Tauranga businessman causes female rugby stir

File Image. SunLive.

A Tauranga businessman's lack of recognition of a girl's rugby team has caused a stir in Canterbury this week.

Female rugby players felt ignored at Miles Toyota's sponsorship launch event in Christchurch, with all the attention going to the boys' teams.

An event to launch a new schools' rugby sponsor has been branded 'insulting and diminishing” after the speech lauded the males in attendance, but ignored the female players there.

Principals, coaches and players from Canterbury schools were invited to the private function at Miles Toyota, in central Christchurch, on Monday night.

But chief executive Mark Mills did not mention the girls' schools in his welcoming address, saying later he had accidentally omitted it.

The company has supported the men's and women's Canterbury Rugby Football Union teams since 2018 and Monday's event was held to celebrate its new sponsorship of the Canterbury Secondary Schools' elite First XV Cup (boys) and Championship (girls).

Mark told the audience he had attended a few boys' games and wished the male teams luck for the season, but closed his speech without acknowledging girls' rugby or the female players in the audience.

He later apologised, he says.

Christine O'Neill, the principal of Christchurch Girls' High School, was among those in attendance.

She says it 'beggars belief” the female players were overlooked despite being in the room.

'The male CEO of Miles Toyota proceeded to give a speech welcoming the boys, discussing the boys' competition and wishing the boys' luck. There was no mention of the girls whatsoever.”

Staff at the school were 'furious”, she says.

One was due to complete the purchase of a new car from Miles Toyota on Tuesday afternoon, but went 'down and cancelled it”.

'I felt for every girl present,” Christine says.

'It was insulting and diminishing, despite the fact that women's rugby is vibrant, competitive and growing.”

The players were awarded a Miles Toyota Cup competition pin but the Girls' High team would not be wearing theirs, she says.

Girls' High had one of the most successful female school rugby teams in New Zealand. The team made the national finals in 2019 and had dominated the Canterbury competition in recent years.

Captain Mia Cochrane, who was at Monday's event, says the company should issue a formal apology.

'He didn't really acknowledge the females at all, even the way he was standing was centred towards the boys,” she says.

'It was a bit frustrating, not to feel as if you are valued and on an equal playing field.”

The 17-year-old plays first five and hoped to one day be selected for the Black Ferns.

'In 2019 we were the second top rugby girls' school in New Zealand. None of the other boys' schools who were present last night were at the nationals.

'We definitely put in just as much effort and hard work, so just to be acknowledged the same way would be nice.”

Mark, from Tauranga, says the failure to acknowledge the girls was 'a nervous omission”, which he regrets.

'I mentioned that I'd been to a couple of the [boys'] games, and I'd really enjoyed it, because I wasn't from Christchurch.”

He says he apologised straight away, saying 'sorry guys, that's my bad”. But he could not speak directly to Christine as she had left.

'I think she got really upset about it. She didn't even give me the opportunity to talk to her.”

One of the major factors when the company renegotiated the contract with Canterbury Rugby Football Union was to continue sponsoring female rugby, including the Farah Palmer Cup, he says.

About 500 high school students would contest the two Miles Toyota competitions, with 14 boys' teams and nine girls' teams.

Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief executive Tony Smail says the speeches were 'relatively quick” and Mark's lack of recognition of the female players was a 'faux pas” and not through malicious intent.

Tony Smail, Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief executive, says Mark made a 'faux pas”.

'I spoke and announced that it was really great for Miles Toyota to be part of this and that it's about the Championship and the Cup, so both the boys' and the girls' competition, and acknowledged them both,” he says.

'Mark is new to town and hasn't yet been to a girls' game. The boys have been running for about six or seven weeks and girls have only just started.

'Mark acknowledged at the end that he'd missed a trick there.”

- Stuff/Lee Kenny

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