Former Ireland international Ailis Egan has criticised the decision of the IRFU to reject the offer of a three match Test series between the Irish women's team and Australia.
The Australian Rugby Union had made the offer of a Test series to run alongside the men’s series, which is due to get underway this weekend.
However despite the ARU pledging to cover the cost of the Irish team’s accommodation, the IRFU declined the offer.
"Certainly we invited them because that’s the way we are looking to go forward, as the governing body, giving our women the same opportunities as our men," Australian Women’s Rugby president Josephine Sukkar told the Irish Times.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, former Ireland prop Egan was left confused as to the IRFU’s reasoning behind their decision and claimed that it was a "missed opportunity" for the Irish team.
"I’m bitterly disappointed in hearing the news, it’s a missed opportunity," she said.
"A missed opportunity for development of the game in terms of the girls’ skills and how they’re playing the game, but also in terms of exposure for women’s rugby.
"The fact that it was integrated with the men’s on a major stage would just be brilliant for the game and brilliant for the growth of the sport at grass roots level."
An IRFU spokesman told RTÉ Sport that a summer tour was not in line with the organisation’s strategy for the women game at present.
However, Egan is not convinced by the IRFU’s explanation and believes that a lack of clarity still surrounds the organisation’s approach to senior women’s rugby.
"We asked for that strategy after the World Cup, we asked for that review," she said. "At grass roots level we want to know and want to hear from the IRFU what that strategy is.
"Until we know that, we don’t know if it’s in line with anything."
The IRFU have claimed that they will publish that review towards the end of this summer.
Current international Sene Naoupu also expressed her dismay at the decision on Twitter.
Sick of staying quiet about missed ops for shared learning. Been working on a paper investigating a model of promo and dev in women's sport that could be sustainable for wom rugby in Ireland, but what’s the point. When a key charac of successful models is integrating with the men https://t.co/OA95OFZ2FM
— Sene Naoupu (@SeneNaoupu) June 7, 2018
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