Last Friday’s story and commentary on the actions and motivations for Railway Union RFC to secure recognition for their right to a place on the Leinster Committee generated a lot of noise and heat over the weekend.
Railway Union’s argument is that bylaw 7.1 of the Leinster Rugby constitution permits representation based on a club having a team in the top flight of the AIL (All Ireland League). There Women’s team does but not their Men’s so they are not represented at this higher level in terms of decision making.
Leinster Rugby replied to our article with discipline and careful thought and made a number of valid points which we feel it is only fair to cover now as a right of reply.
Chief amongst those was the concept of interpretation. Railway Union’s argument has been that a strict reading of the bylaw could and should be interpreted as gender neutral, thereby making them eligible for a place.
The fact that the original constitution predates the establishment of Women’s Rugby as an organised group is a reason for it having been written in this way but they do make a fair point that if a precedent is set for interpreting rules and regulations in a way that was not intended then there could be a floodgate of petitions and arguments for change that could lead to an inability to administer.
“There is a well-established process in Leinster Rugby for Rugby Clubs to amend bylaws or regulations of the Leinster Branch,” said Leinster Rugby Media Manager Marcus Ó Buachalla.
“Leinster has advocated that Railway Union should embrace the process, has encouraged the Club to apply in this manner and has offered full assistance to the officers of the Club to facilitate this.”
“That encouragement and support remains in place and hopefully Railway Union will avail of this to seek to realise it’s objective.”
The process is to place a motion before the AGM of Leinster Rugby in May and for that to be accepted by a two-thirds majority.
It is a longer road to recognition than a decision by the Executive but maybe it is the best in the long term and the one that will be least divisive.
There is a second bylaw 15.,4.5 (d) which the club contends does allow interpretation but in the pursuit of a strong and genuinely felt working relationship it may be that the asked for, and hopefully given, broad support of the clubs will be better in the long run.
As we said in our original opinion on the subject this is something which needs to be resolved. The perception of inequality based on gender is wholly unacceptable in the modern era.
It’s a question then of timing and while ‘the right time’ is often used as a reason for delay and sometimes wilful procrastination it is hoped that is not the case here and that by the end of this rugby season that the right thing will be done.
Read our original commentary on this issue
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