Dreams of Grand Slams and Triple Crowns faded as fast as the spring sunshine at Twickenham on Saturday as both the men’s and women’s senior rugby teams had to give second best to England.
It was a momentous occasion for equality in sport though as RTE stayed with the transmission to carry live coverage of the women’s bid to defend their Grand Slam from last season. But is that enough, or is the pace of change fast enough when it comes to equality in sport.
Both sides are of course still very much in contention for Championship honours and the focus now switches back to the Aviva Stadium in two weeks time when both sides will take on Italy in similar back to back matches at the headquarters of the sport.
It is hoped that the crowd who stay behind or who join just for the women’s game will be larger than was the case at Twickenham. Women’s sport is massively on the rise but the exit from their seats of the vast majority of fans in London did little to suggest that on Saturday. It is to be hoped that special travel deals for clubs around Ireland for the women’s game will fill more of the seats.
There is a long way still to go though in terms of genuine equality being achieved. TV broadcasts and financial backing show the potential but in the corridors of power, a remaining imbalance was highlighted in a feature in Saturday’s Irish Examiner which listed the 20 most influential power brokers in Irish rugby.
All 20 were cut from a remarkably homogenous background and while there may have been a fair spread in age, there was no diversity whatsoever when it came to gender.
Is it wrong to feel uncomfortable when looking across the double page spread of profiles. There is no question that many if not most of those featured would be powerful advocates for women’s sport but compare that list to how the rest of the world is moving.
Earlier this month The irish Times published it’s list of the 50 most influential people in Ireland. 8 were women.
Last year Forbes magazine published it’s annual list of the 72 most powerful people in the world. 12 were women.
And perhaps most tellingly, they also carried a list of 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who were making headlines, and 11 of them were women.
Food for thought…
