Railway Union and Senior Status

[LadyP]

First time poster and it looks like a post I put up earlier did not post lol, so go easy,

I am a female player and I play rugby, I don’t play women’s rugby , I play rugby, I am a member of a rugby club, not a womens rugby club,a rugby club, so what I am not getting is their crusade for equality on branch committee and this call for Senior status, especially the international players using the “oh I play for Ireland so I should have a Senior status, yes you do, you play adult rugby, bit disrespectful to other Ireland players who are members of Jnr clubs and don’t play in AIL women’s league to me this is about Railway Union not about Senior status or equality.

For example, their social media is all about equality, go look at it, look for items on their male club mates, very little it’s all about female rugby not much equality there.

The place for more women on male committees I agree with but, it a process and not a right of passage for being female, correct me if I am wrong, but does the process for being on a Branch committee not start by being a club committee person, then get equally elected to say clubs or branch committee at a Branch AGM, every member regardless of sex has a vote I get the impression that RU activists just want a female or females on the branch because of their sex and beliefs not because of equality, but a more feminist agenda.

I do feel that their position on all this is a bit petulant with another agenda . I believe in equality but not this militant way.

Railway Union , have come far in the past few years and with all the international 7s and 15s players given to them is Greta , but is that effecting the growth of the game, one team being so dominant because they are being given players?

[LadyP]

Good to see the branch hold firm and reject their silly motion. Again true equality is women playing rugby not women’s rugby! They are the ones being divisive by insisting it’s not rugby but women’s rugby,

[the spoofer]

Fully agree with you. It's a ridiculous proposal that a rugby club is promoted to senior once their ladies team reaches the AIL.

There must be 50 junior clubs in Leinster alone with only one getting an opportunity to get into the AIL via the round robin. The challenge for womens teams to get into the AIL is in no way comparable.

[ormond lad]

Railways head coach/director of womens rugby has been making a few very long threads on twitter about womens rugby/IRFU etc.
makes some good points. some completely wrong but interesting nonetheless.
https://twitter.com/JC200022

[the spoofer]

Railways head coach/director of womens rugby has been making a few very long threads on twitter about womens rugby/IRFU etc.
makes some good points. some completely wrong but interesting nonetheless.
https://twitter.com/JC200022

The demands of AIL both mens and womens has had a serious knock on effect for underage rugby. All AIL games now require 3 officials and that is placing a burden on the supply of refs with many underage games not being played or having own club affiliate refs.

My suggestion is that there should be a corps of non refs who are independent of the club and can act as touch judges. This should certainly be the case for AIL 2A to 2c and womens AIL. This would free up dozens of refs.

[Dave Cahill]

More should be done to promote refereeing as a rugby option for young, current and ex-players. Even leaving aside all the off-the-field incidental stuff that has sprung up in recent years, Refereeing is really hard, even if you know every law and application guideline backwards it still doesn't mean you'll be a competent ref. Referees are skilled rugby participants. Perhaps one thing that could be looked at is, when I was younger I played basketball to a pretty high level, players at the higher schools levels were 'encouraged' to go on refereeing courses by the (then) IBA (now Basketball Ireland). It meant that there was a ready supply of referees coming up through the game