It's 2022, but there's still a long way to go before women see equal pay on the sporting field

Louise Burrows has been playing professional rugby union for the Brumbies for 27 years.

The 44-year-old is the club's longest active player — she started playing rugby for the ACT in 1995, a year before the Brumbies club was even formed — and she has represented Australia in four Ruby World Cups.

Yet she isn't paid a cent for her sporting prowess, and the mother-of-two has to work full-time as a physical education teacher at a Canberra school to pay her own way in the sport.

«I feel like the game is coming along and we are all so grateful, we really are,» she said.

«But the amount of time and dedication that we devote to our sport and to not get paid, sometimes it does make it really challenging.

»We definitely play for the love and not the money."

In stark contrast, her fellow male Brumbies players are paid a full-time wage, with some receiving six-figure salaries.

They do not have to work full-time to pay their own way nor cover the costs of extras like massage and physiotherapy.

And while Burrows stresses she is «not ungrateful» for the opportunities she has been given, she is well aware of the disparity and the need for change.

«I'm not expecting $80,000 a year,» she said.

«But to think that the NRL W girls are on $8,000 minimum wage for their short season — that blows my mind.

»Even if we got that, it would be amazing, really it would be."

The sheer love of the game it what drives some of the Brumbies Super W players to go to great lengths to play the sport.

Six of the players live in regional NSW and four live in Sydney. They travel hours to Canberra for training sessions, with some not returning home until well after midnight.

The team's captain, Rebecca Smyth, is one of those players. The mother of four travels 4.5 hours from