{"id":14165,"date":"2025-09-10T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14165\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:35:08","slug":"future-of-womens-rugby-how-world-cup-losses-shape-global-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/14165\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of women\u2019s rugby: How World Cup losses shape global growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Losing ground is also the fear attached to the fate of Wales, Italy and the USA. These teams would have had inclusion in the quarter-finals<\/a> as their marker of success. Falling short will now call into question what meagre investment has been made. These are all teams that have had what could be described as fair-weather support from their unions. Now they are entering choppier waters it remains to be seen who will hold the course. <\/p>\n

Each of these teams has a strong international calendar in which they can test themselves. They have domestic competitions at varying stages of development and no end of talent in the pipeline. What they need is more time on the grass with more quality coaching, with a particular focus on the levels leading up to the top. To enable them to do their learning before landing on the international stage they need what the men have, a funding model based on their potential rather than their performance. <\/p>\n

Fiji, Spain and Japan would all love to be in their shoes. They are the big fish in the small ponds of their regional competitions, with only one of the teams these nations regularly play also making it to this World Cup<\/a>. Having reached the limit of their programming, they now need an invitation from others to reach the next level. As Japan\u2019s head coach Lesley McKenzie asked after their loss to Black Ferns<\/a>: \u201cHow does the structure rise around us so these girls have got the next thing that\u2019s going to help them elevate, that\u2019s not four years away?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BlackBlack Ferns flanker Jorja Miller makes a break against Japan, who failed to make the knockout stage. Photo \/ SmartFrame<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a question to be put to World Rugby out of this tournament as we look ahead at the next cycle. In order for women\u2019s rugby to be truly successful, we need to collaborate off the pitch to allow for the best possible competition on it. Why not expand Pacific Four to a Pacific Six by inviting Japan and South Africa to the party? What other offers can strong unions make to support domestic development? We\u2019ve seen the impact for Fijiana, surely the permanent inclusion of Penina Pasifika must be next. <\/p>\n

Our success is bound to one another. The future of the women\u2019s game cannot be the replication of the men\u2019s. We don\u2019t need a handful of giants, we need all our women together, standing tall. <\/p>\n

Alice Soper is a sports columnist for the Herald on Sunday<\/a>. A former provincial rugby player and current club coach, she has a particular interest in telling stories of the emerging world of women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Losing ground is also the fear attached to the fate of Wales, Italy and the USA. These teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10542,3278,3273,1437,3499,221,5342,111,139,69,1118,6327,16487,213,2834,377],"class_list":{"0":"post-14165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cup","9":"tag-facts","10":"tag-future","11":"tag-global","12":"tag-growth","13":"tag-how","14":"tag-losses","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-of","19":"tag-rugby","20":"tag-shape","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-womens","23":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}