Rugby: Women players strike a little gold in new deal

New Zealand's women's sevens world champions will earn more next year. Photo / Getty Images

Women's rugby finally has a champion and a better deal but even when the new player collective is shortly signed off, they will still be a long way from equal with their male counterparts.

If it wasn't for the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association, it's doubtful whether there would even be a 15-a-side game left for women in this country. They would also most likely be asked to try to win an Olympic sevens medal on the proverbial smell of an oily rag.

Instead, once the paper work is completed, the leading female sevens players will be offered basic retainer contracts of, it is believed, between $20,000 and $30,000, plus improved assembly fees.

No one will be rich nor live as a full-time professional on those salaries but at least most leading women players will be able to see there is some kind of future in committing to play at the next Olympics.

That's not how it has been up until now. A number of female players within the national sevens squad have lived with stress. The worry of making ends meet has been overwhelming for some, given that they have been asked to train almost as if they were full-time professionals, with financial recompense barely reaching five figures in most cases.

Seeing how things have been over the fence in the men's game has hardly helped. Earlier this year, the New Zealand Rugby Union made its No 1 priority on the playing side to win two gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Since 2010, the men have had agreement in the player collective for a minimum of 15 individuals a year to be contracted as New Zealand sevens players - ranging from a minimum of $20,000 to in excess of $45,000 for the more experienced.

Assembly fees of $2000 a week are also paid which, with tournaments and training camps, can add another $30,000. The men can also hold down ITM Cup contracts which provide them with an extra minimum payment of $15,000.

Asking the men and women to win Olympic gold with such disparity of contracts was farcically unjust, which is why the NZRPA made it a condition of bargaining that women had to be included in the new deal.

The new deal will represent a massive upgrade for women but will still leave most elite performers betwixt and between in that they will most likely still need other employment to make ends meet. That's the problem - with the women's sevens team expected to be in camp or tournament for close to 20 weeks a year and training for up to 20 hours a week outside those periods, it's not easy to find regular, meaningful work. But they at least have made progress.

"We have a proposal under consideration [in collective bargaining] that we are happy with," says NZRPA chief executive Rob Nichol. "Hopefully we can close that off."

The picture for the 15-a-side game is not so encouraging. Since sevens was introduced to the Olympic programme in 2009, most national unions have redirected the meagre resources set aside for the women's game into the abbreviated form. Fears about women's rugby dying have not been hysterically misplaced - even in New Zealand the commitment has been scaled back.

Rejuvenating the long form will be a long and hard battle but the will is there. Last year, the NZRPA gave its approval for an additional All Black test at Twickenham on the condition that England agreed to also play a three-test series against the Black Ferns in 2012 and 2013.

Beyond the current series, though, the landscape is uncertain, but at least the NZRPA have reached an agreement with the NZRU that the former will be a key driver of a full review designed to take the women's 15-a-side game forward.

Early ideas are to build a provincial competition with Australian sides and try to tie it in with men's competitions, mainly as curtain-raisers. That leverages broadcast facilities already set up.

Says Nichol: "The Black Ferns are a high performance team with a great legacy and it is important that we provide a pathway - an aspirational one - for young women to play the game."