'A game for all': NZR launch 10-year plan to grow women's rugby
New Zealand Rugby has launched an ambitious 10-year plan to transform the women's game and tap into the explosion of interest sparked by the Black Ferns triumph on home soil at last year's World Cup.
The governing body undertook 1500 hours of consultation with more than 2200 people in the rugby community before drafting the New Zealand Women and Girls in Rugby System Strategy, which was released on Wednesday.
"We are riding an extraordinary wave of excitement and engagement with women's rugby in Aotearoa, the likes of which we've never seen," New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chair Patsy Reddy said at the launch in Auckland.
"We truly believe that rugby is a game for all and there's a huge opportunity ahead of us over the next decade to engage more women and girls.
"What's crucial is that it is done in a deliberate, structured, and focused way."
NZR will invest $NZ21 million ($A20m) in "women's rugby initiatives" this year under its action plan, including the employment of six new officials around the country to drive the change.
Guided by the strategy, New Zealand's provincial rugby unions will draw up their own action plans to deliver key objectives.
Among the objectives is an average increase of 2500 women and girls playing the game every year to achieve a target of 50,000 by 2033.
"The impact the Black Ferns' victory has had on our local community is massive and there's huge interest and growth in playing numbers," Tanya Dearns, chief executive of the Mid Canterbury Rugby Union, said.
"We want those women and girls to feel safe, love playing, become leaders on our club boards and stay involved in the game for life."
Competition for young female athletes might be stiff, however, with New Zealand Football also looking to leverage its co-hosting with Australia of the FIFA Women's World Cup in July and August.
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The first half penalties against NZ were for speculative tackling because England were attacking so flat. If NZ didn't do this then it may have been tries and not penalties conceded earlier. I believe Felix Jones is still helping with the transition online. It was quite clear he wasn't helping in person with Earls in particular shooting up and leaving huge holes. NZ had a few that nearly stuck but the two tries by Telea were defensive errors. Furbank biting on Sititi leaving Genge to mark. Genge wont show Telea the outside again. Poor tacking on Telea for the second. That said he is a hard man to grab hold of.
Isolating Genge was clever for Jordans try. NZ spotted he defended wide too often and they could leave a gap with that switch play. 6 day turnaround for Ireland now.
I imagine NZ will be better, but they will need to be a lot better.
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