RFU director of performance rugby Conor O’Shea has appealed for more countries to professionalise their women’s set-ups.
O’Shea said there was a push to “commercialise the game both internationally and domestically” but he stressed: “We need the other countries to professionalise more.
“You can’t work to the lowest common denominator, but you can’t leave it behind either. We might be ahead [in England] but that’s not good enough and we need to bring them along with us.”
He added that plans for the evolution of the women’s Premier 15s competition would be revealed in the new year.
Any changes to the league structure or bidding process for franchises were currently “in discussions”, says O’Shea.
“We need to commercialise to make the game sustainable in its own right and there’s loads of different working groups on that, with the clubs, to see how we can make this really function,” he said.
This season sees the league return to the regular laws of Rugby Union now the 2020-21 Covid-19 adaptations have ended.
How the league structure could evolve was previously discussed by RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney in April, with the possibility of more clubs and conferences.
But any suggestion that the RFU could sell the league in the near future was dismissed by O’Shea.
Recent moves by several men’s Premiership clubs including London Irish, Leicester Tigers and Bath to launch women’s sides is seen positively by the RFU.
“It’s really good the Premiership clubs are investing in the women’s game; we should be applauding that,” said O’Shea.
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