As you may know, one small sideline I have been working on is a definitive list of all women's internationals - mainly because its not something that anyone else has done (not least the IRB, who expend huge effort on recording the most obscure men's internationals but can't be bothered to keep records of more than a tiny fraction of women's games).
One slight problem with this is that different countries can have different opinions about whether or not a game is an international or not. And of all nations possibly the most pedantic when it comes to the awarding of international status is England where the RFUW, for example, uniquely refuse to recognise most games played by England in the annual FIRA European championship as internationals because (in most years) England happen to select an understrength, development, team for the event.
Yet RFUW are calling this Saturday's game in Dublin between England and an "Ireland President's XV" an "international" - even though their opponents are (by definition) not a full national side - presumably just because they are fielding a full England team!
Is it just me, or is it the height of arrogance for one nation to feel it can dictate whether or not a game (or entire tournament) should or should not be considered a full international based solely on the level of team it selects?? Its hard work at the best of times to get the media to take women's international rugby seriously - such wild inconsistencies of interpretation by those within the game really do not help.
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