Clashes

Beyond the major headline this week...

Apparently I make memes now. Please appreciate that I also wrote the surrounding stories.

I actually checked the All Blacks schedule a couple of weeks back. I did this because I thought it was odd that despite these sell out audiences, I hadn’t seen any current All Blacks in the crowds. I had been bracing for the onslaught of content featuring current stars of the men’s game, saying how “women’s rugby is quite good actually”.

There’s been basically nothing and it’s weird.

This divorce that exists between the men’s and the women’s game for the most part suits me as a fan. I’m not really interested in men’s rugby any more so I appreciate not having it pushed on me. I had more than my fill in my youth and these days, what with the export of New Zealand coaches around the globe and commodification of the sport, it’s all a bit same-y.

I am aware though that I am one of a smaller number of folk who are all in on the women’s game. And that growing our audiences will mean inviting others to the party. I tend to disagree that the easiest converts are fans of the men’s game. I think NZR fails to understand that market as is, we’ve seen this in the steady decline of its fanbase over time. Given they have had a hard time preaching to the converted, can they really engineer this pivot? And can they do that when a large part of selling the All Blacks up until this point has been trading off touchstones of traditional male identity?

That’s probably a question for another column because the big one this week has been how did New Zealand Rugby drop the ball cold on a sure 7 pointer and schedule both national teams the play at the same time?

I wrote for my regular herald column how scheduling clashes are par for the course for women in the game. You only needed to try and watch the Farah Palmer Cup this season to understand you needed dual screens to keep on top of it. I talked to Morning Report about this and the AM Show. My message was clear, this situation is a symptom of a system that still doesn’t know where women sit. But despite that, there’s a bloody good tournament going on.

Today, I noticed a few sports folk I generally have some good exchanges with lamenting that this issue was taking up so much airtime in the lead up to the quarterfinal. I get it, we all want to see that same fervour applied in the coverage of the game at large. But this is a situation where my sport is crossing over into the mainstream and more importantly, a pattern is becoming public that I for one am pleased that more folk are becoming informed about. People need to understand the carelessness our caretakers of the game offer the women playing it.

New Zealand Rugby were the ones that named this the “Year of Women and Girls in Rugby” after all.

Do not tell me what to care about. I am capable of holding more than one thought in my head, shocking I know. I managed to clip up coverage I recored of the International Defence Rugby Competition, write my regular column, give multiple interviews, defended an old club rival people were cracking into and write and record a preview for this weekend just in the last two days.

I would love to just spend my time writing and talking about the joy that this sport brings me. How much this tournament has validated me right down to something deep that I rarely acknowledge yearns for moments like this. But I would be telling a lie, if I wasn’t honest about the challenges.

You all know I talk too much but that’s because I want to tell you the whole story. I won’t bullshit you, we are where we are. I talk about that so we can get a grip on the edges and pull ourselves up to something better.

So yeah, I’ll stop talking about shit when we stop wearing it.

With you,

Alice

PS. Leti I’iga, Woodman and Tui is the most outrageous back three we have seen.
PPS. This back line/stacked line is basically my preferred set up.
PPPS. I still have worries about our tight five. The forward pack they have named Saturday ain’t it… yet.