Martyn Phillips: WRU chief eager to introduce women's playing contracts

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips says the sooner contracts can be given to Wales' best women players "the happier I'll be".

Along with the search for a new women's head coach, the WRU announced its intention to make the Wales Women squad semi or fully professional in future.

Phillips says he would like to see contracts in place before the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

"I wouldn't mind if it was (introduced before the next World Cup)," he said.

"All it would mean for me would be that it's a signal of the progress we're looking for.

"I'm almost in a place that says the sooner we get there then the happier I'll be, because it means we've progressed perhaps more quickly than I might have thought, but if it's before the World Cup then even better."

Wales are one of seven teams to have already directly qualified for the tournament, which is set to take place on 18 September-16 October 2021.

Although several of the current Test squad play top-flight club rugby in England, none of them is currently paid by the WRU.

England, in contrast, offered 28 full-time 15-a-side contracts to women players from January 2019.

Phillips said there would be a performance "bar" that players would have to reach to trigger a contract.

That level has yet to be set and will probably be agreed between the likes of the new head coach and WRU performance director Ryan Jones.

"It is something we have intent to do as part of our plans as and when the timing is right, once we develop the system in which semi-professional or professional women... can thrive," said Jones.

"That is a position we would like to move to, but there is a sequence to achieving that and we want to build a system."

'Big milestone for women's game'

World Rugby has invested heavily in growing women's rugby, setting out a mission statement that "by 2025, rugby will be a global leader in sport, where women involved in rugby have equity on and off the field".

"That's what has triggered the extra investment so we've put a strategy in place that has rugby and commercial benefits... there are investments attached to it that should provide a return on and off the pitch," Phillips said.

"That becomes the next big milestone for the women's game and the way we're approaching that is less of a financial question, there's a bar.

"It's not about paying players, it's about if you have a performance environment and you reach that bar, then that moves us to a different level where in order to go on from that you'd need to get the players paid.

"I asked the players and they almost had a little bit of a disagreement amongst themselves about where that (bar) was.

"Some people described it at a certain level and then one or two players said 'no, I think it needs to be higher than that'.

"I just thought that level of honesty in the group was such a powerful thing and that's a key point, they need to be stakeholders in where that bar is as well.

"It shouldn't just be 'if we hit that bar we can make some money', I think they were looking at 'what's the bar so we can start to win some games and do our country proud?'.

"That's the bit I love about that squad."