Nations Cup Rugby: Canadian Female Rugby Stars Won’t Pay to Play

from The Star:

Brooke Hilditch, 31, of Mississauga, a member of the Canadian women's rugby team, has refused to pay $2,900 in order to compete for Canada at the international Nations Cup in Oakville.

There are obvious costs to playing world-class rugby. Bruises, bone breaks and bloody gashes are hazards of the sport — trophy wounds from tough play in a tough game.

Then there’s this cost: $2,900.

It’s the price each member of the Canadian women’s national team must pay to compete — on home soil — in next week’s international Nations Cup at Oakville’s Appleby College. The sum includes purchasing the clothing they’ll wear to represent their country, right down to the jersey emblazoned with Canada’s iconic red maple leaf.

This, in the same year that the men’s national team has a $1.8 million budget to prepare for the World Cup in New Zealand, which begins Sept. 9.

“To me, it’s a bit of slap in the face,’’ said Mississauga high school teacher Brooke Hilditch.

Hilditch is one of three senior national team players who refused to participate in the Nations Cup, to protest Rugby Canada’s “pay-to-play” system for women in non-World Cup years.

South Africa, England, the United States and Canada are competing in the Nations Cup, with matches starting Tuesday. Boycotting the event with Hilditch, 31, are Gillian Florence, 36, of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., and Toronto’s Megan Gibbs, 26.

Hilditch, a fly half and eight-year veteran of the national team, previously shelled out $2,500 to play for Canada in a 2009 Nations Cup.

“I can afford it. I’m a teacher and I have a salary . . . but the point I’m trying to make is in the future, we won’t be fielding our best team. We’ll only have girls who can afford it, and that’s not the goal of having a national team.”

Rugby Canada chief executive officer Graham Brown counters that the criticism is unfair, particularly after a World Cup year when revenue is difficult to generate for women.

He says there were two options for the Nations Cup: Don’t play at all and collapse the program for a year — this is the women’s only competition for 2011 — or ask the players to write cheques.

“It’s not that there’s no money for women,’’ says Brown, who notes Rugby Canada board members reallocated $51,000 in cash to defray Nations Cup costs for the senior team and the under-20 women, who also have international matches.

“It’s just hard to fund (the women) at the appropriate level on a four-year cycle every year,” the rugby executive says.

The under-20 players paid $4,100 to train in B.C. and compete in California this summer — an amount Brown says was “tough to talk to parents about, and I talked to a lot of parents.”

Brown says the senior women’s team, which uses 15 players on a football-sized field, has all its expenses paid during a World Cup year. (The most recent was 2010, in which Canada finished sixth, dropping from a fourth-place performance in 2006.)

Those expenses are paid by Rugby Canada, with the International Rugby Board picking up the World Cup tabs for travel, accommodation and food.

Neither the women’s nor men’s rugby teams receives Sport Canada money for competitions because traditional rugby is not an Olympic sport. However, national team members — 22 men and 22 women — receive Sport Canada “carding” money worth approximately $20,000 a year to cover training and living expenses. Hilditch, Florence and Gibbs receive that funding.

However, seven-a-side rugby — a quicker version of the game — will make its Olympic debut in 2016. The Canadian women’s sevens are one of the world’s dominant teams and receive $750,000 in funds and support from Canada’s Own the Podium program. The men’s sevens, as of now, receive no Own the Podium cash.

But why are the senior men so flush?

The IRB — which generates about $500 million from its quadrennial World Cup competition — heavily infuses the men’s program with cash.

Last year, the IRB gave Rugby Canada $1,742,916, according to the national sport body’s financial statements from 2010. This year, the IRB is paying all of the Canadian men’s World Cup bills for the six-week showcase, as much as $400,000 for flights alone, money Rugby Canada doesn’t have to shell out.

Brown says Rugby Canada would struggle to run such a vibrant men’s program without IRB money (even though the men also attract Canadian sponsorships) and hopes the international body might look at supporting the women’s game more enthusiastically.

Canada’s national women’s soccer teams, in comparison, are getting $1.7 million from Own the Podium in 2011-12 and the national women’s water polo teams get $1.5 million.

The Canadian Soccer Association has about 360,000 girls and women registered to play at all levels. Rugby Canada has 21,500 registered players, about 40 per cent of whom are women.

For the Nations Cup in Oakville, the IRB gave Rugby Canada $10,000. Brown says it’s “not a lot” but it’s key to bringing in top-flight international referees — one of the many costs in running an international event.

The Canadians, however, are not alone in using a pay-to-play model for women.

Alex Williams, the women’s high performance director at USA Rugby, says her national team players ended up forking over about the same as the Canadians by paying training camp expenses and fees leading up to the Oakville event.

“We’re very much in the same boat,’’ says Williams, noting American women pay between $2,000 and $5,000 some years. “We are trying very hard to improve their funding so it’s not so much a pay-to-play system to represent your country.”

Williams says she cancelled an annual Can-Am match between the two countries this year because she didn’t have enough in his budget to cover it and didn’t want to ask her players to pay for two competitions.

As for Hilditch, she says she didn’t take a public stand without thinking the ramifications through, since she still wants to play for Canada.

“I might be losing my chances but I think it’s worth it for the future of our team,’’ the high school teacher says.

“I see so many girls who are so talented and I don’t want them being poor while trying to play for their country because that’s not what the national team should be about.”

2 thoughts on “Nations Cup Rugby: Canadian Female Rugby Stars Won’t Pay to Play”

  1. Unfortunately I can believe this, the USA Eagles are facing the same budget crisis. Our 15s Men’s receives ~1.2 million dollars and the women’s teams receives ~300,000. Also note that this budget is to cover ALL Women’s National Teams (7s, 15s, U20s USA Eagles A etc).

    How does that seem fair? Especially since the women have the best chance of actually seeing a podium in the next 10 years?

    Reply
  2. its a pity canadian women have to pay to play! its just like paying for pride!!
    representing one’s country is one of the best moments that really makes me feel really ugandan.now if i had to pay to play for ma nation,i wd as well have paid to watch the same!!
    bruises,knocks,broken bones,stiches,punches ,even bites en u tell me to pay to play??

    en these chaps still claim to have equal opportunities for both sexes!!!
    i think canadian women ought to come down to uganda en seee hw resilient the ladies are,
    hopefully they cd pick a leaf from our ex

    Reply

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