Rugby (Sport): Females
(asked on )
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help promote the sport of women's rugby.
The government’s sport strategy “Sporting Future” highlighted the importance of welfare and wellbeing for everyone participating in elite sport, regardless of age.
In March 2018 I published a mental health and elite sport action plan, based on discussions I held with sportspeople and key stakeholders from across the sport and mental health sectors. The plan sets out a range of actions to improve the support available to athletes, the sharing of best practice across the sport sector, and mental health education and training in sport.
As highlighted in the plan, UK Sport has worked with key agencies to develop a Mental Health Strategy, being implemented during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games cycle (2017-2021). The aim of the strategy is to deliver positive mental health for all people operating in the high performance system, for athletes as well as senior leaders, coaches, practitioners and administrators.
The government’s sport strategy “Sporting Future” highlighted the importance of focusing on groups that are particularly unlikely to take part in sport and physical activity, such as women and girls. It is vital we build on successes like the performance of England at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017 to inspire more girls and women to get involved in sport. Sport England, government’s arm’s length body for community sport, is funding both the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Rugby Football League (RFL) to build capacity and encourage participation. Both of these national governing bodies have also partnered with Sport England’s “This Girl Can” campaign, to encourage more women and girls to get involved with their sports. Government is also supporting the staging and legacy of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, which will be hosted by England and will bring together the women’s, men’s and wheelchair tournaments for the first time.