How rugby is failing to expand to more young girls through social media
In a time of growth for women’s rugby, introducing a new generation of players and fans has been put on the backburner. Across social media, young girls are not being given enough opportunities to enjoy the sport.
“You see so much about the men’s sports on the big news, but you really don’t see much about women’s rugby at all” 15-year-old rugby influencer, Ella Fowler, told us.
Future generations in sport have always relied on social media to inspire new athletes and introduce role models, but there is still irregular coverage of women’s rugby.
Young people aren’t witnessing enough representation of women’s rugby players on all platforms across the UK.
Without exhibitions of female talent outside of the direct rugby world, there are fewer depictions of opportunities for young girls.
The coverage of matches is lacking across news outlets and streaming services throughout the UK, but that has now trickled down into social media due to these companies’ growing usage.
Accounts like BBC Sport have few posts about women’s rugby across their channels, despite some TikTok’s of the sport and players reaching over 171 thousand views.
These sports accounts have the power to be the biggest changers but show little mention of women’s rugby compared to any other sport, male or female.
Even in the growing world of young people’s own rugby accounts, people are struggling to leave the direct circle of the sport and introduce new fans.
According to OFCOM, 79% of 3–17-year-olds have a social media profile in England, Scotland and Wales and 80% in Northern Ireland.
Social media is an ever-growing pastime for future generations, with the age of users lowering despite laws to stop this. Hence, this is a huge source of representation and opinion for young girls.
“There needs to be more coverage so young girls know that if they really love the sport like me, that there is a career choice in it” Fowler said.
“If the media coverage stays the same as it is now, it will be hard for young girls who are starting their rugby journeys to see the amazing women who play the sport, and to know that they can have role models just like the boys”.
Image courtesy of Ella Fowler
Team accounts are also behind, with the Red Roses Instagram account not launching until last year- 12 years after the predominantly men’s England Rugby account.
Some teams, like Scotland and Wales, combine men’s and women’s teams into one account which means less individual coverage for the women.
“There’s been some coverage about the upcoming World Cup, but there’s not really coverage about anything else like the PWR or the Six Nations. You see so much about the men’s sports, but you really don’t see much about women’s rugby at all” Fowler said.
Fan accounts are also big in younger generations on social media- accounts that are much more encouraged for the men’s sport than the women’s.
However, some women’s rugby players, such as Sarah Bern and Leah Tarpey, do represent social media having a positive effect on expanding the sport, with Bern alone having over 230 thousand likes on TikTok.
Both have built a positive fanbase by combining their femininity, humour and influence with rugby to remove stereotypes and open a real perspective for the younger generations.
But the backlash on almost all female players accounts is clear. The common factor of it makes it easy to find, and easy to witness as a young girl- quickly affecting their perception.
With rugby fanatics like Fowler admitting that in her first year of playing, she didn’t even know the Red Roses existed despite them winning a World Cup that year, the future generations need to be opened to more.
This neglect from mixed sports sites and expansion struggle from dedicated accounts is stunting the growth of women’s rugby. It means failings in sharing the space with new people and worries for a future generation of fans and players.
