Women's Game: 2022 Year in Review
If the headlines of 2022 belonged to the re-emergence of New Zealand as the world’s best, then the stories underneath it were all about the growing professionalism of women’s rugby and the plethora of new opportunities emerging for international teams and players.
From Fiji’s inclusion and eventual victory in Australia’s leading club competition the Super W, to first time professional contracts to players in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy to name just four, and a thrilling World Cup, the women’s XV game has enjoyed 12 months like no other.
With more than 100 Test games played in one year for the first time ever, and major brands like TikTok getting involved in the Women’s Six Nations, the road to the next World Cup in 2025 in England, with hopefully none of the pandemic restrictions that blighted the journey to New Zealand, looks promising.
The start of the long awaited global WXV competition in 2023 will be the highlight of next year, while the rejigged sevens calendar will also draw high interest, given one of its benefits is parity between the men’s and women’s event, with all seven rounds featuring combined competitions for the first time.
New Zealand remain the story of the past 12 months though and their journey from disarray this time last year, to glory on home soil a few weeks ago is surely one that will spawn at least one book in the future.
I wrote a few months ago that it would be better for New Zealand if they didn’t win the World Cup, given the scant support they have so often received from their own union when they had won other titles.
What no one could quite have bargained for was the wild support that the Black Ferns generated from their own fans, so often reticent about turning out to support the women’s game.
That record and passionate home support and the brilliant reception the players are receiving all over the country on their champions tour, are certainly enough to suggest that it will be difficult for New Zealand Rugby to do anything but continue to support their fantastic team.
CHAMPagne Showers🍾#RWC2021 | #LikeABlackFern pic.twitter.com/g7GrSaFfQJ
— Black Ferns (@BlackFerns) November 15, 2022
And with the All Blacks off their best form, the potential of the Black Ferns is arguably now an opportunity that New Zealand Rugby cannot afford to mess up.
It is hard to get away from the fact that it took a player speaking out about mistreatment for things to change for the better in New Zealand, but that change, the World Cup win and the ongoing investment in the wider game there, has surely now cemented a rosy and sustainable future.
Key now is that the right head coach is recruited to replace Wayne Smith as New Zealand look to build as professional players to 2025.
Outside of one country though, it is perhaps England and decisions taken by the RFU which has arguably ignited the most change in the game this year.
It is hard to believe that England’s regular thrashing of the countries around them, as true this year as ever, did not have an impact on decisions by those unions to start to invest properly in their top women’s players.
Ireland have probably been the best beneficiaries, with their union saying just a year ago that contracts were not yet a priority, only for that decision to be reversed in the wake of a humbling 69-0 defeat in Leicester.
Record crowds have also helped to generate momentum in the game in the UK, with signs that the England v France game in Twickenham next April will break the record just set at Eden Park for the largest number of fans watching a women’s Test match live.
The RFU’s stated aims to professionalise the Allianz Premier 15s league has also accelerated discussions in the Celtic Nations for a new cross-border club competition, an effort perhaps at eventually stopping the best players from Ireland, Scotland and Wales choosing to play their club rugby on English shores in the Premier 15s.
It remains remarkable to me that not a single player in the Welsh World Cup squad plays their club rugby in Wales, and that can surely not be sustainable forever.
In the next Six Nations, for the first time ever, all of the teams involved will include contracted players – most of them fulltime – remarkable progress given that it is just under four years since England first took the plunge.
Away from XVs, and Australia enjoyed another stunning year in the sevens game– ending it as World Series, World Cup and Commonwealth Games Champions.
Since crashing out at the Olympics last year, Australia have hardly put a foot wrong in 2022, with a trio of titles coming within a few months.
Spearheaded by the vastly experienced Sharni Williams and Charlotte Caslick, players like Maddison Levi and Faith Nathan were outstanding in their various charge for gold.
Elsewhere Poland’s European Sevens Championship win is well worth mentioning as they became just the sixth nation to win that title since it was launched in 2003.
A new era awaits the women’s game in 2023, with a new global XV competition, more professional teams than ever before and a revamped sevens game.
There are challenges ahead but the game’s trajectory is on the up.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments