IRELAND WOMEN HEAD coach Greg McWilliams has denied that the IRFU is a sexist organisation and stressed that the union has made serious investment into the women’s game in recent times.
A report published by the UK Telegraph claimed to have uncovered “an alarming amount of sexism” towards the Ireland Women team.
The report cited Irish players not being given protein supplements during the off-season before last year’s tour of Japan, a lack of consultation with players over the decision to change the colour of Ireland’s short from white to navy due to period concerns, and some players being omitted from squad selection emails when they were dropped.
The article also pointed out that Irish players were not offered ‘hybrid contracts’ when the IRFU recently brought in contracting for its 15s players, with full-time contracts offered instead.
The Telegraph report also claimed that an unnamed “prominent figure in Irish rugby” asked, “Who gives a f**k about women’s rugby?” during a recent speech by IRFU president, John Robinson, when he highlighted the progress in women’s rugby.
Ireland head coach McWilliams, who this afternoon named his team to face Italy in the Six Nations on Saturday, said the article is “nearly irrelevant” in light of the improvements he has seen behind the scenes since being appointed in December 2021 following Ireland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.
A month before McWilliams’ appointment, a group of 62 former and current Irish women’s rugby players wrote to the government to express their loss of faith in the IRFU’s “untrustworthy leadership” of women’s rugby. McWilliams believes progress has been made since then.
“I read the article,” said McWilliams of The Telegraph’s report. “I think it would be wrong of me to not read the article. Lots of it is historic, it’s the same things you could have talked about last year.
“When I met [IRFU performance director] David Nucifora in 2021, he outlined a plan and everything that we talked about, we’re on track and that’s all we can focus on.
“I was the only full-time staff member on the 1st of December. We now have seven full-time staff members and eight contractors who come into us for competition week. We’ve eight new employments in our pathways and centres of excellence so there’s been a massive growth in that time.
“To be honest with you, talking about things historically, things we can’t control… we can’t control external noise, we can control what we can do and it’s a good lesson, a really good lesson for these young players, not just in rugby but in life, that if you trust in the process of what you are doing and you’ve got good people around you… I’ve been really impressed with their resilience and I’ve been impressed with their ability to rise to the challenge of playing Italy.”
McWilliams cited the strong performances of the Ireland Women’s U18s side as a sign that good things are happening. He believes that the game is moving in the right direction.
“Yeah, it’s an interesting article but again, it’s nearly irrelevant at this stage. We’re moving forward and we’ve a great plan, we’ve got good resources around it.”
Asked specifically about the alleged comment made by a ‘prominent figure in Irish rugby,’ McWilliams said it doesn’t have any great concern.
“I don’t and that’s not me being flippant, that’s me being true to myself because I can’t affect what anybody writes,” said McWilliams.
“Somebody wants to write what they are doing 48 hours before kick-off of probably this team’s most important fixture, I can’t change that.
“I can’t change what people do and as long as we have a plan we believe in and as long as I’m a coach who is true to myself and stays on top of what I need to do. Every day I look back at what I do, there are things I want to do differently, that’s all I can control. I can’t control any of that external noise.
“We’re seeing people that support Irish rugby becoming prominent and people who write what they want to write about 2017 [when Ireland struggled in their home World Cup] or 2021, let them do it because it’s got nothing to do with what I’m doing.”
McWilliams was asked if he thinks the IRFU is sexist.
“No, of course not,” he replied.
“Again, I met up with David Nucifora in 2021 and he outlined what his plan was. I outlined the way I felt it needed to go and, if you look at the staff that we have around us, I was able to have an influence on getting the right people around this group.
“Brilliant professionals who care about turning Irish rugby into something that’s going to be special.”
As for some of the other specifics of the Telegraph’s report, McWilliams said Ireland needed to learn if players had not had access to protein before the tour of Japan.
“We now have a full-time nutritionist in Emma Brennan who is brilliant,” said McWilliams. “We didn’t have one before.
“In every environment, whether it’s female rugby club, male rugby club, a golf team… bringing up an article about somebody not getting protein… I just think that if that’s something that I did wrong, I’m not aware of it and I’ll own that, but again, we’re always trying to evolve and get better. So, I need to be better and be on top of things like that.”
McWilliams was asked if he is concerned that players have seemingly been speaking to the media about things like access to protein and the colour of the team’s shorts being changed.
“Not really, that player could be someone who is 19 years of age, who has never been a professional or been in this environment before or in the spotlight,” said McWilliams.
“They’ll learn the ways of being a professional athlete, where it’s really important.
“We always talk about that we’re entitled to nothing and grateful for everything.
“If you have that as part of your DNA, you’re going to go places. We’ll make mistakes along the way, our job is to make sure we get better at. It’s not a concern, but it’s something you don’t want to see often. Otherwise, it is an issue.”
