“The revolu t ion i s delayed. But i t must come soon”
JUST WHEN we needed calm and vision, we got Covid-19 and confusion. This should have been a period when those in charge of women’s elite rugby were laying down an alluring future in tablets of stone. Instead, there is sheer frustration.
One of the keys would have been the future shape of the Six Nations, which has been struggling in key areas for some time and which really now should be looking to divorce from the men’s tournament and boost its own separate future.
The great Danielle Waterman, now retired from rugby in favour of her burgeoning broadcasting career and coaching, believes there are some major issues to fix. In passing, it is preposterous that neither Waterman nor any of the great players have yet been asked to sit on a formal forward-planning committee.
“We have to be consistent; we have to work out what does work and what does not work,” says Waterman. “What do we want the Six Nations to be and do we really want to be competing in the same space as the men?”
How true. But in any case, we are not even at that stage of the debate on this or any other issue in women’s international rugby, let alone concluding anything.
We can and must blame Covid-19, of course, but in some ways the virus is a smokescreen. The pace and lack of vision of the old Six Nations committee was
