World Rugby considering plans for women's Nations Championship

World Rugby has raised the possibility of a female equivalent of the controversial Nations Championship, as the global governing body launched an ambitious global brand “Women in Rugby” to grow female participation and increase commercial investment.

World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont and chief executive Brett Gosper, along with World Rugby women’s general manager Katie Sadleir, expressed hope that a women’s version of what had been originally proposed as the World League could materialise in order to create further international competition in the women’s game, with it being initially funded by the prospective £5billion deal for the men.

The timing of the remarks are curious as the World Rugby council meets in Dublin on Wednesday, with the Nations Championship up for debate and a vote by representatives from unions. There had been concerns, particularly from the Six Nations, regarding broadcast deals.

“We are looking at a women’s Nations’ Championship, we think that the money that is being provided in the competition we are making, would allow us to set aside money for a global competition in the women’s XVs game,” said Gosper. “This would create the possibility of a 10 or 12-team competition across the world that is very much in our objectives.”

“The Nations Championship is pretty central to discussions this week, there are still some gaps in consensus. We have to try and close those up over the next few days or move on one way or the other.”

Beaumont said: “We would like to replicate it for the women, you come back to your sponsorship and funding, and that is what we need to do with the women’s game is to put the funding into it, so we can have more international games. That is the driver for the sport, putting on your international jersey, that really drives the participation of the sport.”

The “Women In Rugby” brand which is being promoted by the social media campaign #TryandStopUs which features 15 women involved in different aspects of rugby around the world includes a strong emphasis on the Asian market, with the main promotional video featuring India sevens player Sweta Shahi, who taught herself how to play watching YouTube videos.

Although there is a strong emphasis on growing participation, with World Rugby saying that for the first time the number of women and girls picking up an oval ball eclipsed the number of men and boys globally, there is a strong sense that giving women’s rugby its own brand identity will attract commercial partners.

Gosper said: “The women’s game is largely funded by the men’s game at the moment but we believe in women’s rugby as a commercial entity. It is about when is that going to get to a point when it covers its own costs and then that it gets profitable as well.”

In a bold move mirroring the success of Uefa and the Football Association in separating their sponsorship rights for men and women, Sadleir believes that women’s rugby can attract sponsors in its own right. World Rugby is working with an agency to look at brokering a deal similar to Uefa’s partnership with Visa.

“The trend in football has shown it works for them,” said Sadleir. “One of the things from a rugby perspective is that we haven’t been able to separate men’s and women’s sponsorship rights like that up until now. We are going to look at the women’s product in terms of what different commercial partners might look like and we will test that now.”