Now hardly seems the time for an appraisal for the 2025-25 PWR season. But a number of issues make it appropriate.
Tigers
First, my growing concern about one club, Leicester Tigers. In quick succession they have lost the services of Amy Cokayne, Charlotte Fray, Claire Gallagher, Francesca McGhie and Meg Jones. That is, their only two Red Roses, an England fringe player, a Scotland winger and Canada’s No 10. The disappearance of such an array of talent must hide an unpleasant truth.
Stories of a lack of commitment to women’s rugby among the Tigers’ board have come from local sources. That seems a remarkable change of heart since the club put in a successful application to join the PWR. The management turnover has only added to the concerns. Fraser Goatcher is the new DoR with Ross Bundy as the head coach. They can hardly know which way to turn.
Tigers finished eighth out of nine last season. The club below them, Sale Sharks, have acquired the services of Cokayne and Fray. One place above them, Trailfinders have picked up Gallagher, McGhie and Jones. It’s encouraging to see lowly placed clubs gaining top-quality players, but here it comes at the expense of one club that may find it difficult winning a single match next sesson.
One consolation is that relegation is impossible; exclusion is less so. Which brings us to…
PWR’s Intentions
Second, we still await the findings of the PWR board about the best route forward. To my mind the crucial issue is the balance between EQPs snd NEQPs. (No point in rehearsing my doubts about a more professional approach). How far does it benefit other unions when their best players move to England to improve their standards? The process continues unabated. Alaw Pyrs’ signing for Gloucester-Hartpury comes as I prepare these notes.
I cannot see how it helps the three Celtic unions, Rugby Canada or USA Rugby in the long term to have their stars operating abroad. At least the USA has reacted by establishing its own semi-pro WER league. We can only wish the board all the best.
R360 and its effect on PWR
Third, news has just broken of a new initiative to collect the world’s best players and invite them to play in a jamboree of matches around the world’s favourite tourist spots. It offers the hideous word ‘franchise’ to show its true colours.
Women would enjoy an equal place with men, though we can’t be sure at present that new schedules wouldn’t conflict with 6N fixtures.
The great minds behind the project are Mike Tindall, once an England centre, now a member of the British royal family, and the somewhat less celebrated Stuart Hooper, once of Bath Rugby. As with a parallel enterprise which I outline below, R360 is intent on pointing out the shortcomings of the current game. Allegedly it lacks innovation, doesn’t appeal to the younger generation and is leaving clubs in a parlous state. That last claim may well hold water. The problem is: sifting out the 300 best male and female players is not an obvious way of putting more pennies into club treasurers’ money bags. Tindall’s statement that club rugby has “failed to capture the same level of interest and investment as international rugby” strikes me as remarkably inept. If the club game brought the same level of attention, what would that say for the standards of test matches?
Already, pundits are casting doubt on the viability of R360. Will players readily be found, or are they tied to contracts with club and country? Would they be willing to take a punt, travelling from hotel to hotel, playing in teams brought together from all around the world and led by coaches who prefer this existence to the rewards of club or country?
How many PWR players – they include test players from many nations – might be approached, and how many would accept without fear of losing their place in their national side?
R360 wants to “”unlock the potential of the women’s game”. That implies that neither World Rugby nor the individual unions are doing that. The ‘potential’ would involve very few women, and would they finish up better off than the instigators of this latest caprice?
If I invited you to guess the identity of one female player highlighted in the announcement, who would you choose? Correct!
Yet another brilliant idea
I wrote about a similar madcap idea, World 12s, four years ago (http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/ 2021/09/07/world-12s-another-new-format/).
Steve Hansen, ex-head coach of the All Blacks, praised its aims, claiming “it will create an excitement that we are missing at present”. It makes you wonder what rugby Hansen had been watching at the time. Not the ABs, we must hope. The initiative, offering mind-boggling wages and prizes, disappeared in a whirl of tinsel.
Something old, something new
It is remarkable how people keep hunting for new formulae to make the game of their choice more attractive (or more profitable for themselves?).
They undermine the strength of their argument by stressing alleged shortcomings of the current game. We may all have our doubts about certain features, but the idea of plucking a few “global stars” and placing them of a lonely pinnacle isn’t the sensible response. We can look forward to the progress ths venture makes with the greatest interest.
Let’s hope the next version of PWR will show a cool-headed approach and bring even more pleasure to spectators and viewers.
