The other side of the fence

Women's and girls' Rugby League gets an occasional mention on here, partly because it is assumed that readers will be interested, and partly because the problems and pressures faced by both games are rather similar - except that Women's Rugby League gets even less publicity, on a national level, than Union and, you would expect (given the stereotypical southern view of northern folk) face an even tougher problem with the attitudes of those in charge.

Its therefore often a pleasant task to report how positive the RFL have been in their efforts to support their women's game - certainly the failure of last summer's abortive RL session which our ex-Legends tried to take part in was in no way the fault of the organisers, but rather a chronic lack of ambition and foresight from local women's teams.

I mention this because an interesting article has appeared on the BARLA (British Amateur Rugby League Association) website, summarising the pressures, problems and ambitions of the women's game - interesting because anyone from women's union reading this will experience massive feelings of deja vu as they read it, from the dedicated few at the centre trying to expand the game - and the dominance of New Zealand at the international level - to the inability of clubs to send in match reports or give any importance to publicity generally (I just mention this because I suspect the non-appearance of all of the results from the last round of women's county games is certainly not the fault of the RFUW).

I am also left wondering why the two sports - particularly at the youngest junior levels (where the rules are most similar and the skills all but identical) - fail to work together, or even acknowledge each other's existence.