What the Black Ferns fallout really revealed

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“Imagine if New Zealand Rugby management was held to the same standard as the players,” came a message from a friend in the wake of the most recent of the endless chain of sports reviews - this time into the Black Ferns culture.

As popular a viewpoint as it might be among some of the commentariat, the problem with the Black Ferns, and by extension women’s rugby and by further extension women’s sport, is not the coaching of a middle-aged white man with a narrow world view, but this:

• The Black Ferns/ women’s rugby/ women’s sport is still seen by too many administrators as a cost centre;

• Because of that, they are never appropriately resourced;

• Because of that, players and management often become dysfunctional, disillusioned and sometimes embittered;

• Because of that, the players are too often viewed as weak, ungrateful and unsuited to elite sport.

Meaningful change will not occur until big national sporting organisations like New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Cricket treat the women’s game not as a low-rating, revenue-sucking drain on resources, but as a critical part of their future portfolio.