LAST UPDATE | 14 Dec 2021
THERE HAD BEEN rumours about this letter from Irish women’s rugby players to the Irish government in recent weeks.
It was hard to come by names, though, and you wondered who exactly was behind it. You wondered how much of an impact it could make.
But when it landed in the Department of Sport’s inbox last Friday, the letter had been signed by the biggest names in Irish women’s rugby – legendary former players, the recently-retired Ireland captain Ciara Griffin, and nearly 30 current Ireland players.
It was an extraordinary, unprecedented statement of intent from a group of 62 players who have simply had enough. Strongly worded and forceful but also calm and considered, it set out the fact that players past and present have absolutely no faith in the IRFU’s leadership of women’s rugby.
The IRFU also received the letter last Friday and The42 understands that Aon, the lead jersey sponsor for the Ireland Women team, was copied in.
The impact of the letter has been underlined by the fact that within eight hours of it being made public, Ministers Catherine Martin and Jack Chambers had sought a meeting with the IRFU. That’s player power, and from players who are not and were not paid by the union.
The government reaction came hot on the heels of the IRFU’s confrontational public response to the letter. It told us the union ‘refuted the overall tenor’ of the letter.
The IRFU’s statement simply served to underline much of what the letter had pointed out. The players want to finally be listened to and respected but the union’s words brushed them off as “external interference” while two independent reviews are ongoing.
It’s worth remembering that the IRFU’s own full-time director of women’s and 7s rugby, Anthony Eddy, gave a media briefing recently with those same two reviews ongoing and even answered questions directly related to the reviews. That seems like ‘external interference’ and Eddy’s words actually accelerated the discontent among players to the point of them sending the letter.
The IRFU gets frustrated that no one is talking about the positive signs at the grassroots level of the game, but the players’ letter did actually underline that they were keen for the opportunity created by that growing appetite for the game to be seized.
There’s no doubt that the likes of the IRFU’s Amanda Greensmith and Collie McEntee – as well as countless remarkable and selfless volunteers around the country – are working hard to improve the women’s game.
But it’s also very clear that there is a massive amount of work to be done to connect everything up and fix the hugely underperforming top level of women’s rugby. The major decline of the Ireland Women team is a simple fact that no one can dispute.
From a Grand Slam, World Cup semi-final, and Six Nations title in 2013, 2014 and 2015, things have fallen off a cliff. Ireland were knocked out in the pool stages of their home World Cup in 2017 and they haven’t qualified for next year’s World Cup. That’s disastrous stuff and the IRFU would benefit from being accountable and honest about it.
Instead, Eddy seemingly pointed at the players for not performing, as well as highlighting the development of the English and French club competitions as an example of why Ireland aren’t competitive. Why wasn’t the IRFU working to develop the All-Ireland League in recent years? Eddy didn’t seem to have an answer.
The players have held their hands up and stated that they collectively underperformed during the World Cup Qualifier competition in Parma in September, but they didn’t feel that Eddy took any accountability whatsoever.
The Australian is the public face of all of this, as is his boss, IRFU performance director David Nucifora. They were named in the players’ letter and they have plenty to answer for, of course.
But the IRFU’s main committee are culpable in this too. There are now three women [Fiona Steed, Yvonne Comer, and Su Carty] on the 25-strong committee and though the IRFU says it’s working hard to improve that issue, it’s still too low.
We don’t know who actually signed off on that statement yesterday but perhaps it’s time the IRFU actually started listening to the players. The union is doing plenty of good work in other parts of the game – the Ireland men’s team just beat the All Blacks again and there are lots of talented young male players flooding into the pro game – but the underperformance on the women’s side of the sport is undeniable.
The public response to the players’ letter simply served to underline the very content of it. The IRFU’s statement was dismissive and suggested that they don’t want to listen.
The letter itself stressed that many of the players have been “part of previous attempts via private intervention to work constructively with the IRFU to help them to understand how the players have felt over many years and to support them to make changes which would create the right environment for women’s rugby at all levels to thrive.”
Sadly, those attempts have failed and so, the players felt they had to resort to asking the Ministers to intervene. The Ministers have vowed to provide the help they were asked for. They told us they are willing to listen.
That includes meeting with the IRFU but also asking Sport Ireland to get involved and meet the players. This has suddenly all become a lot bigger.
If a group of players this influential are willing to put their names to a letter going to the government, surely there should be a moment of realisation within the IRFU.
Even beyond that, why is the union not keen on harnessing the knowledge, passion, and experience that these players can provide? Why are the current players on the Ireland Women squad so completely at odds with the union they represent?
Yesterday gave the impression of something akin to civil war in Irish women’s rugby and that kind of situation can very often lead to change – exactly what the players want.
With the government now involved, the IRFU have plenty of explaining to do and lots of introspection ahead.
