Mr. Dudley Phillips:

Do we have as many female referees as male? No, we do not, but this is very much something we are targeting and working on. We are extremely fortunate, as with the other codes, to have successful female referees. We have Joy Neville, who was the first female referee to referee a male professional rugby game a number of years ago and, indeed, she refereed the women's World Cup final in 2017. We have worked with Joy and other referees. We have two female referees as part of our national panel. We are working hard around creating the right environment to encourage female referees to join and start the next chapter of their enjoyment within the sport.

While we will look at specific mentoring and specific female workshops to create that environment that I have mentioned, we are very keen that, as already mentioned by one of my colleagues, we do not look at female or male referees but that we look at referees. We have a joint pathway. It is very important that what while being aware of the need to facilitate certain aspects, we get all referees on the same pathway right the way through the system.