And so after weeks of heavy criticism from current and former players, Scottish Rugby has presented its vision of the future of the women’s game.
The SRU has accepted the criticism that was directed at it this past year after players discovered that their contracts were not being renewed and that their professional careers were possibly over before the World Cup.
The contractual arrangement, according to Captain Rachel Malcolm, was “unfair” and “distraction” that “made my job harder.”
Veteran Jade Konkel said the team made the World Cup quarter-final “through no help of the SRU”.
She and others demanded more respect from Murrayfield’s powerful, who have abused their supporters.
Bottom line: The announcement of 28 full-time one-year professional contracts (up one from last time) and seven development contracts (up four from last time) came on Thursday.
Of the World Cup squad, 22 of the 32 will get a new deal. Three have retired.
A further 15 players will be able to access a new high-performance program that will be offered at Oriam in Edinburgh, where the national men’s team trains.
What are their intentions?
In the end, the SRU wants to bring their players from England to Glasgow and Edinburgh via a so-called “progressive” infrastructure.
Right now, they’re miles off it.
Glasgow and Edinburgh are part-players in the modest Celtic Challenge competition, which they participate in.
Edinburgh and Glasgow both won out of ten of the most recent competition. The Scots finished bottom and second bottom of the six-team league.
Good luck attempting to reunite Francesca McGhie with that.
It is aware of the magnitude of the issue, in all respects to the SRU. The question is whether its solutions have heft behind them or whether they’re just glorified PR.
In the upcoming months, the union will appoint a national team coach and two assistant coaches. These three will also be coaching Glasgow and Edinburgh in addition to overseeing the national team and the Oriam performance unit.
JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to play this video.
A new head of pathways and a new managing director for the women’s game will also be hired. These positions were previously unattainable. Steps forward, for sure.
Every professional Scottish player will be closely watching that situation closely over the next few weeks as appointments are expected to be made.
Gemma Fay, the SRU’s head of women’s and girl’s strategy, is rumored to be interested in taking the pathways position. If that happens, you’d give more than a penny for the thoughts of the current squad. Fay has her critics, to put it another way.
Williamson cited a number of excellent candidates, both internal and external.
“We’re looking to materially strengthen the support we provide players in Scotland and build an infrastructure that enables not only our senior but also our young, talented players to progress in the country.
In summary, we are providing more financial support to players who are starting out in the industry.
Nucifora stated that the women’s performance program will include a mix of sports psychology, physiology, performance analysis, nutrition, and medical science.
” The aim will be to accelerate the development of these players as quickly as we can to let them reach their potential as fast as possible, “he added.
“Women’s rugby in Scotland is at an exciting time.” I predict that more players will begin to discuss returning to play rugby in Scotland.
Scotland’s ceiling has it reached?
There was not a lot of detail on the financial side.
What will the total cost be? No details were provided. Instead there was just a commitment to spend more than they’ve previously spent on the women’s game.
Williamson remarked, “I can’t give you the specifics,” adding that he would soon provide some clarity regarding the figures.
But there is a question. Given how small the game is in Scotland, is a World Cup quarter-final the ceiling?
A devil’s advocate might argue that Scotland’s women’s rugby could be pumped into the sport for so much money without doing much better than Scotland’s sixth-place finish in the world rankings.
Fifth is attainable. Breaking into the top four looks a mile off. It’s a fascinating debate between reality and reality.
27 players from Scotland’s World Cup squad, most of them from England’s PWR, were in the squad. The other five were based at home.
There will soon be 17 contracts offered to players who play outside the country, so there is a problem with this.
Alex Williamson on BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast
The English-based players who are not contracted may now have to return to work to support themselves. Some will not have the financial freedom to spend the same amount of time on bettering themselves as rugby players, so the fear is that Scotland may lose some international players.
There is a concern that the new Scotland coach will have a fairly small pool of candidates to choose from among the 29 players who played in the previous Six Nations.
Glasgow and Edinburgh are now even more important because of all of this. All of a sudden, they are getting 11 full-time pros and seven development players. a significant increase
Williamson referred to the Celtic Challenge as “on an upward trajectory.” That’s a hard case to argue given how poorly the Scottish teams have done.
He said, “We believe in that program.” We think the WXV’s opportunities are fantastic because they give players a great chance to play high-quality rugby and develop quickly.
“Over this four-year cycle, we will see an increased investment with a view that the Celtic challenge will hopefully grow to the extent that the British and Irish League is a natural consequence”.
A “natural consequence” is an enormous stretch. Scotland still has a long way to go before their teams are ready to join any potential British and Irish League. As do the Irish and Welsh. If it ever occurs, it will take years.
“I’m very confident that if you were to bring the home unions into the room, there would be a consensus that a consolidated league would be the best outcome, from a commercial standpoint,” Williamson said.
That’s highly debatable given that English women’s club rugby really has no need to import new clubs from outside.
Why haven’t the players been given names?
You might have assumed that Thursday would serve as a chance to reveal the names of the chosen ones given the abuse the SRU has received.
There’d be lots of good stories there. Former players re-contracted, some given a chance, and some recruited by youngsters.
No names were given.
“We absolutely will]provide the names]”, said Williamson. We don’t hide from that, they say.
“We’re going to talk about the evolution of the women’s game, the fact that we’re bringing back the game, and setting up the high-performance environment for the first time,” said the president.
“Then, over the next few weeks, we will talk about the players, the management team, the new head coach and everything else that goes alongside that”.
It might have been wise to name the recipients of the 28 full-time and seven development contracts and have a number of them discuss the realization of a dream.
The SRU is aware of what must be done and has not been lying on its own.
related subjects
- Scottish Rugby
- Rugby Union
