Just one woman at rugby’s top table underlines flawed vision

It was not even a fortnight ago that Bill Beaumont, adopting an expression beloved of politicians, talked of the need to win “hearts and minds”.

He was referring, he explained, to all the long-suffering rugby widows. As a soaring appeal for equality, it was hardly on a par with Emma Watson’s speech to the UN, but it did help secure him a second term as World Rugby chair.

And given this is a sport that thought nothing of compelling the England and Scotland women’s teams to play through the worst blizzard of the winter, it needs to take whatever commitments to progress it can.

Now, though, comes the moment for proof of Beaumont’s progressive vision, a time to assemble the star chamber of talent to embody the change he seeks.

At last, he is ready to reveal the breakdown of his 12-strong executive committee to champion the disfranchised women of a global game.

Number of female representatives? One. Angela Ruggiero, the lone woman at World Rugby’s top table, could be forgiven for growing tired of her casting as a trailblazer.

By 2020, and in light of Beaumont’s insistence that “women’s rugby is part of our long-term plan”, Ruggiero might reasonably have assumed that she would no longer be so conspicuous by her gender.

The lopsided composition of Beaumont’s board is no accident.

While World Rugby can point to the fact that female representation on its council has risen from zero to a third under his aegis, the uncomfortable fact remains that there is little impetus to elevate more women to Ruggiero’s level of influence.

When nominations were invited last week for the seven executive positions available, not one union put forward a female council member.

It threatens to be a recurring theme, where sage elders talk a fine game on levelling the playing field, but whose actions seldom bear out the ambition of their words.

Will Beaumont be another example? Will he continue to talk in grand abstractions about unleashing the potential of the women’s game or will he shrink from such promises with the prize in sight?

To staunch the bleeding of Covid-19, many sports will decide, however reluctantly, to fall back on their established income-drivers.

As a financial entity, a sport mirrors a human body, in that the core has to be nourished to support the extremities.

While women’s rugby deserves far better than to be thought of as an extremity, sports’ economic responses to Covid-19 are hardly auspicious.

For women’s sport to flourish in the financial maelstrom that awaits, it requires women in the boardroom to fight its corner.

In these extreme circumstances, the presence of a lone female at World Rugby’s highest administrative tier is not an oversight, but an insult.