Those who understand statistics can see a time when New Zealand will have as many female rugby players as it does male.
The numbers are trending that way with participation growing from about 7,000 registered female players in 2010 to almost 30,000 in 2019.
The women's game is also finding a place in the financial machinery of professional rugby.
If we compare where the female game was a decade ago, the growth is spectacular.
The Black Ferns won their fourth consecutive World Cup in 2010. Like their previous triumphs, it was achieved with the bare minimum of funding and virtually no media or broadcast recognition.
New Zealand's top female players earned nothing back then, test fixtures were sporadic and rarely televised, and the provincial game had little stability.
Women were the gender professional rugby's male-dominated administration and executive didn't even know was there.
The catalyst for change was sevens becoming part of the 2016 Olympics. That forced a financial equalisation as NZR made it a stated aim to win two gold medals at Rio and therefore had to provide male and female teams with the same funding to achieve the goal.
Now, the best female sevens players are paid in line with the best males and while the Black Ferns XV-a-side team haven't enjoyed such an accelerated drive to equality, there are 30 players who have contracts which pay between $20,000 to $45,000 a year.
But while things have progressed women's rugby finds itself trapped in a netherworld where it is neither fully professional nor entirely amateur and while stuck here, it is a significant cost on the balance sheet where money out exceeds money in.
It can't stay in this netherworld - NZR will go bust if it does and the national body knows that women's rugby needs to find a means to become financially self-sustaining.
And it knows that the way to do it, is to give the Black Ferns regular tests as part of a meaningful, annual competition and to also create a semi-professional, provincial competition.
Plans were in place to do both this year, but the impact of Covid-19 has created uncertainty about the way forward.
But, arguably the detail is not as important, as the confirmation from NZR chief executive Mark Robinson that the national body is committed to making further investment.
NZR's finances have taken a massive hit, but he sees further investment in women's rugby as a leap of faith – confident that if the competitions are created, they will win the broadcast and sponsorship investment they need.
"We have taken the view that we have got to invest," he says. "It is too important to the country. And then we are hoping that we will build the competitions and the heroes that will attract real interest and backing."
The economics of women's rugby currently look like this: NZR budgeted to pay a total of $9.1m in Black Ferns Sevens and XVs retainer contracts and assembly fees across 2019 and 2020.
Broadcast rights to the Black Ferns are sold collectively with the other NZR competitions and the other two main income drivers, sponsorship and ticket revenue, are mostly wrapped up in deals linked to the All Blacks.
The only direct cash deals the Black Ferns have are with Molenberg and Downer, which are thought to be worth between $250,000 to $500,000 a year.
The plan this year, before Covid-19 hit, was for the Black Ferns to play seven home matches, three of which would have been double-headers (with the All Blacks), and four stand-alone tests at venues to be announced. NZR would be happy to break even hosting those seven tests.
NZR chief commercial officer Richard Thomas makes the point that the balance sheet doesn't accurately reflect the value of women's rugby as the Black Ferns are a critical component in the wider sponsorship deals struck with the likes of Adidas and AIG.
But, that said, the longer-term goal is to win more direct investment in women's rugby, and change its presence on the balance sheet from loss to profit.
And in this regard there is reason to be optimistic that money will pour in as almost 600,000 people watched the Black Ferns' test against Australia at Eden Park in 2018.
Jeff Latch, who heads Spark Sport which owns the rights to the 2021 World Cup, says: "I think it [women's rugby] is a huge opportunity and one of the reasons we pushed to have the 2021 World Cup included in the tranche of rights bundled with the 2019 World Cup rights was the enormous potential.
"It's not just revenue, we think it will bring people to our platform and gives us mana and real brand value."
Sky Sport chief executive Martin Stewart makes it clear that women's rugby, women's sport, is a non-negotiable, critical component of the Sky Sport content offering.
"I think that women's sport needs to be equal to men's sport. We will continue to support women's rugby and all women's sport. That is something I passionately believe in. It is simply the right thing to do and it is exciting.
"I was at the [English] Football Association four and a half years ago when we tried to figure out what it was we needed to do to keep developing football. It involved investment so it [women's rugby] may be a cost at the moment, but you have to build.
"What we have seen with all women in all sports is if they are given investment, time to train to develop their fitness, their skills and organisation then they are capable of producing high quality entertainment and competition just as much as men are.
"We talked through with NZR last year how we would support standing up a women's league. We need to address that in the Covid situation. We will still be there. At the moment it is a cost, but you just have to keep going."
And there is confidence, too, that if there is regular, higher profile rugby for women, sponsors will be drawn to it.
The Black Ferns – both XV and Sevens – have a phenomenal success record and are loaded with marketable athletes such as Sarah Hirini, Portia Woodman and Tyla Nathan-Wong.
Having a provincial competition and regular Black Ferns tests will provide an aspirational pathway for the thousands of young girls taking up rugby each year and it's this link that corporations will be attracted to.
"The Black Ferns [Sevens and XVs] are probably the most successful sports team in New Zealand when you look at it," Tim Deane, managing director of Goodman Fielder NZ, told the Herald when asked why Molenberg had committed as a sponsor.
"I think they speak to some quintessential Kiwi values and for us it is quite exciting to be part of positive social change. We have taken a calculated risk that this is going to be good business for us as we had a good look at who is following women's rugby and suspect that other businesses underestimated the number of Kiwis who are interested in women's rugby."
It's not easy to put a dollar value on what women's rugby could become worth, but NZR is confident that, worst case, the estimated $9m deficit it incurs at the moment running its women's elite programme will significantly shrink over time.
'It was scary. We were young … we didn't know how to handle it and it's changed us.'