part of a much wider plan. This is the next, far chunkier, instalment.

But it's not going to be easy, because the infrastructure that's in place for players to develop a lifelong affinity with the game is facing inherent challenges of its own. That participation goal is dependent on a club rugby landscape that is struggling to get by as it is these days, let alone handle the influx of a generation of girls that require a significantly different pathway and set up. It's also an intersectional issue as well - women's rugby is and always has been massively overrepresented by Māori and Pasifika, so tailoring the plan to those demographics was crucial.

"We do think this strategy has heard their voice," says Beard.

"Te Ao Māori is the first guiding principle in the strategy…if we get more Māori and Pasifika women involved then we will see more in leadership roles, so more at the board table. We can attract and open up a whole new market, too. A group that will invest in women's rugby that are interested in the social good and change that it will bring. It will be a future that is representative of all New Zealand."

While NZR did infamously fail to meet its board gender quota set by Sport NZ last year, it has elevated a Māori woman to their top table in Dr Farah Palmer.

Paid board members are one thing - volunteer coaches are another. The need for coaching that appreciates what makes for positive experiences for girls who are trying rugby for the first time, while also balancing the need to continue to offer something meaningful for those who have higher ambitions is massive. Unlike young men, these two groups routinely line up alongside each other in women's rugby, since each major union only has one proper senior women's grade.

"Women want to be coached differently; they want to be listened to," says Beard.

"We need to provide that coaching support for the people that will help us grow the women's game. This is about creating safe spaces for coaches to come in and guide women and girls and navigate some of the complexities."

One of the reasons why men's rugby, even teams at secondary school level, can sustain itself even in these hard times is that the IP within a group of experienced players is usually enough to forgo having a coach at all. That flows on to organisation: the real success of the Under 85kg National Club Cup, which saw participation triple after its first year, was that the teams were self-sufficient enough to put on a TV-ready product with minimal outside funding or assistance.

Beard says encouraging junior coaches up the ranks is a key target: "We do have a significant number of people coaching junior rugby, but they are struggling to transition to seniors. So, harnessing those people is probably where we need to take a more targeted approach.

"This is something that is going to have to take place in clubs and at provincial level around the country, and there are different capability levels there. This strategy gives people hope and confidence around where they can start."

The key point of that strategy is that other options of rugby need to be provided to entice young girls into a game that is, at its core, organised violence. Which isn't unreasonable, except that touch and tag football already very much exist and have done so for many years with healthy female participation, which is something Beard "wants to integrate that into our rugby family".

"And then provide transition support by hopefully having semi-contact options as girls progress into full rugby. We know that players are coming in at different stages, so we don't see the same linear pathway as we do with boys. Girls coming in as teenagers potentially don't have the foundation that boys do who have come through at a young age."

That "foundation" is most likely a more palatable way of saying "knowing how to tackle without getting hurt", something that boys' muscle memory, specific training and conditioning leaves them in a generally far more advanced state to achieve once they've left school. But getting your bell rung is something that doesn't discriminate between girls, boys, men or women, no matter how experienced you are as a player. Concussion is a serious obstacle that rugby is going to have to navigate in the minds of girls weighing up whether to give it a go, or simply stick with netball.

There is a lot to like about the strategy, it must be said. It will do an awful lot to answer any questions sent NZR's way regarding an area of the game they have, up until quite recently, treated with either poorly funded good intentions at best or downright apathy at worst. But it will only work if there is buy in from pretty much everyone involved from top to bottom, starting straight away.

Beard is confident that will happen, because the benefits go further than just girls picking up a ball: "The reason why we're driving this is because women deserve it. There are girls that want to play, there are women that want to watch - women's rugby gives us a way of connecting with more New Zealanders and I think it's a way to re-energise our national game."