2021 Rugby World Cup: Gregor Paul - World Rugby and the inconvenient truth about the women's game

Black Ferns captain Kendra Cocksedge waits to kick a conversion against Australia at Eden Park in August last year. Photo / Photosport

COMMENT:

It was easy to be swept up in the energy of it all and be convinced at Eden Park early this week that the 2021 World Cup is going to be a roaring success.

The fact that a media event had been created to acknowledge that it was 18 months until the women's tournament kicks off was, in itself, a breakthrough moment.

It wasn't so long ago that the best a major women's rugby event could hope for was a token promotion a few days before kick-off, where the local reporter with the least to do that day was likely going to be the sole attendee. And not by choice.

There was nothing token about the event at Eden Park. This was real deal, heavy investment promotion, signalled by the presence of an impressive selection of dignitaries led by World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and Auckland mayor Phil Goff.

The most reassuring evidence that big money had been spent was the inordinate number of people with clipboards rushing about being terribly important.

Everyone said all the right things. The appetite for the tournament was unquestionably genuine and the commitment from World Rugby and New Zealand Rugby to deliver something compelling couldn't be doubted.

The less cynical ended up spontaneously cheering after they were shown a no-expense-spared video which explained the story behind the logo and tournament branding, while Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge was just about in tears after another clip played that captured the intensity and passion of past tournaments.

But, sadly, when it comes to women's rugby, a healthy dose of cynicism is vital. The women's game, more than ever, needs that Jack Nicholson figure from a Few Good Men, on that wall, rifle loaded and engaged.

No expense was spared in announcing the 18-month countdown to the 2021 Rugby World Cup. Photo / Photosport

And that's because the women's game is often the victim of false advertising. What executives say they are selling is not always what the buyer finds when they turn up.

The detail, as elite female players from around the world can testify, often doesn't marry with the vision that was laid out when the cameras were rolling and the world was watching.

Big promises haven't always been fulfilled and usually the same people who were happy to be lauded and take the kudos pre-event, are nowhere to be seen during it if things haven't quite panned out the way they were supposed to.

In 2018, Rugby Australia was quick to claim a world record attendance for a women's test. The Wallaroos had played the Black Ferns at ANZ Stadium prior to the Wallabies playing the All Blacks in the first Bledisloe Cup match of the year.

As the first test finished, ticket scans showed there were almost 29,000 people in the stadium and a press release was triumphantly celebrating this fact about five seconds after the final whistle.

But what Rugby Australia weren't so keen to be made public was that both the Black Ferns and Wallaroos had been barred from warming up on the main field.

The Black Ferns celebrate their win against Australia in front of a record 29,000 fans at ANZ Stadium in 2018. Photo / Photosport

The ground-staff decided that the field wouldn't cope with back-to-back tests and so the women were booted to a netball court behind the stadium.

Both the All Blacks and Wallabies were, of course, able to warm up on the main field.

Discrimination, however small, is still discrimination and the point that none of the female players missed was that their male counterparts would never have been asked to have done the same.

Last year the Black Ferns were in San Diego for the so-called Super Series which featured the USA, Canada, England and France.

A major tournament being injected into the test calendar was a massive step forward for the respective nations invited. A lack of tests had long been a complaint for the players from the major nations, but the series in San Diego turned out to be not so super.

The players arrived to find the changing room was a tent and that they would be sharing a Portaloo. There was nowhere for fans to sit and it was galling that only a month earlier, World Rugby had declared its commitment to supporting the growth of women's rugby and bringing it equality with the men's game.

"From the highest levels of the sport's governance to grassroots' participation, we are wholly committed to driving gender-balance and ensuring that women have equal opportunities both on and off the field," Beaumont said, before revealing that the global body was funding a campaign called 'Try and Stop US' that would tell the stories from 15 women and girls involved in rugby at all levels of the game.

So the cynical have to keep asking whether there is substance behind the grand declarations and perhaps more pointedly whether World Rugby has its weightings all wrong when it comes to promotional budget versus delivery budget.

There was money to create the high end marketing campaign 'Try and Stop US' but none to ensure there was a changing room and a toilet in San Diego.

And again, money has been pumped into a video campaign promoting the 2021 World Cup, but as the Herald revealed late last year, the budget doesn't stretch to ensure all the athletes will be staying in the same quality of accommodation as the men were offered at last year's World Cup.

The men stayed in four or four-and-a-half star hotels in Japan but some teams will find they are housed in three-and-a-half star accommodation when they get to New Zealand for a World Cup that has removed the gender identification supposedly as evidence of the equality status that has been reached.

Most teams will arrive in New Zealand having travelled economy class yet the majority of teams showed up in Japan having been flown there business class.

World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson with the 2021 World Cup trophy. Photo / Photosport

Fixing these glaring inequities is far more important than producing Hollywood-quality marketing videos that end up feeling like propaganda given how often they misrepresent the reality of what life actually looks like for elite female players.

Ask the players what they want and its simple – the same basics that are afforded to the men. They want the foundations in place so they can be the best versions of themselves on the field and an acceptance that if men say they need business-class flights and four-star hotels to perform, so too do women.

The landscape that exists now for elite New Zealand female players is infinitely better than it was even just a few years ago.

Even the most cynical can agree that NZR has backed up its promises with action and now there are semi-professional contracts for the best players, while Hamilton hosted a World Sevens Series event for women last month and it is believed the Black Ferns have a significant number of test fixtures that will be unveiled for this year.

Life is better for New Zealand's best players but better doesn't mean ideal and a slick media day doesn't mean next year's World Cup will be the roaring success the organisers say it will be.