Rugby Africa’s XV’s flagship competition will host the men’s and women’s tournaments at the same time, the organisation announced on Sunday, International Woman’s Day.
The women’s and men’s Rugby Africa Cup 2020 would occur at the same time and, whenever suitable, the women’s match would be played as a curtain-raiser in the same venue as the men’s matches, Rugby Africa said in a statement.
“This is a logical step to implement our vision for a gender-equal sport. We are dedicated to take leadership in women’s rugby and look forward to developing grass root sports as well as the flagship competitions towards a gender-equal game. In the next step, we need to look at creating tournaments in the various regions to organically develop and grow team participation,” Rugby Africa president Khaled Babbou said in the statement.
“Women in rugby is one of our key strategic priorities and in the week leading to the International Woman’s Day we have celebrated achievements of women in African rugby to put the enormous potential we have in the spotlight,” he said.
Recently, Rugby Africa announced the appointment of Maha Zaoui as women’s rugby manager to lead the strategic and operational development of female rugby with the goals to further increase participation levels overall and to accelerate the evolution of the high-performance game.
World Rugby women’s general manager Katie Sadleir said: “Rugby Africa is at the forefront in accelerating the development of women in rugby within its region. Since the launch of the global strategy for the development of women’s rugby, we have seen transformational change on and off the field of play worldwide. Women’s rugby continues to grow with more than 2.7 million women and girls playing rugby at all levels, accounting for more than a quarter of players globally.
“Rugby Africa plays a key role in the continued success of developing women in rugby. Off the field, the board of Rugby Africa has made fundamental changes which show its commitment in providing equal opportunities for women in rugby. On the field, by aligning the Rugby Africa Cup to host men’s and women’s matches at the same time, this will have a positive impact in raising the profile of the women’s 15s game in Africa,” she said.
In partnership with ANA and Sports Leo
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