You Don’t Build a Legacy by Cutting the Runway
In February last year, Rugby Australia was calling it momentum. A 61% funding increase for women’s rugby, new Tier 1 contracts, a growing high-performance unit, and a strategy aimed squarely at a home World Cup in 2029.
18 months later, that same programme’s been cut by 25% (around $2m). The women’s high-performance manager has resigned and the message has shifted from “investment” to “sustainability”. The irony? The rest of the world is investing harder than ever.
The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup has just been described by World Rugby as “historic, special, incredible.”
The numbers back that up:
✨444,000 tickets sold, more than triple the previous edition.
✨81,885 fans at the final - a world record. Fans from 133 countries, 53% female, and 95% said they’d return.
✨Cities hosting matches reported 20–30% higher tourism revenue and near full hotel occupancy.
✨ Players generated 219 million social media views, creating one of the most digitally engaged tournaments in rugby history.
This isn’t an emerging market anymore, it’s a proven one.
World Rugby calls the women’s game “an engine for growth.” The UK Prime Minister called the tournament “proof of sport’s power to grow the economy.”
Which is why Rugby Australia’s decision to scale back now feels so off-tempo. The world just proved the model. The data is in and Australia - the next host nation - is stepping back from the table.
The consequences go beyond funding lines:
✨Athletes in pathways lose faith in the system. Why stay loyal when another code offers visibility and structure?
✨Commercial backers read volatility as risk. They follow investment, not retreat.
✨Fans (particularly the new generation who’ve just watched a global spectacle) will look elsewhere for consistency and connection.
And here’s the part Rugby Australia can’t afford to ignore: the domestic landscape is shifting fast. The National Rugby League continues to expand the NRLW, build junior participation, and invest in women’s pathways. When belief, visibility, and professional structures are obvious in one code, athletes, fans and sponsors don’t hesitate, they move.
The 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup should be the moment the sport cements its place in Australia’s sporting culture. Instead, it now risks highlighting the gap between global ambition and domestic hesitation.
You don’t build legacy by cutting the runway. You build it by believing in the market you’re hosting and matching that belief with investment, clarity, and care. Because if 2025 showed us anything, it’s that women’s rugby isn’t waiting to be discovered. It is on already here. The question is whether Rugby Australia wants to be part of its rise or watch it happen around them.