It took nearly 30 years of professional men’s rugby to determine that global growth was in their best interests. This was celebrated with the announcement of the alignment of the global calendar late last year, paving the way for the introduction of a men’s version of WXV. Men’s rugby was learning from women’s rugby’s example for the betterment of the game as a whole. Such enlightenment was short-lived though, with the first major rugby announcement of this year setting women up to repeat men’s mistakes.
The two major roadblocks for global alignment in the men’s game were the lockout periods of the World Cup and the British & Irish Lions tours, World Cups being limited in the number of participating nations, making it hard for developing teams to break through. Meanwhile the British & Irish Lions are a colonial throwback, with tours largely limited to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The result of which has been an entrenching of the tier system, whereby established nations have grown their talent, brand and bank accounts while developing nations remain sidelined.
This is why the announcement of the first women’s British & Irish Lions tour hasn’t been met with rapturous applause. The women’s game, still taking its first tentative steps into the professional era, is now walking down a developmental dead end. The complaints that dog the modern-day Lions franchise are unlikely to be resolved by bringing a women’s team into the fold.
Despite only touring every four years, discussion of Lions selections is near-constant in men’s Northern Hemisphere rugby, with the team of the day ultimately comprised of whoever is dominating the Six Nations that year. In the women’s game, that is almost always the Red Roses.