Creation of a Women’s Super Rugby tournament?

If you watched super rugby this weekend you would have noticed, Will Genia had “Elizebeth”, on the back of his jersey. Ben Daley was playing as, “Vickey”, and so it was for each off the 22 match day squad that faced the Cheetahs in round 4 of Super Rugby.

Each player had a women’s name on the back of his jersey and a pink collar was added to the original Reds jersey. Why you might ask? No the Reds super rugby team has not decided to change their names to women.

This was done as part of the ladies round of the Queensland Reds women’s rugby team who played the curtain raiser for the main event, in a 7’s final which they won. The curtain raiser was quite a game and, the crowd that was there to witness the ladies play really got into the game.

There is a false perception upon many rugby supporters that, women’s rugby is, “soft “and “boring.” Having watched a few women’s rugby games myself I can assure you this is certainly not the case. The ladies have some superb skills and can play a wonderful brand of rugby. If only more rugby supporters can see how exciting women’s rugby actually is, not only will the false perception of women’s rugby be removed, but women’s rugby would become quite popular amongst rugby fans.

A Women’s provincial rugby competition.

This made me think what about the formation of a womens rugby competition, similar to Super Rugby? There are many ladies rugby teams around the world and every, rugby playing country has their own women’s international team. International womens rugby matches get played every now and then (perhaps not often enough?), and there is even a womens Rugby World Cup, yet there is a big lack of provincial womens rugby competitions.

Since the Queensland Reds women’s rugby curtain raiser was so popular amongst the fans who watched it. This should surely be done more often. A ladies tournament can be formed between countries such as America, South Africa, and Australia etc.

They could play the curtain raisers for the main super rugby games or could form their own tournament entirely. This might come as a surprise, for many but a large portion of Super Rugby supporters are not men, but women. Women make up almost 40% of the Super Rugby and international viewing audience.

Surely there is an enormous potential here for the creation of a women’s rugby competition similar to super rugby, since ladies make up such a large portion of the viewing audience.

More womens international matches

Regardless if the above creation of a women’s inter provincial tournament can happen or not. There is no reason why, we can not see more international rugby matches. How often do you see a women’s rugby team like America playing against Argentina or, South Africa and New Zealands women’s rugby teams competing against each other? Almost never, except for the women’s rugby world cup.

To conclude women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing sports and the International Rugby Board should do more to promote womens rugby, as there is a huge potential for women’s rugby, and more should be done to promote women’s rugby.