After the outcome of the Lionesses, City A.M. taken a gander at what rugby can gain from ladies’ football as Britain hope to have the 2025 Rugby World Cup. The article was first published on August 9, 2022.
The famous goal celebration by Chloe Kelly, the largest crowd ever at a final, and victory on home soil; For women’s sports, the England Women’s Euro 2022 victory felt like a turning point.
In any case, in a couple of years’ time Britain will do everything over in the future. On the other hand, this time it will be with the oval ball.
This year, it was confirmed that England would host the next women’s rugby world cup in 2025. Therefore, the Lionesses could serve as a model for the Red Roses to follow.
The issue that the Euros and tournaments such as the women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017 are helping to unlock is that accessing women’s sport hasn’t been as easy as it should be. The Rugby Football Union’s head of women’s game, Alex Teasdale, stated to City A.M., “We know that the appetite is there, both from a fan and participation point of view.”
The Women’s Six Nations and some domestic top-flight Premier 15s games will be broadcast on terrestrial television as part of an agreement that English rugby has recently signed with the BBC.
In the coming year, a free-to-air platform will also broadcast the women’s World Cup.
Britain are top picks to lift the prize in New Zealand having piled up a progression of noteworthy outcomes – including a couple of prevails upon the Dark Greeneries in the pre-winter – yet they know that achievement currently is critical to building.
As part of our Every Rose strategy, we have a lot of momentum to ensure that we turn that success into meaningful outcomes. We would love to see that momentum and visibility remain high.
Participation, fandom, and visibility all interact in a triangular fashion. We must ensure that we are prepared for the latter in 2025, and we are making meticulous preparations now to ensure that we will be.
The Lionesses wrote an open letter to the UK Government requesting that girls have greater access to football in schools following their 2-1 extra-time victory over Germany last month.
Similarly, some people believe that the Red Roses’ success in their World Cup bid will depend heavily on their grassroots support.
However, this has been a problem for both boys and girls for a long time. State schools simply do not have enough rugby fields.
However, in order to provide girls with the opportunity to play rugby, the RFU ought to facilitate partnerships between schools and local rugby clubs.
“This may be beneficial to all parties involved. Girls’ rugby will be taught in schools, rugby clubs should attract more new members, and the RFU will see an increase in participation.
During this year’s Euros, the Football Association was told that some of the stadiums weren’t big enough for the matches.
Despite the fact that England games frequently sold out, other events did not, demonstrating the delicate balance that organizers must strike while remaining financially viable.
Matt Merritt, a specialist women’s rugby journalist, stated, “The key is to get England Women playing in Twickenham now.” You have to instill the belief that they are selected based on merit; this is likely to occur during the Six Nations.
We have some work to do between now and 2025 because we currently average around 12,000 attendees.
The women’s game should not be discounted because smaller stages were used; After all, the 2015 men’s rugby world cup saw stadium capacities ranging from Wembley’s 90,000 to Sandy Park’s 12,300, which was then smaller.
When approaching future women’s projects, Whitehall promised more than £30 million, and Prime Ministerial hopeful Rishi Sunak told City A.M. he remained committed to the cause.