Additional €1m for women's game pledged by IRFU

The IRFU have pledged an additional €1m of annual funding to women's rugby in Ireland, after launching their Women's Rugby in Ireland report this morning.

The report, which was conducted by Amanda Bennett of Fair Play Limited, sets out recommendations that will form Irish rugby's strategic five-year plan for women's rugby, from 2023 to 2028.

The 50-page report, which can be read here, covers women's rugby in Ireland from grassroots to high-performance, with the €1m in funding earmarked for facilities and pathways, in addition to the €5.5m that had been announced in Irish Rugby's annual report last month.

Among the recommendations is that the Interprovincial championship becomes "the performance competition" that feeds into the Irish national team, with the exact format of an improved Interpro season to be decided based on the world rugby calendar.

The IRFU say plans are continuing around a Celtic Cup competition with Scottish and Welsh teams, with one side from each nation expected to play in the inaugural competition before it is expanded in the coming years.

There are also recommendations to change the format of the women's All Ireland League from a 10-team league to two divisions of six.

The 2022 AIL season was reduced to nine teams after the withdrawal of Malone on the eve of the campaign, with Railway Union and Blackrock College set to meet in tomorrow's final at Energia Park in Donnybrook.

Fiona Steed, chair of the IRFU's women's sub-committee, says the current AIL model had been 'unfit for purpose'.

"This was an area that was really explored in-depth both in the surveys and questionnaires, and one-to-one meetings," Steed (above) said at the launch of the report.

"The biggest thing that came out of it is that the majority