The impact of the World Cup on Women’s rugby: A player’s perspective
By Cameron Stephens
On November 12th 2022, New Zealand snapped England’s record 30-game winning streak on home soil in one of the most dramatic games of rugby in recent memory to lift the Rugby World Cup for the sixth time.
The final, played in front of a record 42,579 fans at Eden Park, capped off a transcendent tournament for women’s rugby with viewing records being shattered in the process.
Even with the heartbreak of that dramatic loss in the final, England international Shaunagh Brown recognised that despite the Red Roses falling at the last hurdle, the significance of the tournament for women’s rugby was monumental.
She said: “It’s realising how much change we’ve made as a group of people, we fell short of our goal but we got people wanting to watch the women’s game.”
In the early hours of the morning, 1.7 million people across the UK watched the final on ITV with a further 1.3 million witnessing history from their homes in New Zealand.
“There’s definitely been a shift in mentality. I was at a Six Nations event last year where people would outright ignore me and some of the men would have to introduce me so it’s definitely changing and it’s all for the better and it’s only going to continue to grow.”
Harlequins fly-half and Australian international Bella McKenzie, who played every minute of the Wallabies’ world cup campaign, also noted the trickle-down effect into the club game off the back of the world cup.
“For my Stoop debut we had an awesome crowd down, pretty cool to know that everyone was there to watch women’s rugby whereas in Australia we wouldn’t get a big crowd like that just for a women’s game.
“The support has been unreal so far and obviously what the England women’s team did can only be beneficial for women’s rugby”
Prior to the World Cup, it was announced that England will play their first stand-alone fixture at Twickenham when they host France the 2023 Six Nations, a big step towards the RFU’s aim of filling out the iconic stadium for a women’s game by the end of the 2025 world cup.
In order to build on the momentum, Scotland number 8 Jade Konkel-Roberts reiterated that the task for the current crop of players is to pave the way for future generations of women hoping to live out their rugby dreams.
She said: “We’ll be the trailblazers and hopefully in 10 years time the little kids that are asking for our autographs will be in a better place where they won’t have to ask for more.
“Hopefully, we’re creating this platform for kids coming through and they can focus more on the rugby rather than all the other things which we’re on the right path to achieving.”
As players are being reintroduced back into their clubs, the next step for women’s rugby is capitalising on the world cup frenzy and translating the same engagement into domestic competitions.
Brown said: “There’s a balance between being ok with what we’ve got and realising how far we’ve come but also recognising and being excited about how far we’ve got to go still.
“Eventually someone’s going to get bored of us asking and just give us what we want.”
Konkel-Roberts added: “We’re always wanting more. People need to keep using their voices and keep asking for more, we shouldn’t have to ask but ultimately we’re at the stage where we have to.”
The Allianz Premier 15s, England’s domestic competition, recently agreed on a new deal with the BBC to broadcast one game per round on free-to-air television for the second season running with the hope of projecting domestic women’s rugby into the spotlight consistently.
Women’s rugby has never been more prominent and steps are being taken to ensure that it continues on an upward trajectory.