Record TV audiences for women's rugby world cup

[grimbletart]

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/11027265/Womens-Rugby-World-Cup-2014-England-favourites-to-lift-trophy-as-teams-play-before-sell-out-crowds.html

Thought this was interesting. It lends weight to the argument on past FWR threads about women's sport and its "lack" of popularity being at least partly due to lack of media exposure as opposed to the argument by some that it is because of low skill levels.

There is a 20,000 sell out crowd for the semi-final and the venue was switched from Marcoussis to Stade Francais's ground to accommodate the high ticket demand following a record 1.5 million TV audience for a pool match.

[CaptChaos]

That's fabulous news. Thanks for posting Grimbletart!

[King1982]

It's the semi final england vs Ireland today. I think about 5pm. Should be a good match.
The standard has been good, plenty of brutal tackles.

[King1982]

The sky coverage has been great. Woman pundits (although a man as the presenter). All matches have female officials.
However, on the skysports news App. When you click on rugby union fixtures for today, it comes up with 'no matches'. Which seems stupid. Despite this they do have a headline story about today's match.

[CaptChaos]

The standard of women's rugby has been amazing for a long time. Shame people are only just 'discovering' that.

I won't get my hopes too high though, but I do hope that this is the start of big things for those women. It was so much harder when I was doing it back in the day.

[King1982]

I reckon it's improved from 2010 though. The physical changes are more noticeable (which is real dedication whilst holding down a full time career outside of the sport). Kicking has improved massively too.

[CaptChaos]

Yes, please tell me more about my sport. It's always good when a man tells me all about things. Makes it so much more real for everyone.

[King1982]

Being a man is irrelevant. I was just posting. I went to the 2010 World Cup in Surrey and think there has been improvements, mainly because the key players are 4 years more experienced and they have picked a squad full of pace. It's exciting to watch.

[King1982]

What position did/do you play? I was an average centre not very dynamic lol. Great game though. Do you reckon england will win today?

[PetulaGordino]

dp plays rugby and follows the women's rugby as well as the men's (he will basically follow anything rugby-related). i follow these things loosely

i asked him if he thought i would enjoy playing. he said he would rather i didn't as he would worry about me getting hurt

ooookkkkk

he is the one at the bottom of every ruck, and so covered in mud that you can't read his number! the bruises are extraordinary. how does he think i feel watching him?

[PetulaGordino]

this is fab news though about the audience for the women's world cup

[CaptChaos]

I was in my National squad, played second row, sometimes No8 is the mood took me. I think England has a good chance of winning tomorrow, as long as they keep their heads.

Petula, you would probably love it. It's not a proper game unless you're shoveling mud out of your ears in the shower afterwards! Depends if you like contact sports. It is an amazing way to keep fit and make some new friends though, going to start playing again despite being a bit of a gimmer now when we move, I miss it.

[MorphineDreams]

Brilliant.

I was recently on the bus with a young woman, she was 17 and played professional football. We got chatting on our journey and she was explaining how it's gaining popularity. I'll defo be supporting it!

[King1982]

Chaos - yeah sorry, it is on tomorrow. Shame I was getting excited for this afternoon.
The tournament looks wide open without NZ. Hopefully they can do it.

[PetulaGordino]

capt i just knew you would be the muddy one at the bottom of the ruck too!

[CaptChaos]

But, of course!

I also had a gumshield which made it look like I had fangs

[HappyJustToBe]

Where was the gum shield from? I need a new one (play a different full contact sport) and now want fangs!

I haven't watched Rugby before, I will be having a watch.

[noddingoff]

Come on the Irish!!!!!

[ChunkyPickle]

I'm not into sport at all, but I've definitely noticed much more mention of women's sport on the radio (Radio 2 anyway), a lot more discussion, no inappropriate or patronising commentary etc.

As to Rugby itself, DP and all his brothers played - never more than School level (maybe county?), and each of them has something broken about them because of it - to the extend that 2/3 have had to have invasive surgery to fix bits. Sure they kept fit (and ate MIL out of house and home!) but getting damaged is a real possibility too :(

Because of that I'm just not sure if I want my precious little boys getting involved!

[sausageeggbacon11]

The matches have been good and looking forward to the final. Disappointed that we haven't had coverage of the women's test cricket which started yesterday. Sky has been very good in the last year with their coverage of our sports, especially nice they are doing a sportswoman of the month and there is not a male equivalent. Still a massive gap but word is the BBC will be covering more football which is good as I was expecting it to be stuck on BT sport which would really limit the coverage.