The Women’s NPC is the only national rugby competition for women. Women also have a very limited international programme, with only two tests in non World Cup years. I’ve been hearing rumours for a couple of weeks that the NZRU board has decided to scrap the Womens’ NPC this year because 26 of the 120 ish players will be at the Women’s Rugby World Cup for part of the competition.
If it’s true, and I’m now pretty confident that it is, the decision has either been made late or very poorly communicated. I understand the Black Ferns’ coaches included playing in the early rounds of the WNPC as part of their published build up to the World Cup. The jump from club rugby to internationals (with about a six week break without any matchplay) is just too much.
While the immediate decision is the responsibility of the NZRU Board a fair bit of the blame falls on SPARC’s shoulders. I understand that they have changed their contracting system with the NZRU so that it’s now loose enough for the Union to wriggle out of putting a tiny proportion of their expenditure into a national womens’ competition.
The fact that the Government gives the Rugby Union money has been the subject of criticism. Part of the justification for the funding has been that it contributes to otherwise non viable youth and womens’ activities. If the contracting method change happened in Labour’s time then we have to take some responsibility – but whenever it happened it is a big mistake.
I hope this decision gets revisited. Competitions like the women’s NPC play an important role in the development of new players and identification of new talent. It’s just disgraceful that those opportunities are being taken away.