Hmm.
“Just last week, World Rugby announced plans to introduce smaller balls into the women’s game as part of a trial to enhance the sport. The idea is to make the ball easier to hold and reduce knock-ons, as well as explore the potential benefits that a smaller ball can make to the kicking game.” See Rugby Dump here.
The argument in favour of the smaller ball is that current ball was designed around the size of male players.
Not everyone is convinced though.
There’s more coverage of the controversy here in World Rugby.
“World Rugby is considering the use of a smaller ball in the women’s game and is collecting data on the size 4.5 ball which is about 3 per cent smaller and lighter than a size 5 ball. Lindsay Starling, science and medical manager at World Rugby, said: “The women’s playing community is quite divided. There’s a big proportion of individuals in this community that think and feel that retaining the use of the same equipment in the men’s game is important.”
It’s not my sport and I don’t have a strong view except a)I’m not a big fan of gender binaries, and b)women’s specific anything is rarely a good idea.
Gender isn’t a great proxy for size. There are lots of small men out there and some of them play rugby. There are lots of large women and some of them play rugby.
Adding unnecessary gender differences in sports–women play three sets of tennis versus men’s five, or women, or in track cycling where the men’s individual pursuit is a 4 km race and women only race 3 km–is rarely justified.
As I said, it’s not my sport (though I was it had been). But I have a hard time imagining it’s ball size that’s discouraging girls and women from playing rugby.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
