women’s rugby. Everything to win in New Zealand

It is a long journey that the players of the France national team made, on September 22, from Paris to Auckland in New Zealand. He led the staff and 28 selected from the tricolor delegation in the southern hemisphere archipelago, the land of rugby, where the ninth edition of the Women’s World Cup is being held this fall. Created in 1991 (October 8th to November 12th), the competition, scheduled for 2021, has been postponed for a year due to the pandemic. Staged for the first time in New Zealand, it was announced as an All Records. She beat one in the opening match on 8 October. In addition to a very convincing victory for the Blues (40-5), this France and South Africa at the legendary Eden Park in Auckland was also a popular success with over 40,000 spectators, an attendance never reached in a women’s rugby match. 1). In a country where the women’s national team, the Black Ferns, have won the world title five times, most recently in Ireland in 2017, this madness has given rise to an irresistible rise in the discipline.

The long way for the ladies

Sportingley, New Zealand, England and France advanced for the top three nominees. France, who have finished third in the World Cup six times, want to break the glass ceiling. The competition among the 12 qualifying nations remains tenuous, but women’s rugby, if it does not have a plethora of top-level teams, is already disturbing the certainties of an increasingly feeble legion of skeptics.

“Rugby is forbidden for female players and girls for obvious physiological reasons,” Colonel Marceau Crespin, Delegate General for Olympic Preparation and National Director of Physical Education and Sport, said in 1969. I also urge you not to help women’s rugby teams. Discipline has decimated this prehistoric vision and Azraq is championing other causes.

This Saturday, October 15th at 9am (French time), their clash against England, the eternal European rival (2), is broadcast live on TF1. The channel will broadcast all matches of the fifteenth women’s championship and the fourteen most beautiful posters for the World Cup. The morning audience will be a keen measure of follow-up, as has been the case with the meetings of the French during the Six Nations Championships on France televisions. Proven successes. In the media, this step was taken even if the voices were raised to emphasize the balance, which is still fragile and necessarily linked to the results.

Women’s handball has gained notoriety and a large audience in France, thanks to its performances in the Olympic Games and in major international events. Basketball players associated the European successes of clubs (Clermont, Bourges, etc.) and the success of the selection. French footballers, even if they have never set foot in a major international final, benefit from the aura of successes of Olympique Lyonnais or Paris Saint-Germain. The World Cup, in 2019, also boosted media coverage.

The French women’s rugby, despite their success in the Six Nations, the World Cup in France in 2014, the title of best player in the world awarded to Jesse Tremoliere in 2017, and above all the Olympic silver medal in the last seven Olympic rugby tournament. In Tokyo, they have not yet reached the same stage of recognition.

Rugby, like the rest of the women’s collegiate teams, shines with its national selections. Its clubs’ economic model suffers from a lack of financial enthusiasm as in other sports. We know the choir.

“Finally we mediate”

Few semi-professional players make a decent living from their activity, thanks in particular to the union-backed federal contract, since 2018, of elite rugby union and sevens teams. The French Championship, whose format changes regularly – next season at 12 having swung from 8 to 16 clubs – is looking to make an appearance. A few of the top 14 men’s clubs actively promote a women’s division at the highest level. However, the number of licensees increases regularly once the structures are established. They are more than 30 thousand players today in France.

At first, there weren’t many of us out there, we were covered in the media. “Women’s rugby is growing,” said Jesse Tremolier, international (70 caps), in an interview with France Inter in March. The 29-year-old Auvergne measures the back of the role of guide to Les Bleues. “I put myself in the shoes of a little girl who is 6 or 7 years old. It’s a bit complicated sometimes in families. We still hear remarks like ‘rugby is not for girls, it’s dangerous, it’s violent.’ So we have to show them a good image of Women’s rugby. We have a role to play in that.” There’s a lot to gain in New Zealand.