Welcome to the top women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Jan 10-16. New Zealand has upgraded their player contracts, moving them to “as close to full time employment” as possible and Wales awarded their first ever player contracts. Huge huge steps forward for both of these programs.

In more XVs news, Spain announced warm up matches last week against Italy and Colombia but unfortunately Italy has pulled out due to COVID travel restrictions. Canada has formed an Ethics & Integrity Committee who is tasked with “providing a multi-faceted ethical lens to assist Rugby Canada with the development of national policies and practices.”

In 7s news, New Zealand and Fiji have dropped out of the first leg of Spain 7s due to COVID. The Black Ferns have been replaced by Belgium while Fiji’s late drop means that their opponents will be receive a win with a 0-0 score. We’ll have to see what that does to the competition if anything and if those teams can travel for the second leg.

We close out the week with 7 features and 14 media.

Read everything at https://scrumhalfconnection.com/2022/01/21/womens-rugby-in-60-secs-jan-10-16/ and become a supporter of our site at https://www.patreon.com/yscrugby.

tl;dr: Women’s Rugby in 60 secs for Jan 10-16 sees New Zealand award upgraded contracts and Wales awarded their first 12 contracts. New Zealand and Fiji dropped out the first leg of Spain 7s, the Black Ferns were replaced by Belgium while Fiji wasn't replaced.