Day hopeful 2021 will provide a springboard
Former England player and current CFO and COO of the RFU, Sue Day has spoken this week about the year ahead, the challenges facing the RFU and the growth of women's rugby.
Published by Scrum Queens, January 7th, 2021
3 minute read
Speaking to theWomen’s Rugby Pod,hosted by Rachael Burford and Johnnie Hammond, Day (pictured above left) said she remained hopeful that the World Cup would go ahead as it is currently planned, despite the challenges of Covid-19.
“Those events (the Olympics and World Cup) will leave the game in a strong position to take the next leap forward from. I am excited to see the standard of rugby that we will get in the World Cup.
“I know there are a lot of challenges but we know that New Zealand is in a better place than almost every other country in the world when it comes to managing Covid so I would be very hopeful that all of that can go ahead in the way we want to see it go ahead. We saw the last World Cup – if we got more games like the final there that would be a brilliant springboard to jump from that.”
Day said that there were hard questions being asked by all unions and organizing bodies about growing the women’s game and heaped praise on the development of the Allianz Premier 15s league in England.
“What is the right broadcast solution to help grow the game? How do we get as many people as we can watching it and aware of it. How do we get in the ear of the right sponsors? Those are the questions we are all asking ourselves.”
“As a former player watching the standard of the Premier 15s is just a joy. The level of coaching, the level of advice and professionalism that the league brings is brilliant. The excitement of the players and the rugby you see is so much fun to watch. As a former player I am also excited to see what this current crop of Red Roses can do. There is such talent and strength in there. They can get better of course but it is exciting to see all of that.”
Day’s job requires her to lead the RFU through the most challenging period of its history and on that issue she said:
On the challenges facing the RFU she added “It’s been hugely challenging at the RFU. We are trying to help rugby navigate through a set of circumstances that have never happened before. From a financial perspective we will lost 60 and 70% of our revenues this year, and those go back int sustaining rugby in this country. We are doing our very best to help rugby get through it.”