England coach John Mitchell believes smaller rugby balls could be a valuable recruitment tool for the women’s game.
World Rugby, the sport’s global governing body, is to analyze data collected from a trial at the recent Six Nations Under-18s Women’s Festival, as well as from the training sessions of three Celtic Challenge teams.
There has long been a debate about whether a smaller and lighter ball would benefit the women’s game.
Photo: AFP
The current size-5 ball is the same as that used in men’s rugby, with the trial testing a size-4.5 ball, which is about 3 percent smaller and 4 percent lighter.
“We use the big ball and we’re quite happy with that,” Mitchell said on Wednesday. “When the smaller ball arrives, we’ll deal with that, but if I put my development hat on, these young girls have been exposed to a big ball their whole life.”
The New Zealander, a former head coach of the All Blacks, added: “If you’ve got younger girls wanting to come into the game and you have smaller communities that don’t have the ability to play 15s, but could do a lot more in school yards with smaller balls, if that gives them confidence to play the game, then I’m all for it.”
“We haven’t had many issues so far with a size-5, but we’ll go ahead and see what the 4.5 ball will do,” England’s Zoe Aldcroft said.
Elsewhere, the first women’s professional rugby league in the US is targeting next year for its start with six to eight teams, organizers said.
Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) said in a news release its plans call for private investors to provide funding for salaries and fulltime front office staff.
Locations for teams have not been determined.
“The mission of the WER is to be the defining standard of rugby in the United States,” WER president Jessica Hammond-Graf said.
Additional reporting by AP
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