A little WXV entrée
Before the main course kicks off next week
WXV is almost here. You need to get game ready by signing up for Rugby Pass TV so you can watch all the action. Teams from WXV2 & 3 have already made their way to South Africa and Dubai ahead of the action next weekend. In my column for the Herald this week I asked, “If a game changing tournament happens and no one is around to cover it, will it’s impact be as profound? “
I’m going to do my best to answer that one for you and bring you stories from players and wrap ups of the action over the next coming weeks. First up you’ll hear from about golden boot, Cassie Siataga. As always, I’m more interested in her wider story than solely her achievements on the pitch. So you’ll get her story in her words early next week.
In the meantime though, we do get a little sneak peek of a couple of the WXV2 teams this weekend with South Africa playing Manusina. How do I know about this? My RMN (Rugby Mum’s Network) of course. Manusina Prop, Angel Schwencke’s proud Muma Ete, letting us know there’s a youtube stream of this match to get stuck into.
I love rugby mums forever.
For those of us mad enough, we can wake up at 1.45am Sunday to watch live on the Springbok’s youtube. Or no doubt it’ll still be up there in the morning, if you’d rather indulge over your breakfast coffee.
While there have been a number of warm up matches played in the last month, this is one of the few which will be replayed in the WXV. These two teams will be facing off again in week three, the final round of the competition.
This match to me also feels symbolic of the promise of this competition. South Africa and Samoa have lengthy and illustrious men’s rugby histories. Whereas for their women, it’s been a lot more fraught.
If we trust the figures on Wikipedia (I am going to cause chances are it’s someone like the legendary John Birch chipping away at it), up until May this year Samoa has only played 38 matches in it’s recorded history. These numbers were boosted by appearances at three World Cups, the last in 2014.
In between though, it’s been incredibly tough for the country to secure matches. Fiji’s participation in Australia’s Super W has opened up the doors to more regular matches between the Wallaroos and Fijiana but Samoa has had no such luck. Despite this lack of playing time, they are currently ranked 16th in the world.
South Africa’s Wikipedia page reckons they’ve played 62 matches. The have also got more cracks at established opposition. They’ve played Canada, England, France, New Zealand, Wales and the United States in nearly half of these matches. They two have featured in three World Cups, most recent being last year.
The part of the South African rugby story that routinely makes me furious is their nation not backing them after they qualified for the Olympics. The assholes in charge said the qualification pathway was “too weak” and crushing the dreams and potential of a whole group of stars.
So this is the promise of this tournament. It’s not really about the action we will see relatively well covered in WXV1, it’s the hope that WXV2 & 3 offers to those nations trying to establish themselves against a tidal wave of fuckery. A large part of which comes from those that should be in their corner.
It’s taken Samoa 23 years to play their 38 tests. With WXV in the calendar it should now only take them another 6 years to double that.
Game on!
With you,
Alice