Rugby: 'Totally unfair' - Black Ferns star Michaela Blyde slams lack of TV coverage of women's rugby

Michaela Blyde. Photo / Photosport

World Rugby's women's sevens player of the year Michaela Blyde is lamenting the lack of television coverage for the World Series.

The Black Ferns started their second tournament of the HSBC Sevens Series in Dubai last night, but it will not be televised in full in New Zealand.

The first day of the two-day tournament will be broadcast on the World Rugby Sevens Facebook page and the finals will be broadcast on Sky Sport 1.

Blyde says she and her teammates love performing for their families and their country, but when their games were not televised as they deserved to be, it could be hard for people in New Zealand to support them.

"We definitely do encourage a lot of people to support us, obviously it's so much more difficult when we never play back at home in New Zealand, and not very often we are actually on TV, unlike the men who are always on TV, which is totally unfair," Blyde said.

"We really try and push our family and friends to make an effort to watch us. We like performing for our families and we enjoy performing for our country so we really want to get all the support that we can and hopefully more people can watch us live."

She said the Black Ferns deserved full TV coverage of their matches and the only way she believed to push for it was to keep proving that women's rugby had so much to offer.

"I guess the more we perform the more we show that we are the best in the world and the more that we want to express our feelings on social media to get people to understand that we really do want our family and friends to watch back home. Hopefully we can get more respect and get that TV coverage.

"I think for us it's to keep performing, keep doing what we're doing and keep showing, not just our home but the world, that women's rugby is extremely entertaining and so we need so much more support when it comes to that TV coverage."

She said some countries were blocked by official website links, which meant some people struggled to watch and support them. She believed that if they were a New Zealand men's team they would be televised.

In a statement, Sky TV confirmed it would take a 2.5 hour broadcast package of the Dubai Series from 1.05am tomorrow on SKY Sport 1 (SKY channel 051).

This would include 30 minutes of highlights, followed by live coverage of the final four matches on day two, including the fifth place playoff, the challenge trophy, the bronze medal match and the final.