Snakes and Ladders

How do we ensure our women can climb to the top?

Yes, I saw the announcement. The new look Black Ferns coaching team has been locked in and it’s another group of men that have been assembled to take our women forward. I understand the frustration this appointment have caused but if I’m honest, I feel it’s being directed in the wrong place. Getting riled up about not having a woman as an assistant is getting mad at the symptom, not the cause.

I’ve written about this before, when speculations were swirling about the appointment of the new Black Ferns head coach. At that time, I said “It pains me to have not included a woman in the prospective picks but we are yet to afford one the opportunities given to Clarke and Bunting.”

Those years of missing development and underinvestment in our wāhine coaches haven’t suddenly disappeared since I wrote that two months ago. The will to close the opportunity gap hasn’t appeared from New Zealand Rugby yet either. Not if their 10 year plan to see an increase of women from 9.3% to 20% of those in the coaching pathway is the extent of their ambition.

We have always had the talent to lead ourselves. This is why when were were left to our own devices we had a woman, Victoria Dombroski, be our head coach back in 1994-1995 (with a 100% win record I might add). This was during a period where we were more or less administrating ourselves and had put in place the ladder for our prospective coaches to climb their way to the top.

What has changed since then isn’t the talent on offer but the opportunities and who it is the system has given them to. The coaching ladder for women now is slippery and missing several rungs.

Each of the men who have been named in this new coaching team have been supported to grow within the game. They have had opportunities in both men’s and women’s rugby in order to build themselves into a position to take on these roles. Whereas our women by contrast have been held back by a lack of doors being held open.

It’s a lopsided landscape that Allan Bunting was surveying to assemble his team. It is true, three out of the four Aupiki franchises now have a woman as head coach. Would Bunting have been correct to pull them from their positions of leadership to bolster his own? Personally, I believe that’s the type of short term thinking that has led us to the position we are now in.

I support the move to leave these women to develop their skills as head coaches. Their roles need to be full time though. If we invested in them we would see their game come along leaps and bounds and in turn lift the standards of the players in their regions. If we do this, if we invest, forget assistants one of these coaches will be the next director of the Black Ferns.

The pool that Bunting should have been fishing in for his assistants, the Farah Palmer Cup, is currently all too shallow. Only two championship teams had a women in charge last year. Across the 13 provinces, only 7 more had women in their wider coaching crew. Four provinces had no women coaching at all.

So why aren’t women ascending in this space? The answer is part cultural and part structural.

Culturally, too often we still see experience and achievement in men’s rugby afforded greater weight than that in the women’s game. Our selections, place a very heavy emphasis on technical and tactical skillset which is really the remit of assistants to deliver. Our women are up against men who are known to the system and who are fluent in it’s language. It’s no wonder they opt for the safety and familiarity these men offer when it comes down to the question of trust.

Structurally, the issues for women start at square one. I have heard countless stories of women stalling in pursuit of their level 2 qualifications as the union hasn’t sent their person out to sign them off. These women are generally coaching other women, so they are fighting against the institutions favourite sons for this box ticking exercise.

It doesn’t get any easier at level 3, the certification required should you want to pursue high performance coaching. In order to get your place on a level 3 course, you need a union nomination. There is usually a waitlist and a preferential treatment as to who gets to jump this queue.

The work of Vania Wolfgramm and her Ako Wāhine programme offers the best opportunity for NZR to cut through. They recently offered a level 3 course direct to women coaches they have identified for development. More of this please. I would also encourage each union to follow their lead if rugby is to be serious about closing the gap. Forget running courses on how to coach women and instead target women coaches.

To motivate this action, I want to see a target. I want that target to be ambitious.

So what is it? No less than 100%. I want to see 100% of women in head coaching roles in the Farah Palmer Cup by 2025. That’s right by the next World Cup. Looking at last year, two of the 13 provinces are already there. Seven more could simply promote from within. Four would need to engage in active recruitment. That means I’m giving NZR two seasons to find four more coaches, should be simple enough.

If we do this, if we start trying to fix the ladder and in the meantime help bridge the gaps, our talent will have no trouble climbing to the top.

With you,

Alice