Australia increase focus on women’s game

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Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos outlined plans for the women's game when announcing Wallaroos coach Jay Tregonning had re-signed with the side.

Australia was beaten by England in last year's Rugby World Cup quarterfinals in Auckland, having earlier lost to eventual winners New Zealand in the opening game.

Both New Zealand and England were better funded, and by showing their competitiveness, Australia has looked to professionalise its women's game.

Marinos said the plan to achieve that would be released soon.

"It's very much in our focus. We're going to make some announcements later on in the week around what that looks like. But we are fully committed to continual investment and building that Wallaroos programme.

"We're looking to build into 2025 and 2029.

"The need was identified into the World Cup and we've seen the success of a systematic and organic investment into the women's Sevens' programme and the benefits," he said.

It was a priority of the board of Rugby Australia to keep abreast of the investment other nations were making in their women's programmes.

"We've got that many talented athletes in Australia, and we want to keep promoting the game to attract as many of those girls into rugby."

That would include growing the women's domestic competition among the five Australian franchises and Fijian Drua.

When the future of Super Rugby Pacific was confirmed last year, there was also mention of a potential Super W/Super Rugby Aupiki crossover competition.

Rugby Australia wanted to have a women's competition by next year.

"We're working closely with World Rugby as part of an overall strategic view of the women's programme and how we can invest additional money into competition structures which will be part of the high-performance piece from World Cup Rugby.

"As all those pieces come together, we'll be solidifying those plans around where Super W goes."

Providing a home competition instead of having players head overseas for more competition would strengthen Australia.

"A strong competitive Super W programme makes a stronger Wallaroos, and that's something we look forward to seeing in the future," he said.

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