As we see more equality for women in sport, the British and Irish Lions are now looking at a Women’s Lions tour. This really is a great idea and long overdue, some of the names involved in looking at the feasibility of a women’s’ Lions tour are;
- Ieuan Evans – British & Irish Lion and The British & Irish Lions Board Member
- Ben Calveley – Managing Director, The British & Irish Lions
- Susie Logan – Group Chief Marketing Officer, Royal London
- Joanna Manning-Cooper – Group Director of Corporate Affairs, Sky
- Max Taylor – Consumer Director, Vodafone
- Simon Rowe – Head of Global Sports Marketing, Canterbury
- Sue Day – Chief Operating & Financial Officer, RFU and RFU Board, Rugby Football Union
- Anthony Eddy – Director of Sevens and Women’s Rugby, Irish Rugby Football Union
- Gemma Fay – Head of Girls & Women’s Strategy, Scottish Rugby
- Hannah John – Women’s High-Performance Lead, Welsh Rugby Union
- Nicky Ponsford – Women’s High-Performance Manager, World Rugby
- Shaunagh Brown – Harlequins and England international
- Niamh Briggs – Munster and Ireland international
If there’s a will there’s a way and there’s certainly a will in the world of rugby and women’s sport. How best to do it though, if we look at the other sports where women have turned into big brands and been given equal opportunity. Tennis and UFC/Boxing are the first to come to mind when you look at the Williams sisters, Katie Taylor, Ronda Rousey etc…
They are all played/fought at the same time the men play, so if you are going to have a women’s Lions tour it would have to be intertwined with the mens tour. That would make it a major success a a fest of rugby down under against the ‘big three’ can you see a women’s Lions tour being a success?