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?

Yet last week everyone was adamant Canada would win.
A large proportion of the Canadian team play for teams in the UK league .

It was really great I watched the match (on the telly) and was really impressed. So massive congratulations to the England players.

The tv coverage was a bit wierd though. I thought it was nice that they asked the woman player after the match how it had been for her leaving her toddler daughter for World Cup training, ONLY if they ask immediately start to ask the same of men who play for England rugby and who also have small kids. But that will never ever happen will it. The UK is a really sexist country.

Well those people were extremely uninformed or were being disingenuous.

At no point during the tournament were England ever less than 70% likely winners according to the markets.

On Saturday they started with around an 85% chance of beating Canada and lifting the trophy.

The media create false narratives to try and drum up interest. They pretended the tournament wasn’t a mismatch otherwise people would have switched off. The reality is that anything other than an England win would have been a significant shock.

If people want to go, they will. Not that easy on a working morning, though.

Completely agree my teenage daughter and all her rugby playing mates would have been there but they were already committed to matches. Nearly all womens and girls games are on a Sunday mostly in the afternoon so a huge part of their fan base was excluded.

Men’s rugby minor compared to men’s football

Women’s rugby but a grain of sand compared to men’s rugby

So... that means what? We should ignore it? Not encourage it? Not support the sport at all?

they used to, before it all went behind a paywall because it's got too expensive for BBC, ITV etc to screen it.

I was one of the millions who watched the final on the tv. I don't really know anything about rugby but it's our national team playing in a world cup final and the weather was awful here on Saturday so I was perfectly happy to spend a couple of hours on the sofa watching. I enjoyed it. I liked that the commentators explained some of the rules that weren't immediately obvious (though I agree the post match interviews were ridiculously sexist) and I thought it was quite an exciting sport that despite being very physical seemed in the most part to be played very fairly without tantrums and rudeness to the opposition. Would I watch again on tv? Definitely. But i wouldn't go in person to watch or line the streets for a parade. But then I wouldn't do that for men's rugby either. Or for football played by either sex.
I would imagine that there are lots of people like me who were interested in the sense that they're happpy to watch on tv and are really pleased for the England team but also like me couldn't have named any of the players before this event. I think it's great that women's sport is getting more coverage and there's definitely more interest than there used to be. A full stadium and good viewing figures is definitely progress and should be celebrated. But I doubt very much that that level of interest would support a big parade or similar. I wouldn't say "nobody cares" but I don't think sufficient people care enough to justify a parade. To be honest, apart from football, I don't think any sport in this country would attract big crowds for that kind of thing. I'm not a football fan - my sporting interests are definitely a minority thing - but I do recognise that in terms of supporter numbers it's on a different level to anything else.

Huh?

I was pointing out the bleeding obvious as to why a London parade of TS might be nothing but embarrassing for the players.

It is moving in the right direction. To take too big a leap with regard to celebrations would have backfired, big time

Equivalence to what?

It’s not misogyny. I’m stating a fact. I wish minority sports would stop being given equivalence. That’s what bewilders me. The nation as a whole doesn’t watch.

Enough people have commented that rugby isn't a minority sport, and that 5.1 million people watched the final of the WC on Saturday. Twickenham was sold out, so that's another 80,000+ people that watched it - I think that the stadium would have sold out if it had been bigger too.

The people who support women’s rugby really support it, They are committed, passionate and proud.

However the number of them is dwarfed by supporters for men’s rugby. Incomparably.

And any big city wide celebration would have been a very limp affair I’m afraid.

PWR (Quins,Sarries, Glouc Hartbury etc) are routinely getting 5 - 8000 supporters at matches held in their club stadiums. Double headers with the men's squads are regularly held. Quins will meet Bristol Bears again at Twickenham on 20 Dec with 30 - 40,000 likely to be inside for the women's game with fans there for Ellie Kilfunne, Abi Ward etc.

Men's rugby in Wales struggles to get similar numbers supporting the 4 main clubs. The men's support is ebbing to football whereas the women's game is on the rise.

I mean, this is all a bit silly.

surely surely you can’t possibly think women’s rugby is remotely as big as men’s rugby? Surely?