Womens international football has very little in common with a minor sport like womens rugby. Only England, France and NZ have fully professional women's rugby programmes. Canada went against that to make the WRC final. They crowd funded themselves to get there.
Black Ferns for the foreseeable long term future will be amongst the best teams.
Don't let 80,000 at Twickers for the WRC final, muddy the waters that womens rugby internationally will remain very minor fry. Even rugby mad South Africa can't get a fully pro womens programme up and going.
Womens football is just heading in the same direction as mens football.
Logic just says all of the better resourced, larger traditional football nations with much bigger talent pools, and football as the dominant code will move ahead of NZ. No easy solution to stop that happening.
You see it now at the U17 & U20 girls world cups with nations like Zambia, Paraguay etc beating us comfortably.
Only in countries where women's sport is still not fully accepted - think the Middle East - will progress be slow.
The Ferns will never drop down as far as the AWs, but you can see them falling into a 40s-50s ranking range. That when the AWs true ranking is more like 50s-60s than current 80s.
Auckland finally getting an ALW side with a girls academy pathway a big factor in trying to arrest that Ferns ranking slide. You see it now with the number of ex/current Nix ALW players in the Ferns. Two of the most promising Ferns in Clegg & Fraser got their pro starts with the Nix. A 2nd NZ ALW side widens the base and gives more young talent an opportunity.
Black Ferns for the foreseeable long term future will be amongst the best teams.
Don't let 80,000 at Twickers for the WRC final, muddy the waters that womens rugby internationally will remain very minor fry. Even rugby mad South Africa can't get a fully pro womens programme up and going.
Womens football is just heading in the same direction as mens football.
Logic just says all of the better resourced, larger traditional football nations with much bigger talent pools, and football as the dominant code will move ahead of NZ. No easy solution to stop that happening.
You see it now at the U17 & U20 girls world cups with nations like Zambia, Paraguay etc beating us comfortably.
Only in countries where women's sport is still not fully accepted - think the Middle East - will progress be slow.
The Ferns will never drop down as far as the AWs, but you can see them falling into a 40s-50s ranking range. That when the AWs true ranking is more like 50s-60s than current 80s.
Auckland finally getting an ALW side with a girls academy pathway a big factor in trying to arrest that Ferns ranking slide. You see it now with the number of ex/current Nix ALW players in the Ferns. Two of the most promising Ferns in Clegg & Fraser got their pro starts with the Nix. A 2nd NZ ALW side widens the base and gives more young talent an opportunity.