Ireland captain Fiona Coghlan has already seen radical changes to the women’s game but she believes rugby sevens introduction into the Olympics has the potential to have the greatest impact of all.
In her seven years as an international, Coghlan has witnessed firsthand the increasing professionalism and media attention.
But she is predicting even bigger things for the women’s game when sevens makes it bow at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
He said: “Now we are going into the Olympics, I know its sevens but still it gives women’s rugby more and more exposure around the world.
“That is a huge selling point for us as well especially for emerging countries, now there is an opportunity to go to the Olympics.
“The women’s game still has a long way to go to where I would envisage it and would like it to be but ever year you see an improvement.
“More money is coming into the women’s game which has allowed us to progress in certain areas, certainly fitness.
“More professionalism, more people involved, there is way more media coverage now than there used to.
“Here in Ireland we are fully integrated with the IRFU which has been huge for the women’s game, we’ve full support of the RFU in all departments. RBS sponsoring the women’s 6 nations is huge, more publicity so it’s definitely improving.”
But for now Coghlan’s thoughts are turning to the women’s World Cup in August following a third place finish in the RBS 6 Nations.
They kick-off their campaign against hosts and Six Nations champions England who inflicted a 22-5 defeat on the Irish in the Championship.
But Coghlan is refusing to be daunted about being drawn alongside the co-favourites in their pool.
She said: “It was tough against England. We let in two soft tries in the first 10 minutes. We came back but they got away at the end. We have to be more consistent over 80 minutes.
“Every pool is tough but everybody is away from home. Our first game is against England who we’ve never beaten so its a huge challenge but one that we are eager and up for.
“We have to look to target Kazakhstan and the USA but we will be focusing on England because over the years we’ve gotten so much closer to them as well.
“I think we have a shot, you can’t really write any team off in the World Cup, even in the men’s game you can’t really write teams off. We will be looking to qualify either as winners or best loser.”
