Thursday 31 January 2019 23:13, UK
At the Six Nations launch in west London last week, England's Eddie Jones and Wales' Warren Gatland revealed themselves as netball fans who watched the recent Quad Series in Liverpool and London.
Gatland mentioned how much he had enjoyed the tournament which was won by Australia on goal difference, while Jones - who is an old friend of South Africa's coach Norma Plummer - attended the netball as a spectator.
Jones and Gatland aren't the only ones to have watched the Quad Series with interest; there was an increase in television viewership to go alongside packed houses at the Echo Arena and the Copper Box Arena.
After England won gold at the Commonwealth Games last year, a sell-out crowd in London watched them beat world champions Australia to finish second overall in a nail-biting end to the series.
And netball is not the only sport in which the women's game is seeing a surge in interest; rugby is on the same path. Attendances at last year's Six Nations were up 12 per cent on the previous year, with the title-deciding game between France and England watched by 17,500 people in Stade des Alpes in Grenoble - a record for the Women's Six Nations.
Tournament director Yvan Cebenka says those numbers are indicative of a wider growth in interest in the game.
"In the last three years women's rugby has developed tremendously and substantially," Cebenka said. "All sports are growing in terms of participation by women and rugby is no different.
"From what I've seen, from all indication from fans around the world - youngsters taking up the sport - the growth in female participation is much more substantial than the males."
Cebenka's words are backed up by numbers included in a press release sent out by World Rugby on Thursday, which outlines their 'women's development action plan 2017-2025'.
The statement said: "With 9.6 million players recorded globally, latest player figures show total female players account for 2.7 million in World Rugby member unions, a 10 per cent increase when compared with 2017.
"In 2018, the total registered female players figure saw the biggest increase at 28 per cent, which equates to 581,000 players when compared with 2017."
World Rugby general manager Katie Sadleir said of the figures: "While we are moving in the right direction, we are determined to continue to push forward in delivering on our strategic objectives which will ultimately benefit the sport and put World Rugby at the fore as a global leader in sport as a game for all."
Cebenka says continued expansion of participation will inevitably drive the standards of women's rugby around the world.
"The popularity of the game continues to grow but also the quality of the games continues to grow," Cebenka said. "Women's rugby is still relatively new. We still have a mountain to climb in terms of developing athletes and also the quality of the matches themselves.
"As we do so, undoubtedly we will attract more people just because of the quality of the shows, the spectacles and the matches that will be on offer."
Last year's Six Nations clash between France and England was watched by Cebenka who said the "atmosphere at the venue was absolutely fabulous". That day's one-point loss cost England the title, and this year it will likely be equally difficult to separate the sides.
However, there is one glaring difference between the two teams: England go into the this year's tournament with a 35-strong Elite Player Squad, with 28 having signed full-time contracts. While World Rugby works to develop grassroots interest, the RFU has made the move to turn their top talent fully professional.
Then-RFU chief executive Steve Brown said when the contracts were announced: "This has long been our ambition and demonstrates the RFU's commitment to growing the women's game and the belief we have in the future of the sport. We are at a tipping point for women's rugby globally and it is our ambition to be world number one and drive growth at every level."
Under its women and girls strategy, the RFU is planning to double the number of female participants in rugby by 2021 by increasing the number of women's teams by more than 75 per cent to 800, the number of active women's clubs to more than 400, and also getting more women involved in rugby as referees, coaches and volunteers.
RFU director of professional rugby Nigel Melville said: "As a union we want to lead the way for driving standards in women's rugby through everything we do. Full-time contracts are a big step in ensuring we have the access to players to develop them and fulfil their potential."
There has also been support from television networks. Following France's heroics in Grenoble, France 2 televised their autumn match against New Zealand at 9pm on a Saturday night, a slot given to the men's internationals. In this year's Six Nations they will also be showing France's second-round showdown with England Women alongside the men's Six Nations.
Propulsion to prime-time spots will take the game to a new generation of young women in France, which Cebenka says will help fulfil his own ambition for the Women's Six Nations: "To be able to rival the quality and attraction of the men's championship, and to recreate all the je ne sais quoi - attracting many people to love the game of rugby, but also to come watch Six Nations games week in, week out.
"It is a je ne sais quoi because when you consider the success of the Six Nations as a whole, it's so remarkable and so great in terms of quality and level of success. There's a strong support and momentum from everybody - it's unbelievable."
Despite her part in making history when she leads out a team of professionals in the Six Nations opener on Friday night, England captain Sarah Hunter is hoping for patience from supporters. For all the changes that are happening in the game, she says, the goal of England's players remains the same.
"Regardless of whether we are professional or aren't, we've always been about winning and we've always wanted to win trophies and win games," said Hunter.
"We know that didn't happen last year and we really want to put that right this year. Yes, professionalism does help but we're still very new to professionalism.
"It will take time for that to click and I think you'll see over a period of time that getting stronger, but potentially in this block of time quite quickly, we won't see the finished article.
"There's no difference to us that we will want to go and win and that expectation for us individually, and collectively as a team will be to go out to win games and put in good performances."
The Women's Six Nations gets underway on Friday night when Ireland host England, live on Sky Sports Arena and Mix from 4.55pm.
