Johnny Watterson: IRFU's standing tarnished as players take the nuclear option

The IRFU must be wondering today how it all came to this, the union’s woes spread-eagled across the pages of every newspaper and website. If they didn’t see it coming it suggests they were not carefully looking and listening.

Either way, the letter sent to Minister for Sport Catherine Martin and Minister of State for sport Jack Chambers by a group of 62 current and former international women rugby players is the most damaging to the IRFU reputation than anything that has come before.

By their confrontational rejection of the letter, the IRFU are ablaze, rejecting the “overall tenor of the document” and calling the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup a “hugely disappointing failure”.

Expressing such outright criticism of the governing body, charging it with having “inequitable and untrustworthy leadership” and in the process characterizing it as male, pale and stale in its efforts in dealing with the modern women’s game in Ireland, the resulting image may be difficult for the IRFU to shake off.

Six-day turnaround a major fresh challenge for buoyant Munster

---

Owen Doyle: Wayne Barnes rides his luck as Ulster register a famous victory

---

Leinster postpone Monday training as they await Covid-19 test results

---

‘We fear Ireland will be left further behind’ - 62 players’ letter to Government, in full

---

Even as those allegations are firmly rejected by the IRFU, its standing is already tarnished

At the heart of the players’ grievances, the letter explains, is a union that has been unable to understand the needs of the women’s game in terms of keeping it relevant and competitive at the elite end, or if it does, has been cynically disinterested in doing anything comprehensive about it.

Even as those allegations are firmly rejected by the IRFU, its standing is already tarnished.

In tone the letter expresses a deep sense of disillusionment and weariness in the women’s teams, which has existed for years and has had a wearing effect on players. It alleges a litany of unkept promises to the elite athletes, who were seven years ago ranked 4th in the world and the year before had won a Grand Slam.

The current Irish women’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 and are ranked 7th in the world.

The letter is explicit in timbre and explains how “all trust and confidence” in the union has been lost and how the Irish players have become “deeply discouraged,” indicating at best that there has been a complete breakdown in communications between the two bodies.

Now, the players have gone over the heads of the IRFU, which is the nuclear option and indicative that the group felt no change was happening or about to happen from that quarter.

The phrase they use “multiple cycles of substandard commitment from the union” is, given that players currently in the Irish system are signatories to the letter, nothing less than a devastating criticism.

The letter specifically identifies IRFU-appointed David Nucifora and Anthony Eddy as overseeing the women’s programme. Eddy, director of women’s rugby, recently drew criticism following a media briefing he gave after the World Cup qualification failure.

Rush hour

He arrived with Nucifora in 2014 and during that period the team finished 8th in a World Cup staged in Ireland and missed a number of other set targets.

However, issues first came to light in 2012, when the team endured a 17-hour odyssey to Pau for a Saturday Six Nations match against France.

On the Friday the team flew to Paris only to miss the connection for the 800km TGV trip to Pau after being stranded in rush hour traffic. It meant an overnight train was boarded, with six players forced to share each berth. They caught three hours sleep in their hotel, on arrival in Pau at 7am, ahead of a 3.30pm kick-off.

It is more important than money.

There was a highly visible controversy around poor changing facilities at Energia Park before interprovincial games in September, although, that was specifically a Leinster oversight. Again, it was women’s teams involved.

More anger flared up in 2019 when the IRFU advertised the Ireland Women head coach’s job as a part-time role. More recently the union was criticised for prioritising sevens rugby when three players were sent to play the shorter version of the game during the Six Nations campaign.

If anything, the letter discloses that it is not just an issue of the IRFU throwing money into the pot. Compared to other Celtic nations in the Women’s Six Nations championship, Ireland is well funded, while England run a fully professional programme.

It is more important than money. The grievances are about respect and attitude, personal and collective esteem and consideration. It is about faith and assurance.

It is about the union’s opacity when it comes to the reviews they are currently conducting into the failure to qualify for the World Cup, and the implementation of the current Women in Rugby Action Plan which was due to run until 2023 and covers all aspects of the game across Ireland.

The union says,”the responsible approach would be to allow these reviews progress and conclude their work independently”.

Incredibly, the players explain they do not “feel fully confident that the information submitted has been factual and designed to act in the best interest of the women’s game”.

That’s apocalyptic stuff. For those reasons the contents, from an IRFU perspective, are infinitely more toxic than money.