The IRFU offered 37 professional contracts to Ireland Women’s Sevens and 15s players, 29 of which were taken up. The union’s performance director David Nucifora confirmed the figures as part of a wide-ranging media briefing that encompassed disparate aspects of elite-level rugby in Ireland for both the men’s and women’s games.
He announced that there would be a new cross-border women’s Celtic Cup tournament involving teams from Scotland and Wales and confirmed an undertaking for four regional High Performance Centres for the Women’s National Talent squads (NTS) that would assist in the development of the best young players from 16 to 23 years of age.
Former Connacht coach, the New Zealander John McKee (2002-2005), who coached Tonga (2010-2012) and Fiji (2014-2020) at Rugby World Cups, has agreed a three-year contract to work with Ireland Women’s head coach Greg McWilliams and have a significant input into the development of the sport within Ireland.
Nucifora provided some detail around the professional contracts in the women’s game which range from €15,000 to €30,000, the top-end the preserve of those that plays Sevens and 15s for Ireland, with the potential to earn as he guesstimated “up to €45,000″ when match fees, tournament fees and win bonuses were factored into the equation.
He explained the salaries for players contracted to English Premiership clubs ranged from £3,000 (€3,465) to £10,000 (€11,552) per season. English clubs have a salary cap of £120,000 (€138,797). Nucifora said: “We have offered 37 contracts to date. We have had an uptake of 29 of those. We have had eight players turn down contacts, four of those are UK-based players and four based here.
“The four UK-based players are contracted to their [respective clubs] for the amounts of money I mentioned earlier [between £3,000-£10,000 annually].” He added that the four Irish-based players who turned down the union’s contract offer “have got jobs [outside rugby and that] they are committed to their careers which is understandable.
“We fully understand that you have financial obligations that don’t permit you to be able to take up those contracts. We could have just not offered contracts to the ones that we thought wouldn’t take it up, but we have given people a choice, an option.
“When you look at the facts behind it is no surprise to us that those earning significant amounts or have careers have a choice not to train full-time in a professional scenario but what they do have is a model that will cater for them to keep playing the game at the highest level.
“They will be able to play for the clubs either in England or in Ireland and they will be able to train with a programme that suits their lifestyle at that point in time. That was always our intention to come up with a model that works like that.”
A women’s Celtic Cup will take place in January and February (2023) with one team from each country. In year two of the tournament that is to increase to two teams per country and somewhere in a three-to-five-year time frame will grow to four Irish participants. The inaugural Women’s XVs, a global tournament, will take place next year in September and October.
The Women’s AIL will provide an outlet for the best up and coming talent. Nucifora said: “The Celtic Cup will lead into a Women’s Six Nations. The Women’s AIL’s role will be to house those developing players coming through and give them competition.
“I can’t see the Women’s AIL being what the [Women’s] English Premiership is, that’s not our model, that is not going to work here. We have to do it differently. There is no quick fix other than giving it time, effort and structure that will build it.
“With regards to club competition here, there is a lot of work being done looking at how we try to raise the standard there but that’s not going to happen overnight. That’s going to take time. The work that will go into creating a pipeline in the Women’s NTS when that gets up and running, will benefit and feed the system of women’s rugby in Ireland.
“We also have to keep in mind that World Rugby dictates our competition structure. When the Women’s XVs competition starts next year it will fall in the window when the Women’s AIL [currently] runs. You are going to have the best players not available during that period.
“So therefore the season looking forward internationally is that you will have Women’s XV sitting there in September and October, you’ll have a Celtic Cup, and whether there is an interprovincial competition somewhere, we have to make sure that game gets taken out of participation and into the performance [bracket]. Then it will start to serve a purpose to raise the standard.”
