David Humphreys
speaker
277 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 19 Jun
David Humphreys’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
There are huge numbers of people still playing the game.
The challenge we've got and the challenge we've always had is as they progress, people play multi-sport and opportunities arise.
And you're right, there's concerns around the player welfare aspect of the game.
But those are all issues that we're trying to address ongoing.
I don't think there's one solution.
But the answer is the IRFU are totally committed to growing the game.
We believe there's a huge opportunity now in the women's game to accelerate that.
You'll have seen that in our strategic plan.
We want to grow the women's game faster than what we've done in the men's game, which has evolved over the last 30 years.
And there's challenges that come with all of that.
But what we're absolutely committed to doing, ensuring that we have a thriving game from the very top to the very bottom, knowing that we're going to be competing against other sports, particularly in Ireland.
Those are the meetings that are going on at the minute, Donna, the women's game and how we grow the game and not just the professional end.
We do have some, we have over 30 central contracts in place.
We have some of our best players also playing the PWR in England.
We're in discussions about what the future of the professional game looks like.
But the bigger discussion that's going on with Lynn Cantwell, Gillian McDarby, Amanda Greensmith from the domestic game, liaising with our heads of rugby development in the provinces with our GMs, how do we make sure, to your point, that we've got a structure and a pathway in place that allows the girls to play the game?
The only way we grow the game is by getting people playing it, getting people falling in love with it, seeing what...
not just what it can do from a professional, because if you go too narrow in the professional ambition, what happens is that too many players fall off it and don't play long-term.
A game that is successful, and we all look across the hedge at GAA and the community aspect of those clubs,
We've tried to match that.
Showing 161–180 of 277 · page 9 of 14
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