By EMMA CAPLAN
IT WASN’T a reality check, just the reality, written starkly. Even Peter V’landys, a passionate supporter of the women’s game and its potential commerciality, who had been a prime driver to have it included on the Vegas schedule, was concerned beforehand.
“I’m worried about the Jillaroos,” he said in the stadium prior to kick off. “They’re so good, they’ve gone up a level since going professional.”
And that’s the be-all and end-all of a record win over a northern hemisphere side, although the margin, in only 70 minutes, was eye-watering.
The upside is that for those unaccustomed to seeing a women’s contact sport – ask Vicky Whitfield about that – and quite a number of young girls and women were in the crowd, the Aussies were incredible with their speed, movement off the ball and physicality.
Their skills, exemplified by five try Tamika Upton from the back and six try assist orchestrator Tarryn Aiken in the middle were breathtaking, Jess Sergis off the bench and Julia Robinson hat trick beneficiaries in a 17-try romp.
But the gulf between the number one and three in the world rankings has widened alarmingly since the last World Cup just over two years ago – and with two more in quick succession on the horizon.
England and the top clubs are just starting to offer players expenses, the girls are still self reliant in many aspects of their fitness training and preparation, none are what could be considered fulltime athletes in the British game.
That just can’t compare with the NRLW where almost all are professional athletes, their body shapes and athletic prowess, their conditioning and game smarts are continuing to leap ahead.
And the problem for the women’s game doesn’t end there as there is a similar gap between England and their near neighbours, while Samoa and Tonga’s women are quickly following the path of the Kiwi Ferns and PNG Orchids with the bulk of their players coming from the elite Aussie competition.
That doesn’t excuse the scoreline, a procession from the sixth minute when Robinson, on an easy overlap, crossed for the Jillaroos first try to the last when Georgia Roche belligerently ploughed over for England’s only score and raised both a supportive and sympathetic cheer from the Allegiant crowd.
The RFL, admittedly with so much less resource and player base to work with, also have to take a share of the blame for the discrepancy, this the first time the nations had met since 2017.
The Women’s Super League was formed the year after. There have only ever been four dominant teams – if you accept the best of the Castleford squad and staff became York Valkyrie – but the current competition has eight sides which dilutes the idea of it being truly elite.
The NRLW began with four sides playing a shortened but meaningful season and persevered with it, and initially only one State of Origin game, but remained with it initially to set a standards benchmark in terms of clubs coming in and player depth.
It is assiduously policed and is now the go-to competition worldwide for the best female athletes.
If the NRL is looking to seriously invest in the game over here, then surely a significant tranche of any monies has to be ring-fenced for the women’s game to begin to bridge the gap and make it more competitive at the top international level.
Plus, like the men’s game and England squad, we need more of our best young players to follow the likes of Roche, Hollie-Mae Dodd and now Paige Travis overseas.
There’s another aspect, outlined by clearly shell-shocked England women’s head coach Stuart Barrow in the post match press conference, his demeanour somewhat different to the dad dancer on Freemont Street in the lead up.
“I’ve been contacted by several agents regarding heritage players. It’s something I will look at, but we are trying to develop our domestic game as well at the same time,” he said.
According to the Aussie journos present in Vegas, Sydney Roosters outside back Jasmin Strange, who was part of the Triple M commentary team at Allegiant Stadium after helping the Los Angeles Roosters win the NRL Vegas Nines, is believed to eligible, along with Broncos Origin forward Keilee Jospeh.
Cowboys playmaker Kirra Dibb is understood to be another player with English heritage, but she is ineligible after having previously played for Australia.
“I didn’t say no [to those players],” Barrow said. “I just said it was something we would review before the World Cup.
“It will be something that we’ll reflect on after this tournament. Again, we didn’t really know where we were at as a group until you play this opposition.
“We can watch all the video and admire the NRLW from afar, like we do, but until you actually get on the field and see what’s coming at us … it was hard.”
The Jillaroos had 12 players who ran over 100 metres, including winger Julia Robinson (259m) and prop Shannon Mato (216m), whereas England’s highest metre maker was centre Amy Hardcastle, who never gave in, but was limited to 81m with the ball.
“We’ve learned some lessons today about what international rugby league is about at the highest level,” Barrow continued.
“We’ll take a lot of learnings away from that, but obviously we didn’t expect that result. I’m not going to hide behind that and, and that’s on me as the leader. It was a shock for a lot of our girls.
“I think it blew them away from the first five minutes and that’s because they haven’t experienced anything at that intensity in the domestic competition and not in our internationals we previously played.
“We tried to tell them that was coming and we looked at a lot of video and we’ve tried to replicate the intensity in training and in manufacturing Yorkshire-Lancashire Origins, but until you actually get out there and feel it, I think it caught us and the players by shock on the field.”
Barrow believes England need to play Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific nations more regularly if they are to improve, his side having spent almost forty minutes between play the balls in the opposition twenty and missing over 50 tackles.
“I think we’ve got plenty of players who could go over there and bring back their learnings,” he noted.
“The domestic competition obviously in Australia is intense and it brings the best out of people.
“We’re struggling at the moment. In our Women’s Super League, we probably have three, maybe four [good] teams in a bigger league, so they have lots of weeks where they’re not having competitive challenges.
“So, we’ve got to try and look at our domestic competition as well, going forward to see how we create environments like we’ve just witnessed on the field.”
A brave statement from someone who is employed by the very governing body that needs to make it happen.
His opposite number, Jess Skinner, who had taken over at late notice for the trip from Brad Donald, further illustrated how far there is to go.
“We have high expectations of our players,” she said. “They executed exactly what we wanted to do. We came to show that we’re number one in the world and we did that.
“Our player depth is a credit to the game and the NRLW clubs. They’re getting smarter and fitter.”
We have been warned.
Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix
This story first appeared in the April edition of Forty20 Magazine
