A £3 million grant funded by Royal London will attempt to provide more balance among the Home Nations, ensuring the women's British and Irish Lions tour is not dominated by England players.
England have won the last five Six Nations titles and are heavily favoured to win a sixth on the bounce this year.
They have beaten the other Home Nations in every single one of the last 28 games played against them, and have racked up 46 points against each of Wales and Scotland in this year's Championship with their opposition only amassing a combined 10 in response.
With the tour now only three and a half years away the grant provided by the founding sponsor is planned to level the playing field to avoid England providing the overwhelming majority – if not the entirety – of the squad heading to New Zealand.
“Our aim as the Founding Partner of the Women's Lions Team is to play an integral part in levelling the playing field for women's rugby,” Susie Logan, group chief marketing officer at Royal London, said.
“It's been incredibly important to us that all unions are actively involved and empowered to develop their own plans ensuring optimal use of the funding across each nation. We're looking forward to continuing our work in partnership with the unions to ensure it makes a difference for this and future generations.”
Despite the name ‘Levelling the Playing Field' and fact England are already the richest women's rugby nation, the RFU will still receive some money which it plans to use on ‘Player Development Groups', boosting the overall player experience journey and increasing the targeted skill development of players coming through the pathway.
The Irish Rugby Football Union has elected to use the funds to host additional women's U18 and U20 camps and training matches to accelerate player development, and will also work with universities to identify future talent and unearth potential high-performance players.
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) will strengthen its women's pathway coaching staff with five new members including a set-piece coach and a specialist skills coach. The WRU will also invest in talent identification programmes and initiatives to engage Welsh qualified talent based outside of Wales, much like their “Welsh Exiles” scheme for boys.
Scottish Rugby will recruit two Performance Pipeline coaches and host residential camps for a national academy which brings together the best pipeline players in Scotland.
Ben Calveley, CEO of the British & Irish Lions, added: “Supporting the growth of the women's game is a key strategic priority for The British & Irish Lions as it is for each of our constituent Unions.
“The grant represents a significant investment into the women's game in the four Unions and will make a positive impact on women's rugby.”
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