World Cup stars left high and dry by RFU
England Rugby currently employs around 50 female players on a mixture of full and part-time contracts, with 28 having already been selected for the upcoming tournament in Ireland while the rest continue to train alongside in the build-up.
Many of England’s women gave up jobs or turned down employment opportunities in order to dedicate their lives to retaining the world title they won in 2014. However, from September 1 only 17 full-time 7s contracts will be made available.
England’s world record Test appearance holder Rochelle Clark will not have her contract renewed, whilst a number of other long-serving forwards and backs now have decisions to make over whether they can afford to remain in the programme.
RFU professional rugby director Nigel Melville has justified the move by saying the Union’s focus is switching back to 7s ahead of next year’s World Cup in San Francisco and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but players are said to have been turn left aghast. A senior women’s rugby insider told The Rugby Paper: “This is appalling management from the RFU and it’s really difficult for the girls.
“They could come back as World Cup winners and be all over the front pages as heroes, but then it’s like, ‘Off you go!’.
“Nothing was said about how things would move forward beyond 2016-17 but to drop this on the girls at this stage, so close to the tournament, has obviously created a lot of uncertainty. Nobody will admit it, but it’s certainly affecting morale.
“They’ve got houses and mortgages to pay and instead of being able to relax after the World Cup and maybe take a holiday like the men do, they’re now going to be scrambling to find jobs in what is currently a pretty difficult jobs market.
“The reality is that some of them will be doing that right now when, actually, they should be fully concentrated on the World Cup. They’ll be really professional about it but you would have thought the RFU might have handled this better.
“Girls have dedicated themselves to the RFU’s 15-a-side programme over the last two or three years and this will be massively stressful. Some will be offered 7s contracts but the majority won’t, so how will this affect next year’s Six Nations?”
England kick off their World Cup campaign against Spain in Dublin on 9 August, with the final scheduled to take place on 26 August.
Meanwhile, The Rugby Paper understands the RFU’s new women’s Super Rugby competition faces an uncertain start when the 10-team league kicks off in September, with Loughborough Students struggling to assemble a competitive squad.
With the ultra-successful Lichfield Ladies having been controversially excluded from the competition, RFU bigwigs had hoped their players would transfer en masse.
However, senior Lichfield stars have revolted, leaving Loughborough in the lurch.
NEALE HARVEY
*For the full RFU statement on the contract issue, click here.
