New Zealand Rugby is hoping to secure two major events for the Black Ferns on home soil. Liam Napier reports.
Hot on the heels of its landmark commitment to the women’s game this week, New Zealand Rugby is hopeful of securing two major events, including the first female British andIrish Lions tour, to showcase the World Cup-winning Black Ferns on home soil.
The future of Super Rugby Aupiki, however, remains no clearer at this stage.
NZ Rugby on Wednesday trumpeted a 10-year roadmap for the women’s game headlined by targeting 50,000 female players by 2033.
In the past five years, average annual female playing numbers sit around 24,000, with those over the age of 19 contributing 2500.
Other ambitions include increasing player retention from 40 to 55 per cent, while improving female board representation at all levels of the game to align with the government-mandated 40 per cent for all national sports bodies.
NZ Rugby is committing $21 million annually and creating six new roles to help meet these specific priorities.
While this overall strategy largely centres on the next generation and significantly enhancing the grassroots experience for future female players, further announcements loom for the elite level of the game, too.
Five months on from the Black Ferns’ engrossing World Cup success — thanks to the hand of Joanah Ngan-Woo’s lineout steal at the death of the tense final against England at a heaving Eden Park — there is intent to ensure the team remains imprinted on the New Zealand sporting consciousness.
At this point, Allan Bunting’s new Black Ferns tenure consists of four tests — three offshore — spread across the Pacific Four and Laurie O’Reilly series against Canada, the United States and Australia.
NZ Rugby is then optimistic of hosting the inaugural WXV tournament that will feature the world’s top six nations competing in a cross-pool format in October and November.
“We’re hopeful any day of having something to say on that — certainly in the next seven to 14 days,” NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson told the Herald.
“If you imagine knockout rugby at the World Cup at the end of last year, these would be fixtures on a level with that. It would probably be England, France, we’re yet to see who the other team who would qualify out of the Six Nations would be. And same in our part of the world. We’d have to work through the Pac Four and see who the strongest teams in the Southern Hemisphere are.”
Mark Robinson. Photo / Photosport
Following a positive feasibility study into staging the first female British and Irish Lions tour, NZ Rugby has also launched a serious play to host the team that combines the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
That ground-breaking tour could take place in 2027, two years before the men’s Lions team are scheduled to next visit New Zealand.
“We’re working on what we believe is a really strong and compelling bid at the moment,” Robinson said of the proposed women’s Lions tour. “It’s probably a few years away yet. We’ll hopefully be able to confirm in the next three or four months what date that might be.”
Super Rugby Aupiki’s future — after its brief 10-game second season in which all four teams automatically qualified for the semifinals — remains in a holding pattern, though.
At the start of this season Black Ferns captain Ruahei Demant echoed the thoughts of her counterparts when she told the Herald: “It would be nice if we could extend the competition to include the Super W teams. That would make a longer, better quality competition that would bridge the gap between the Farah Palmer Cup and playing for your Super teams.”
While expanding Aupiki to include Australia’s six Super W teams appears logical, Robinson is reluctant to commit to that next step.
One issue appears to be scheduling. As it stands, Aupiki is contested from late February to March 25, while Super W this year runs March 24 to May 6.
“We’re hoping to ideally confirm that in the next few months — the middle of the year or just after. All those options are on the table,” Robinson said. “We’ve got a bit of work to do with the Australians. Their window at the moment sits slightly differently to ours.
“We’ve got a huge commitment and belief in our own domestic competitions. That may lead us down a path of investing more there and seeing the growth and duration of that tournament. We just need a few more months to decide.”
