It is a fairly common situation for any child. One parent says yes and the other says no. The request: could Brooke Harley, a 12-year-old girl from New Zealand, switch from tag rugby to tackle?
“I just love tackle and letting all my anger out,” said Brooke, from the sidelines of a recent game at west Auckland’s Suburbs rugby football club where she is a member. The interest in tackling came after came alive when Brooke watched the Black Ferns win the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup on home turf, whipping the nation into football fever with female athletes at the centre.
Since the Black Fern’s victory, participation in women’s and girls’ community rugby in New Zealand has grown by 20% and almost 30,000 played in the 2023 season, according to New Zealand Rugby. However, the jump in popularity has exposed challenges: female players often lack access to their own change rooms and some girls say they don’t get as much time with the ball when playing on mixed-gender teams.
Concerns around tackle safety are also an issue, and training for women in this area has been lacking.
New Zealand Rugby anticipated the growth in the women’s game, launching a 10-year plan earlier this year to retain players by shifting culture and strategy. The plan includes more women in club leadership positions, increasing the profile of girls and women’s teams and adding more tackle training.
Mike Hester, New Zealand Rugby’s participation development manager, acknowledges many clubs recognise “they’re not set up particularly well for supporting girls and women’s rugby” noting change rooms, field availability and child-friendly environments are among the challenges.
Players at Wairarapa Wahine Toa, an all-women’s rugby club in a rural area of New Zealand’s north island, have experienced those issues. When they travel to an away match, a period product bin goes with them, says Jodie Somerville, the club’s chairperson.
“When we go [to away games] and use men’s changing rooms, they are not female-friendly at all,” says Somerville, adding that the club is using a $30,000 grant to fit out its change rooms for next season. She says men’s change rooms often only have one toilet and numerous urinals. “There’s a lot of waiting so team talks are short,” Sommerville says.
In 2022, New Zealand Rugby released a “best practices” guide for change rooms so that even if a club only has one change room, it can suit the needs of all genders. It includes showers with lockable, private cubicles, rather than the open-space designs traditional to men’s sports.
However, rugby clubs don’t own the buildings they use, making it difficult to respond to player needs, Hester says.
Wahine Toa, which has 30 players and will start a junior team next year, says it is family-friendly – so if a child runs on to the field during training, no one cares, according to player Waireka Collings.
Wahine Toa – which means woman warrior in Māori – also offers babysitting at training and games. Collings, who has five children, says “we have mums who just popped a baby out and are back into the game” a few months later.
Her 12-year-old daughter does the babysitting, along with students from a nearby college. “It alleviates the pressure on mums to juggle everything,” Collings says.
Tackling ‘gives confidence’
Concerns about tackle safety exist across the men’s and women’s game. In New Zealand, junior clubs play touch or tag rugby and tackle rugby becomes an option from age seven onwards. Recently, the safe tackle height in community rugby was reduced to below the sternum.
“We’re seeing probably a stronger assimilation into that tackle height [restriction] in the boy’s and men’s space than we are in the girls’ space,” says Hester. He says tackle training is well established for younger players, but is lacking for older participants – especially women, who might opt for tackle at a later age and haven’t gone through courses offered to younger age groups.
“It’s just reinforcing the work that needs to be done around coach education and player education.”
Darren Brewer, the juniors manager at Suburbs Rugby Football Club, wants to see more girls opt for tackle over touch or tag rugby.
“It gives them a little more confidence” to overcome the discrimination girls and women can face on the rugby field and in life, says Brewer, noting that some Suburbs female players on mixed tackle rugby teams have reported being left out of play often.
Mia McCalman, 8, was the only girl in her team this year. She says the other players in her mixed tackle rugby team often blamed her for mistakes she didn’t make or throw her the ball much.
Yet clubs need enough players to run all-female tackle teams, leaving mixed-teams the only option, says Brewer. In the junior ranks, the club is proving popular – next year it hopes to have four all-female tackle junior teams.
Mia is going to give tackle rugby a second chance next season on a new all-female Suburbs team. “I like getting dirty,” she says.
In the 12 months since the Black Ferns won, Brooke completed a tackle clinic at the nearby Ponsonby rugby club, which often feeds male and female players into professional leagues and the national teams. Her mum was eventually won over, and Brooke will play tackle rugby in the 2024 season.
“It’s really enjoyable,” she says, of tackling in rugby, “when you get to know what you’re actually doing.”
