That the Red Roses 'celebration' at Battersea power station just looks a bit crap

[Pipsquiggle]

Just the above really.
Not that many people, in a non-central part of London, so difficult to get to.
Why don't they get an open top bus through London like the men?

Of course some people care

but do you think a bus parade throughout London would have been anything aside from humiliating for these players? If you’re honest

There’s not enough interest for a full blown parade.

I got into women's rugby a couple a few years ago, when a friend who loves it was staying here so I watched with her. I love it, and deserves a higher profile.

I actually prefer it to the men's game, it seems less about strength and more about speed and tactics. If I was 50 years younger, I'd be tempted to join a club and have a go myself, and I hated all sports when I was at school.

I think they deserved the whole bus tour etc.

Quite.

Bitter? No I’m pointing out facts. Who would have been at the parade?? It doesn’t make me “bitter”. What a stupid thing to say.

Well you’re so intent on pretending that ‘no one’ (your words) cared about it, when 5.8 million people watched it on TV, so it must be invoking some strong feelings in you!

I am a rugby fan - to me, yesterday was a big deal, and we ought to be proud of the Red Roses for accomplishing something that neither men or women have managed to do in football for a very long time, and which the rugby men haven’t managed for over 20 years.

I have tickets for next years women’s six nations match at Twickenham and am taking my toddler - I wouldn’t dream of taking them to a football match at that age, as I just wouldn’t consider it safe for them - as the women’s game is truly a family scene.

You can view it as of little interest, and obviously that’s fine, but a hell of a lot of people can’t stand football (me included), yet we don’t begrudge the every-other-year cries of ‘it’s coming home’, when it’s clearly not. 🤷🏻‍♀️

If it evokes any feelings in me it must be astonishment that you’re so bothered about closing busy London streets for something so irrelevant

I cringe when I read the coverage.

It is trying to emulate the fanfare for the men’s event when the widespread passion and interest simply isn’t remotely there. Basically trying to make out it’s more than it’s not.

Would be much better if the coverage made clear that at the moment the sport is still only really of interest to a very small section of society but the sport is moving in right direction and on an upward trajectory.

The gap in support and awareness between men's and women's rugby union may be larger than in football or even perhaps cricket, but that does not mean there is not a significant amount of interest.

Trafalgar Square on a Sunday would have been appropriate for a celebration I think.

The nation as a whole doesn't watch men's football either. Nor cricket. Nor tennis. Nor golf for that matter. And yet we're subjected to months and months every year of dross TV, huge street parades for local wins, increased rates of domestic abuse and I don't know what else.

Nothing wrong with bringing the women's rugby to the fore.

Honestly, seriously?

Trafalgar Square…. Awful place but more than that…. it would have been family and friends and a few local fans. It would have been embarrassing for these players.

There’d have been more pigeons than people in attendance.

Indeed

those suggesting TS or a London bus route parade are basically gunning for these players to be utterly utterly
mortified

I can’t believe anyone thinks Rugby is a minority sport 😆

No one thinks rugby is a minority sport on this thread

Except, as a pp pointed out, there was a race through the Mall, St James Park and roads around there (incl entrance at Trafalgar Square) were closed on Sunday. The traffic was chaotic. So, bearing in mind there was 24 hours notice for a celebration, bearing in mind the fan zone has been, for the duration of the tournament, at the perfectly accessible and well-laid-out Battersea PS, then, in this case, Trafalgar Square would have been wholly inappropriate on this particular day.

It was the 10k in central London yesterday. I don't think they could have set it up around there.
I watched it on TV, never watched rugby before.

It’s fairly minor. More people play basketball than rugby union in the UK. I’m not sure there’d be much of a clamour for a street procession following a basketball victory.

There would if it was the men’s team, and that’s simply because it is much much much more popular.

Women’s rugby … minor sport
men’s rugby… very very mainstream!

Men’s rugby is still tiny when compared to football or even cricket.

The big difference is that rugby union support is still very regionalised. It is very much a southern based sport. SE, SW and East Mids are pretty much the only areas where it has any significant foothold.

This was such a huge achievement for women’s rugby and women’s sport in general and the team deserve to be celebrated.

The infrastructure behind football is so immense that any other sport is not going to achieve the fan numbers or money. That’s not because it’s a better game but because it has history and money in its corner.

I don’t care if they do an open top bus tour or not, they probably don’t either if the rugby players I know are anything to go by. But the whole tournament and this team have achieved something brilliant in terms of showing that women can be strong and fast and (for the most part) play sport with good will. That it’s not just men who can do this stuff. I think this year has been a turning point in women’s sport and for young girls in terms of how they see themselves.

The tournament was a total mismatch. England were 2/5 favs before it started which equates to them having over a 70% chance of winning the tournament at the outset.

It was ridiculously uncompetitive. It would have been a huge shock had they not won it.

You can’t see that there is a huge bigger picture here - not least the international one?