Rachel Taylor, of Sale Sharks, is one of only two female head coaches in the Women’s Premier League – Getty Images /Nathan Stirk
Katy Daley-Mclean does not mince her words. “I still think it’s really hard for female coaches in Premiership Women’s Rugby [PWR],” she says. As one of the few members of England’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad who progressed into coaching, the Sale Sharks women’s performance lead knows better than most.
Her assessment is also rather accurate when you consider the dwindling number of women in off-field leadership positions in the English women’s top flight. Amy Turner and Vicky Macqueen, formerly of Harlequins and Leicester Tigers respectively, vacated their head coach roles towards the end of last season.
Then Giselle Mather, one of the most esteemed coaches in the female game, unexpectedly left her position as Ealing Trailfinders director of women’s rugby weeks before the start of the new season.
Their departures mean just two PWR clubs out of the nine – Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs – employ women in head-coach roles.
Daley-Mclean believes she is one of the lucky ones. She is one of three women on Sale’s coaching team headed up by Rachel Taylor, the former Wales international, and with former Scotland scrum-half Louise Dalgliesh as assistant coach.
Male domination of women’s game
It is unusual for a PWR club to have this amount of female representation. This season, two-thirds of clubs in the top flight do not have a single woman on their coaching team.
Harlequins, who have long been a beacon of progression and attracted the biggest crowd for a domestic women’s match at their annual “Big Game” fixture, are the least diverse on a coaching front. Their seven-strong coaching team are the most heavily resourced in the PWR. They are also entirely male.
Daley-Mclean points to the wider significance of female representation at the top when it comes to appointing women. “We have Michelle Orange as a female co-owner who is really important in that space,” says the mother-of-three. “Sale have been really supportive of me on maternity leave, coming back and allowing me to find a way of working and staying in the game while suiting my family situation. We’ve been able to build a team around that in terms of how we’ve devised roles.”
Having a female co-owner at Sale, Michelle Orange (above), has been a huge help for Katy Daley-Mclean – Paul Cooper
But like many women trying to forge coaching careers in the game, she is unsure how females can use the same pathway that has been historically used by male coaches.
The men’s Championship has been a breeding ground for men’s coaches working at the top of the elite women’s game.
Both Bristol Bears head coach Dave Ward and Mouritz Botha, now defence coach at Saracens, coached at men’s second-tier outfit Ampthill before taking up roles at their respective PWR clubs. Nathan Smith, the Loughborough Lightning head coach, spent three seasons working as forwards coach for Doncaster Knights.
“If you’re a female coach, where do you get this level of experience or exposure? That’s one of the big areas of development,” says Daley-Mclean. “How do we give good female coaches exposure at an appropriate level? The Women’s Championship is nowhere near the same level as the PWR. The step up is just too big.”
‘The perception is that it is an old boys’ club’
Those further down the rugby pyramid, such as Jess Bunyard, can relate. After seven seasons coaching in the women’s community game, most recently at Huddersfield, she harbours hopes of doing so in the women’s top flight but is struggling to gain experience at the “mid-to-top level”.
Gender bias remains a major problem – many referees and opposition coaches have mistaken Bunyard for the team physio – but she thinks there are some easy wins to be made.
“Something I wish the Rugby Football Union would look at is how robust the hiring and firing of candidates is, so there’s guidance for clubs that are making decisions to know they’re hiring the best candidate,” Bunyard says. “If you are struggling, like me, to break in from the outside, the perception is that it is an old boys’ club.
“I’ve probably encountered two other female coaches at my level. There’s a great number of male allies doing wonderful work, but the growth in female players isn’t represented in the growth of female coaches.”
Jess Bunyard, until recently head coach of the women’s team Huddersfield YMCA, has often been mistaken for the team physio – Bethany Clarke
The RFU does not keep a record of the number of active female coaches in the community game, although 1,376 women have taken the England Rugby Coaching Award since it was established in 2019.
On top of that, £2 million from the Impact ’25 programme – the initiative that will inject £12 million into the women’s and girls’ game in the build-up to next year’s home World Cup – has been set aside for the growth of coaches and match officials.
This also includes the roll out of Elev8, a programme offering bespoke support to eight elite female coaches with a long-term view of accelerating the development of top-tier coaches in the women’s game.
RFU smoothing pathway for female coaches
Headed up by Nigel Redman, the RFU’s director of performance team development, it is part of a wider vision to increase and support the female coaching talent pool. “That’s across sport, not just in rugby,” says Redman. “I want to find out what the rocks are in the way, and look to see how we smooth those because it’s going to take time.”
Exeter Chiefs head coach Susie Appleby is one of those on the programme, which she describes as “brilliant”. But she points out the obvious. “I’m 53 – I am not the next generation of coaches,” she says. “My captain, Poppy Leitch, is the next generation we need to invest in, because she’s amazing.
“She’s going to be even more amazing than she is right now. Players and coaches who are 30 years my junior need more investment.”
It leaves one last question. Does it matter if the head coach of the England team is a woman? Redman canvassed opinion on the issue among the Red Roses squad during their recent WXV1 campaign in Canada, where they secured another piece of silverware under John Mitchell. “They say they just want the best coach,” he says.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2024-10-27 14:13:39
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