The Irish Women’s Rugby team take on the United States at the RDS this evening. It should have been the start of a build-up to next year’s Rugby World Cup, a joyous homecoming where actual and potential young players could have been in the stands and been inspired.

Instead, it comes at the end of a week where the commitment of the IRFU to the Women’s game has been questioned and media comments, on mainstream and social, have been analysed, sliced and diced in minute detail.

The performance of the team in falling to Spain in their last chance to qualify for the 2022 Rugby World Cup in Australia was poor, and if that was in the Men’s game the criticism would have been sharper and deserved.

That it is only four years since Ireland hosted the World Cup makes the opportunity lost even keener.

Criticism

Criticism is part and parcel of sport, and gender should not determine the ability of commentary to be positive or negative based on performance. Patting players on the head and saying that they tried their best is great for kids but lessens the importance of a team if applied at higher levels.

The problem this week was the sense that the criticism was coming from within, arising out of a press briefing given by Anthony Eddy, the Head of Women’s Rugby and the Sevens Programme at the IRFU.

No doubt his thoughts on the players performance were shared internally. Every team that plays badly or loses needs to reflect honestly on their own shortcomings and figure out ways to learn, develop and improve.

But they do that behind the closed door of a dressing or an analysis room and if the door is cracked open everybody gets on edge.

That’s what happened here and Cliodhna Moloney, as one of the senior players, voiced her criticism on social media, putting other players into a position of being asked which side they were on.

You can’t rewind the clock, Eddy apologised for the way in which his comments came across, and the team have focused on tonight’s game, which is exactly what they needed to do.

Buzzer

The little buzzer though that keeps ringing in the background of this story is that players do need to be to the fore in promoting their sport as one that future players should aspire to.

It’s never all about the softer focus moments of victory and team bonding. It has to be about those darker moments from which you bounce back.

The real issue here is a continued low level of disquiet that the sport is really behind the Women’s game. Those on either side of that question are adamant that they are right.

The creation of the #NothingLikeIt campaign to tell the story of the sport has been well-intentioned and well-executed. The grassroots promotion of the sport for girls involving academies and tournaments where the technical skills to improve the overall standard are explained and developed is happening.

What is missing is the spark of a successful team, and that is where the blame for the failure to qualify is being thrown around.

Professional support for the game is still in the early stages here and behind that of other countries, but arguing for resources that might not be there, as a silver bullet to turn us into world-beaters, is not realistic.

Review

The review of the performance is underway and is being undertaken on an independent basis. Events of this week mean that there will now be a greater public interest in the findings, and a greater pressure to overspend on support rather than underspend.

There is no bottomless pit of money though and creating a fully professional set-up is still some way off. It can certainly get closer to the money that is spent on the men’s game and there are ways in which that can be done, and highlighted.

Developing the clubs, then the interpros and then the international game does not happen overnight. It needs to be structured and it needs to be iterative.

Shining a spotlight on each iteration raises the stakes and can be counterproductive.

What the team and the sport needs is to replace rumours of dissent with actual engagement. It needs to heed the lessons that will emerge from the review and raise the standard of performance in time for next year’s Six Nations tournament where every game will be televised live and free to air.

In getting to a World Cup Semi-Final in 2014, the Irish women’s team did something that the Men have so far failed to achieve.

That should be a benchmark that shows what is possible.

Then everyone who can play a part in bringing it back should be supported to do it. That includes the players, the coaches and the administrators.

 

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