A WOMEN'S version of The United Rugby Championship could be formed, confirmed CEO Martin Anayi.
According to RTE the plans to form a women's version of the popular rugby format is in its infancy, but it's something that will become a priority.
"I was speaking to stakeholders about that yesterday," Anayi said,
"We have just over half of our employee base who are women. We had a strategy the other day and asked everyone what are the top three things you want to see the URC do over the next five years, and a women's competition came in everyone's top three.
"There's a real push, I don't think it's necessarily reacting to the market, it just feels like we should have a women's competition.".
"I've done a lot of work recently asking all of our clubs and unions, because obviously we don't pay central contracts at URC, we're a tournament organizer, we promote and market games but don't pay the players.
#Rugby URC CEO Martin Anayi says they have spoken to World Rugby and other stakeholders about the prospect of creating a women’s version of the oturnament.
— EWN Sport (@EWNsport) April 26, 2022
"What's really important is what are our unions doing at the moment, what's their plan? How can we help generate a better professional environment, like they're doing in England with the Allianz Premier XVs?
"We're talking to World Rugby about that also, because they have their own WXV competition, and we're talking to Ben Morel (Six Nations CEO) and his team at the Six Nations, because the Women's Six Nations is redeveloping and we love that.
"We think - and this is widely held - that the URC can be a key part of how the Women's Six Nations can get even bigger and stronger."
The format is also still to be decided
"Does it need to be 16 teams? Probably not. If you look at women's Super Rugby and NRL, it's not all of the teams.
"Should we get it going sooner rather than later? Yes we should, because I think the women's game deserves that.
"We have women's teams operating in Ireland, it's a little bit hit and miss elsewhere, but I think we can pull together a really great competition that needs to be in conjunction with what the unions would like to achieve and clubs would like to achieve, because it'll take their funding to help it come into fruition.
"There's definitely a will, we'd love to see a women's URC, and we're just exploring how does that come about now," he finished
