The prospect of introducing a smaller ball into women's rugby has been backed by stars of the game who say it could improve handling skills.
A size five ball is used across men's and women's rugby but there is a belief in some quarters that women should use a size four due to them largely being smaller than their male counterparts. The idea is being backed by Ireland Six Nations back Eimear Considine, who won her 26th Irish cap during the tournament which ended last weekend, and Red Roses legend turned commentator Danielle 'Nolli' Waterman.
Considine told RTE Sport's podcast : "I actually don't know the reasons why we use a size 5 ball but it’s worth a discussion. My hands aren’t big enough to do a one-handed offload but maybe if there was a smaller ball it might allow for you to be a bit slicker. Naturally, we have smaller hands, that’s just our physiology, it’s nothing to do with not being able to play with a size five ball. It's more our skills might improve if we had a smaller ball. That’s a really interesting argument, the fact that a lot of other sports around the world do use a size four ball."
