Ireland’s trip to Japan for two Test matches this month will strongly influence which players get the first of the paid contracts available to women from the IRFU.
Ireland face Japan in Ecopa Stadium in Fukuroi City, Shizuoka on Saturday and again on August 27th, at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo.
The IRFU will offer 43 centralised contracts for the coming season and have appointed Gillian McDarby as head of women’s performance and pathways.
The contracts, which include agreements already in place for members of the women’s Sevens programme, have been benchmarked internationally and will be worth up to €30,000, plus match fees and bonuses.
However, it has not yet been decided what players on the tour to Japan will be offered contracts.
“It’s a brilliant opportunity for them to step up and take their place in the squad. I certainly didn’t think it [contracts] would come this quickly. I know they don’t know who is going getting them,” says former Irish captain Fiona Coghlan at the launch of the Canterbury Ireland Men and Women’s Rugby Jersey ahead of the tour.
“Obviously, there are a lot of different types of contract. Those girls who are working, those girls at college and those girls who can go pro.”
“I think the model they take is going to be interesting. Are the players going to be allowed to go and play in the Premiership or will they put more emphasis on the interpros or use the club game. For these girls it’s a huge thing to be a professional, to train every day and get that recovery, which has always been the key.”
Ireland were unable to qualify for this year’s World Cup to be staged in New Zealand and have significant rebuilding to do. For some in Japan, it will be their first experience of senior rugby.
Coach Greg McWilliams has eight uncapped players in the group including a number who are Irish qualified (IQ). Kayla Waldron has joined the IRFU High Performance from the Australian arm of IQ Rugby with Exeter Chiefs’ Clara Nielson, Worcester Warriors’ Jo Brown, and Taryn Schutzler of Saracens also involved.
“It’s a very young squad. You are wondering how those girls are going to step up. A lot of them wouldn’t have played any senior rugby,” says Coghlan. “He has gone with a lot of youth to bring them forward into the next World Cup campaign.”
Coghlan, who won the Six Nations Champion Grand Slam with Ireland in 2013, sees the professionalisation of the women’s game in Ireland every bit as much a watershed moment as in 1995, when men’s rugby turned professional after 100 years as an amateur sport.
Ireland made their debut in the Women’s Six Nations Championship, then known as the Women’s Home Nations Championship, the following year in 1996.
“Yeah, I think it is [a watershed]. As far as a I know when the men went pro back in 1995 there was only one or two contracts in each province,” says Coghlan.
“This is even more substantial in that there is going to be 43 contracts and they are centralised so the IRFU will have full say over them. I think the pathway piece is way more important because we have to get the numbers up.
“The AIL isn’t at the standard and that’s why we are losing players over to the Premiership. Contracts are huge but then feeding those contracts with players of a standard, that’s really important.”
The Ireland match day squad to face Japan in Saturday’s first Test in Shizuoka will be named on Thursday morning.
