Out of the Scrum and Reaching New Heights – NY Times Article on Rugby

from NY Times:

Unprecedented quality, fresh levels of media interest, packed crowds and a final that took the game to new levels: If the men’s Rugby World Cup this year comes even close to matching the women’s competition played in 2010, the International Rugby Board will be extremely happy.

There was an coming-of-age air about the entire competition. Nicky Ponsford, head of performance for the host union, England, looked back in wonder at the pioneering women’s World Cup she played in 20 years ago.

“There is a huge contrast,” she said. “Everything is so different now — the size of the event, the professionalism of the organization, exposure in press, radio and TV and also the quality of the play. The quality of every team, from the winners to the 12th-placed team, has risen enormously.”

Melissa Ruscoe, captain for the champion, New Zealand, noted as much in an article she wrote for the International Rugby Board’s Web site. Although the women’s game cannot match the pace and power of male rugby, she noted, “We still emulate it with our skill level.”

There was nothing in the men’s game in 2010 better than the sustained intensity of the women’s final, in which New Zealand beat England, 13-10, or more fearsomely committed than a tackle in the semifinal by the Australian wing Nicole Beck, who dashed across the field to lay out England winger Fiona Pocock and prevent a certain score.

Will Greenwood, a World Cup winner with England’s men in 2003, suggested that Maggie Alphonsi, the tournament’s outstanding forward, was capable of playing in the Championship, the second-highest male league in England.

New Zealand, which has struggled for attention from the home media, got the official recognition it deserved in December, when the Black Ferns were named the country’s rugby team of the year. Ruscoe had a twinkle in her eye when she talked of offering advice to Richie McCaw, leader of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s legendary male team, but it is an offer McCaw might very well want to take up. The Black Ferns have made success in World Cups — they have won four tournaments in a row — as routine as the All Blacks have made shattering failure.

The challenge for the Black Ferns, and the women’s game as a whole, is to build on the success of the 2010 tournament. Thanks to the benefits that come with hosting a World Cup, all signs suggest that England is on track.

“As yet the evidence we have is anecdotal, but we are getting reports of more girls coming to clubs and wanting to take up rugby,” Ponsford said.

It is no small matter. England has lost to New Zealand in the last three finals and is desperate to close the gap. To do that, though, England needs one thing more than anything else: games.

“We want to play them more than once or twice every four years,” Ponsford said. At the same time, she acknowledges that more regular competition is imperative for the game as a whole and that England, which plays in the European Five Nations championship every year, is better off than most.

And that makes New Zealand’s success even more extraordinary. Outside of the World Cup, the team hardly plays. “They only play once or twice a year and need to play more,” said Ponsford.

Cheryl Soon, captain of Australia — a team whose emergence as a serious force close to home will be warmly welcomed by the competition-starved New Zealanders — raised the idea of a “mini Tri Nations” against New Zealand and South Africa. It would be, she said, “brilliant.”

Inexperience is an even greater handicap for the United States, a dominant force in the early days of the women’s game and the last team to beat New Zealand in the World Cup, in the 1991 final.

“They have great athletes and some good players,” Ponsford said, “But where New Zealanders grow up in a rugby culture — they see top-class men’s games and play touch and tag rugby from an early age — the Americans have less rugby culture to draw on, and this sometimes shows in game management skills.”

The United States, which finished fifth for the second tournament running, also has logistical issues.

“I sometimes think our players have to travel too much for team sessions, but compared to the Americans we have no real problems,” Ponsford said.

The U.S. team will take steps to address that problem in the coming year, with more international competition, including senior and under-20 tournaments that involve England, Canada and one to three other teams to be played in North America during the summer.

Beyond that, Ponsford and Ruscoe see a crucial role for seven-a-side rugby in maintaining the game’s upward swing. A sevens World Cup is due in 2013, and rugby will get another crucial lift from its introduction into the Olympics from 2016.

“It will be the big driver of growth over the next few years,” Ponsford said, “because of the opportunity it provides for more countries to play and the emphasis on Olympic sports in many countries.”

It will also improve skills in the 15-a-side game, so that standards at the next World Cup in 2014 will be even higher than they were last time. Where that tournament will be played has yet to be determined, but there is every reason to think that it will be worth the trip, wherever it is.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 4, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune.