Black Ferns win World Cup: NZ Rugby boss ‘hopeful’ they will be awarded bonus payment

New Zealand Rugby’s chief executive has indicated the organisation may be backtracking on previous reports that the Black Ferns would not get a bonus if they won the World Cup.

A month ago it was revealed England’s players would get a cool $30,000 if they won the competition while the Black Ferns squad were in line to get zilch.

However, chief executive Mark Robinson told RNZ this morning they were working through the situation at the moment and he’s hopeful they will “sort through that” in the next few days.

“It would be nice to do something.

“We would like to be in a position to do something pretty soon.”

New Zealand Rugby said in a statement last month that its focus was on transitioning the professional women’s players to a fulltime employment model.

A major contract breakthrough this year now means the majority of the Black Ferns squad are on retainers of between $35,000 and $70,000 a year.

Some earn more than $130,000 – comparable to lower-end Super Rugby players.

Meanwhile, the All Blacks are in line to win at least $150,000 each should they win in France next year.

Sevens star Michaela Blyde told the Herald’s In the Loop youth podcast last month that while they don’t get bonuses, their salaries had increased “massively” in the last few years.

On the professional contracts, Robinson said they heard the need to “move at speed” but they also want to “do the right things” too.

“We acknowledge that we want to do more in this space, and we want to move as quickly as we can, and this is a question I guess of looking to grow this area of the game while balancing the needs of the athletes, the coaches, of the people that can support the high-performance environment.”

Robinson said NZR now has 70 fully contracted players across the XV and Sevens women squads and for Super Rugby, while about 115 players are assembled on a more part-time basis.

He told RNZ that NZR was investing $40 million across its provincial unions over the next few years, and a huge focus of those plans was to look at areas to improve, harness and grow the women’s and girls’ game.