Super W Expansion Delayed as 2024 Schedule Announced

Rugby Australia (RA) has unveiled the schedule for the 2024 Super W competition, revealing that the long-anticipated expansion of the women’s league will not occur in the upcoming season. Instead, RA will redirect its efforts and resources towards enhancing women’s rugby pathways, including the introduction of a national youth competition.

The 2024 Super W season will feature the same line-up as the previous year, comprising the five Australian teams and Fiji Drua, the dominant force in the competition, having clinched the past two titles. Notably, there will be no cross-over matches with New Zealand’s women’s rugby league.

The upcoming season will consist of a five-round competition followed by a two-week finals series, commencing on Friday, March 15, with the Western Force hosting the Melbourne Rebels. A unique aspect of this season’s matches is that they will be predominantly played as double-headers alongside the men’s Super Rugby Pacific competition.

In addition to the schedule announcement, RA has outlined plans for further investment in women’s high-performance programs and player development pathways. These investments will manifest in the transformation of the Next Gen Sevens into the Super Rugby Women’s 7s competition. RA will also introduce an entirely new competition, the Super Rugby Women’s U19 tournament.

The decision not to expand the Super W competition in 2024, despite considerable anticipation and desire for growth, is rooted in financial considerations. RA acknowledges the need for additional funding to support such expansion and opted to prioritize investments in other areas of the women’s rugby program. These include areas such as development, high-performance staff, and player payments.

RA’s commitment to expanding the Super W league remains steadfast. However, they emphasize that expansion efforts must align with the availability of the necessary resources. RA’s CEO, Phil Waugh, expressed the organization’s dedication to growth while maintaining the sustainability of women’s rugby.

“While we would have loved to expand the Super W competition – and we remain committed to doing so – the reality is that the investment required to do so for 2024 would have required the removal of funding from other areas of the women’s program, such as development, the new high-performance staff, and player payments,” Waugh stated in a press release.

In the near future, RA intends to unveil more comprehensive details regarding the second phase of their strategic plan, outlining their vision for the growth of the women’s game. This plan encompasses the 2024 and 2025 seasons, leading up to the next Rugby World Cup in England. The aspiration is to bridge the gap between the current state of women’s rugby and professionalism, marking a significant step forward in the development of the sport.