Furious Wallaroos gamers have unleashed on Rugby Australia, accusing the physique of spending more cash on the Wallabies’ wives and girlfriends than the nationwide ladies’s crew.
In a scathing open letter shared on social media by virtually each present Wallaroos participant, the crew lashed out on the the governing physique over an absence of funding and promotion.
“You told us flying anything beyond economy was too costly. Then you flew the Wallabies business class on a trip shorter than ours,” the letter started.
“You told us full-time contracts were in the pipeline, that there wasn’t enough money to keep the men in the game, let alone us. Then you paid $5 million for an NRL player.
“You continually say we don’t have enough resources and yet we all saw the World Cup send off for the Wallabies.
“We’ve seen the impact that women’s sport has had on the Australian sporting landscape, thanks to the Matildas.”
Wallaroos star Sera Naiqama, whose brothers Wes and Kevin have each performed within the NRL, took to Instagram to name out Rugby Australia over the VIP remedy of Wallabies WAGs.
The second-rower shared a screenshot of a since-deleted video from rugby.com.au displaying Wallabies’ star Carter Gordon’s companion, Abbey Lewis, boarding a Qantas flight.
Lewis additionally shared footage on her private TikTok account documenting her lavish journey to Sydney forward of the Wallabies’ journey to France for the World Cup.
She later deleted it amid the general public backlash.
“No disrespect to the girls in the video at all, they’re just living it up, as they should, how awesome is it to be able to support partners? But yet last year when the girls were off to the World Cup, they weren’t offered the same,” Naiqama wrote.
“It hurts because we are being told there isn’t enough funding in the woman’s [sic] game, yet you’re flying WAGs of the Wallabies out, they stay in 5 star hotels so they can say goodbye before the World Cup?”
“How many what the f**k moments are [sic] going to sit through?,” she added, claiming the Wallabies had been flown to South Africa in business class in July, whereas the Wallaroos spent 14 hours in financial system on their flight to Canada.
“Our flights (economy) were paid for by World Rugby, all Rugby Australia had to do was pay the cost in between to upgrade us, but didn’t even think we were worth that,” she claimed.
“You can delete the video and pretend it didn’t happen, but we kept the receipts.”
In one other put up by an unnamed Wallaroos participant, Rugby Australia had been once more lashed for his or her remedy of Wallabies WAGs.
“Wallabies partners better looked after than the Wallaroos. Their flights, accom, food all paid for to ‘say goodbye’ to the boys while the @wallaroosrugby get stranded in a Canadian airport for 3 days because Rugby Aus didn’t give them a flight home,” the livid participant wrote.
“Wallaroos families/partners don’t even get a free ticket to the game.”
Just earlier this 12 months the Wallaroos got part-time centralised contracts after years of being paid a each day price.
With the announcement of the part-time contracts, Rugby Australia Chair Hamish McLennan claimed the physique was allocating more cash for girls’s rugby.
“Rugby Australia has committed additional funding into women’s Rugby this year and is pushing hard for further investment and corporate support,” he stated.
“It is just the beginning, but the future for women’s rugby in Australia looks very bright.”
However, with latest claims, the query of how dedicated Rugby Australia is to this extra funding hangs within the steadiness.
Rugby Australia has been contacted for remark.
Source: www.news.com.au
