WOMEN'S BRITISH & IRISH LIONS: AN IMPERFECT UNION?

Credit: Tom Shaw - tomshawphotography.com

By Lisa Parfitt

In women’s sport equal doesn’t always mean the same 

My ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ (sorry, not sorry) education has given me one gift - the ‘ring light’. Beloved by creators, ring lights cast the most flattering, even glow across your face for a flawless complexion. Working from home and non-stop Zooms have seen a surge in orders to complete a ‘broadcast-ready complexion’. During the pandemic, women’s sport has moved out of its own ‘soft focus’ ring of light, and thrust into the harsh spotlight, flaws exposed and casting a long shadow. Far from ‘broadcast-ready’, given its virtual disappearance from our screens. 

Last week World Rugby made the disappointing, but (in my opinion) entirely correct, decision to postpone the Rugby World Cup to 2022. In an ‘ordinary’ year this would have concluded a 12-month period that comprised the Women’s Six Nations Championship and Olympic Sevens. The postponement should not come as a shock, given the impact of COVID-19 on teams’ abilities to prepare, not to mention the vast operational challenges of the movement of teams to New Zealand. At the time of writing, there are even questions about whether the Women’s Six Nations will go ahead as planned. 

International women’s sport postponements - Women’s Euros, the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Rugby World Cup - are heart-breaking, particularly after a prolonged period of growth and momentum. But maybe it has done us a favour in the long term? Inside my personal echo-chamber, women’s sport had made it, equality was on the horizon, hurrah! But the pandemic has been a reality-check, shining a very harsh light on the nuances of how far professional women’s sport still has to go before it can afford to match the blueprint set by men’s sport. 

2020-21 feels like a research study unfolding in front of our eyes. It’s easy to get caught up with what ‘the men’ have and ‘the women’ have not. But it is fascinating to review the nuanced approach across different sports to tackling the disparity and ensuring future success. In the same week that Rugby World Cup was postponed, the England & Wales Cricket Board announced that the first match of its brand-new competition, The Hundred, would be played by two women’s teams, who will be competing for equal prize money with the men. Win. Win. Dive even deeper and you’ll see that while the men did an IPL-style ‘draft’, the women’s teams took a selection-based approach to ensure close attention to player welfare, with very young players taking part in the new competition. At risk of criticism for not following the same approach as the men, the ECB’s decision-making was governed by what is right for the female players - and the game - in its current stage of development. 

Like The Hundred, new platforms, fresh ideas and challenging the status quo for women’s sport gives me cause for real excitement. On International Women’s Day, the British & Irish Lions announced a review, sponsored by Royal London, into the viability of a Women’s Lions Tour. A Women’s Lions Tour has been mooted by officials for a few years - a question of “not if, but when” - and the commercial investment is the driver for a full review. I’m torn. Torn between a passion for investment into women’s sport and my love of the heritage and magic of what the British & Irish Lions stands for. Does the blueprint of a men’s Lions Tour stack up for international women’s rugby?  

I applaud the review but the challenges of fitting a global women’s rugby competition into an existing Lions format are wide ranging; not least the mismatch of professional vs amateur players for the home nations, as well as in (traditional) host nations Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (who didn’t even compete at the last Rugby World Cup).  

What the Lions has always had in its favour is the ability to unite rugby fans - and united the women’s rugby community certainly is. Last year, when the Women’s Six Nations was cancelled, the community came together behind the people-powered #ICare social campaign to respond to online criticism of the women’s competition. Whilst players and fans are united in their passion for the game, the global inequality in professionalism is extreme and needs a highly tailored global approach to developing the game. The model of a four-year touring cycle doesn’t provide much-needed regular visibility for the game. It needs annual global events that create an appointment to view moment(s). The Women’s Six Nations has a window which could be expanded to include more nations - and even succeed where the men’s game hasn’t. It may even solve the elusive title sponsor problem. 

The issue with men's rugby is that there was never a long-term strategy, and so now the problems it faces with global alignment of calendars, broadcast rights and (still) professionalism all arise from a less than coherent or collaborative approach. That is why private equity has got involved to knock heads together and realise the value with a joined-up global strategy - whether that will work is a whole other blog. 

So, we're actually asking the wrong question here when we ask Women’s Lions or no Women’s Lions - we should be asking a bigger question – what is the long-term strategy for the women’s game? Well, World Rugby has a pretty good idea with its Women’s Development Plan (2017-2025) and strategy for not only growing participation but also investment into high quality performance programmes. What we should be trying to do is to get all the key players around the table to create a cohesive long-term strategy to grow the women's game rather than start with a preconceived idea that suits only a few. 

The women’s game needs regular visibility, sustained global & local funding, and dedicated sponsors. The investment that Royal London has made is visionary, and brands taking a role and stance to develop women’s sport will be repaid for their support. However, I hope that the review doesn’t start by imposing soft lighting to the hypothesis, but a very harsh critical spotlight on the best course of action to grow & develop the women’s game professionally and commercially. As The Hundred has shown, in women’s sport equal doesn’t always mean the same.