Waratahs slam suggestion from England to allow female rugby players to take conversions closer in

A suggestion from England women’s rugby coach Simon Middleton that would see players permitted to kick conversions further in from touch has been slammed by Wallaroos great Ash Hewson.

Middleton publicly offered the idea recently with England’s first-choice kicker Zoe Harrison sidelined due to a knee injury – and missing the first few games of the Women’s Six Nations Championship.

Teammate Holly Aitchison has attempted to fill the void – with limited success – in Tests against Scotland and Italy, prompting Middleton to offered the radical suggestion.

‘I think we should change the parameters for goal-kicking,’ Middleton told reporters this week.

‘If a try is scored [within five metres of the touchline], the option should be there, maybe not to bring it into the 15-metre line, but maybe 10 metres from the touchline.

A suggestion from England women’s rugby coach Simon Middleton (pictured) that would see players permitted to kick conversions further in from touch has been slammed

Wallaroos great Ash Hewson has labelled Middleton’s suggestion a ‘step backwards’

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‘I think that could impact the game and change it positively. 

‘I think it is a bit of an unfair game for female kickers because so much about goal-kicking relies on power.

‘You want to be rewarded for good skill and hard practice and I don’t think they [women] get rewarded because of physical constraints that come with what we know is a natural discrepancy between male and female athletes.’

Hewson, who captained the Wallaroos and NSW Waratahs before retiring from the sport in 2019, was stunned by Middleton’s suggestion and felt it would be a ‘step backwards.’

‘I think there’s plenty of female rugby players, past and present, that have the ability to kick from anywhere on the field as well as their male counterparts. They are usually half their size too,’ the prison guard told the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘The biggest thing for me is that we have fought for so long and so hard for equality in women’s sport in general – not just rugby – and we still have such a long way to go. 

‘There are plenty of women at the moment in Super W competition who can strike a ball, they just are missing a bit of that technique. ‘Because of a lack of resources, that has never really been acknowledged or worked on.’ 

NSW Waratahs women’s coach Campbell Aitken was on the same page as Hewson, believing the left-field idea would be a ‘slap in the face for the girls.’