AngrySeahorse
Peter Sullivan (51)
Cat A, enjoyed every word of your original rant – I think mine will top it though. I’d like to see the Twitter site be dedicated to women’s rep rugby in general so it covers 15’s as well, not just 7’s. I thought I’d voice my concerns about the ARU’s direction with women’s rugby.
At our AGM this year for our club comp, the word from the ARU was that they are going to focus on 7’s rather than 15’s (National’s I found out about earlier this year). This is not a good move IMO. I know the ARU are probably looking at 7’s+Olympics as the best way to help recruit more women to Rugby (& I don’t disagree with using it to get school girls involved) but I don’t think they realise what damage they are actually doing to the quality of the game as a whole by focusing on 7’s at the expense of 15’s. I’d rather Olympic governing bodies in Aus handle the 7’s side of things as its Olympic & the ARU concentrate on 15’s & grassroots/club land. My major issues with favouring 7’s over 15’s for women are as follows:
1) Rugby15’s for women, like for men, caters for all body types. There are large girls playing Rugbythat got turned away from other sports due to body type. Take away 15’s & leave 7’s & you’ll just end up with Rugbybecoming one of these ‘prototype’ team sports where all the players look the same or similar build. Promoting 15’s I believe would appeal to a larger number of women & therefore recruit a larger more diverse number of players/supporters/etc.
2) The ARU a few years ago stated that they were neglecting the women’s rep program to some extent so they could support the grass roots. This was something I actually agreed with. The needs of the many (club & potential players) outweigh the needs of the few (rep players). I say this even as someone who played rep for Hunter & know first hand funds is not easy to come by. That being said how much the ARU did for grassroots women’s rugby back then I have no idea. I’d like someone with any info on that to enlighten me, from what I’ve seen the bulk of the work has come from women’s players themselves. I know the ARU doesn’t have a money tree & has issues of its own regarding the men’s side of the game but from what I’ve seen they haven’t really done a great deal.
3) I’d liken 20/20 cricket to 7’s & test cricket to 15’s, you can throw all the money & everything else you could at 7’s just like 20/20 but none of that will make it a better game than 15’s. Basically, you can dress up a turd all you like but it won’t make any difference, a turd is a turd.
Standing on its own 7’s has many benefits especially for recruitment, etc but it is still the inferior version of the game. A player who has only ever played club for all their playing days at 15’s would have a better idea overall of how good of a Rugby player they are than someone who plays 7’s all their life & even competes at the top level.
I’m happy for any success we have for our men’s & women’s at 7’s but with all due respect WRWC 15’s along with the men’s RWC are the pinnacles of our game. With all the concentration on 7’s I’m worried how we will compete with the likes of New Zealand & England at the WRWC (we came 3rd last time).
If the ARU thinks women will neglect 15’s for 7’s if that’s the only choice then they’d get a rude awakening. Most women I talk to who joined 15’s for the contact & the challenge of a longer game with less gaps to run through are more likely to go to League. This is regardless of how much they love Rugby& even includes me (lord let it not come to that please!). 13 on 13 for 80min is seen as better than 7 on 7 for 7min halves. Then what will Rugbybe left with? It’ll be left with recruiting women straight out of other sports who maybe more interested in the game for what they can get out of it in terms of accolades rather than playing the game for the love of it which is what the bulk of women in 15’s play it for (IMO).
It’s not all doom & gloom. The 15’s comps are very resilient, especially from where I’m from. Whenever I travel & meet women rugby players they always put 15’s in the highest regard. At Crescent Head sevens I saw a few of the women's sevens teams get together on the spare field to play a fun game of 15's (even at 7's comps we are still trying to play 15's). Once again I’m only commenting on my area but we still have girls & women coming into 15’s & the players are very committed from all clubs. The volunteers have coped (although they could always do with help naturally).
Probably, correction - most certainly, delving much further into it than the twitter issue but its an important issue none-the-less.
MrMouse, LMFAO doesn't do justice to the reaction of your comment on Ali Brigginshaw's DOB. Funny as!
At our AGM this year for our club comp, the word from the ARU was that they are going to focus on 7’s rather than 15’s (National’s I found out about earlier this year). This is not a good move IMO. I know the ARU are probably looking at 7’s+Olympics as the best way to help recruit more women to Rugby (& I don’t disagree with using it to get school girls involved) but I don’t think they realise what damage they are actually doing to the quality of the game as a whole by focusing on 7’s at the expense of 15’s. I’d rather Olympic governing bodies in Aus handle the 7’s side of things as its Olympic & the ARU concentrate on 15’s & grassroots/club land. My major issues with favouring 7’s over 15’s for women are as follows:
1) Rugby15’s for women, like for men, caters for all body types. There are large girls playing Rugbythat got turned away from other sports due to body type. Take away 15’s & leave 7’s & you’ll just end up with Rugbybecoming one of these ‘prototype’ team sports where all the players look the same or similar build. Promoting 15’s I believe would appeal to a larger number of women & therefore recruit a larger more diverse number of players/supporters/etc.
2) The ARU a few years ago stated that they were neglecting the women’s rep program to some extent so they could support the grass roots. This was something I actually agreed with. The needs of the many (club & potential players) outweigh the needs of the few (rep players). I say this even as someone who played rep for Hunter & know first hand funds is not easy to come by. That being said how much the ARU did for grassroots women’s rugby back then I have no idea. I’d like someone with any info on that to enlighten me, from what I’ve seen the bulk of the work has come from women’s players themselves. I know the ARU doesn’t have a money tree & has issues of its own regarding the men’s side of the game but from what I’ve seen they haven’t really done a great deal.
3) I’d liken 20/20 cricket to 7’s & test cricket to 15’s, you can throw all the money & everything else you could at 7’s just like 20/20 but none of that will make it a better game than 15’s. Basically, you can dress up a turd all you like but it won’t make any difference, a turd is a turd.
Standing on its own 7’s has many benefits especially for recruitment, etc but it is still the inferior version of the game. A player who has only ever played club for all their playing days at 15’s would have a better idea overall of how good of a Rugby player they are than someone who plays 7’s all their life & even competes at the top level.
I’m happy for any success we have for our men’s & women’s at 7’s but with all due respect WRWC 15’s along with the men’s RWC are the pinnacles of our game. With all the concentration on 7’s I’m worried how we will compete with the likes of New Zealand & England at the WRWC (we came 3rd last time).
If the ARU thinks women will neglect 15’s for 7’s if that’s the only choice then they’d get a rude awakening. Most women I talk to who joined 15’s for the contact & the challenge of a longer game with less gaps to run through are more likely to go to League. This is regardless of how much they love Rugby& even includes me (lord let it not come to that please!). 13 on 13 for 80min is seen as better than 7 on 7 for 7min halves. Then what will Rugbybe left with? It’ll be left with recruiting women straight out of other sports who maybe more interested in the game for what they can get out of it in terms of accolades rather than playing the game for the love of it which is what the bulk of women in 15’s play it for (IMO).
It’s not all doom & gloom. The 15’s comps are very resilient, especially from where I’m from. Whenever I travel & meet women rugby players they always put 15’s in the highest regard. At Crescent Head sevens I saw a few of the women's sevens teams get together on the spare field to play a fun game of 15's (even at 7's comps we are still trying to play 15's). Once again I’m only commenting on my area but we still have girls & women coming into 15’s & the players are very committed from all clubs. The volunteers have coped (although they could always do with help naturally).
Probably, correction - most certainly, delving much further into it than the twitter issue but its an important issue none-the-less.
MrMouse, LMFAO doesn't do justice to the reaction of your comment on Ali Brigginshaw's DOB. Funny as!
