The United Rugby Championship are exploring the possibility of creating a women's competition, according to their CEO Martin Anayi.
And while discussions and planning are still at a very early stage, the chief executive says its development is very much a priority for the league.
"I was speaking to stakeholders about that yesterday," Anayi said, when asked about the possibility of a Women's URC.
"We have just over half of our employee base who are women, we had a strategy day the other day and asked everyone what are the top three things you want to see the URC do over the next five years, and a women's competition came in everyone's top three.
"There's a real push, I don't think it's necessarily reacting to the market, it just feels like we should have a women's competition."
With attendances increasing in this year's Women's Six Nations, in large part down to an unstoppable English team, the knock-on effect has seen other unions forced to get their house in order in a bid to play catch-up.
There has been increased pressure on the IRFU to create professional contracts for women's XV players, with head coach Greg McWilliams revealing that it is in the pipeline in the near future.
Playing contracts will also be an issue for any potential Women's URC to address, according to the tournament CEO Anayi (below), who says they he believes their competition could boost the profile of the women's game even further.
"I've done a lot of work recently asking all of our clubs and unions, because obviously we don't pay central contracts at URC, we're a tournament organiser, we promote and market games but don't pay the players.
"What's really important is what are our unions doing at the moment, what's their plan? How can we help generate a better professional environment, like they're doing in England with the Allianz Premier XVs?
"We're talking to World Rugby about that also, because they have their own WXV competition, and we're talking to Ben Morel (Six Nations CEO) and his team at the Six Nations, because the Women's Six Nations is redeveloping and we love that.
"We think - and this is widely held - that the URC can be a key part of how the Women's Six Nations can get even bigger and stronger."
Anayi said the make-up of any potential competition is still undecided, pointing out how having a matching women's team for each of the current URC sides is not necessarily a requirement.
"Does it need to be 16 teams? Probably not. If you look at women's Super Rugby and NRL, it's not all of the teams.
"Should we get it going sooner rather than later? Yes we should, because I think the women's game deserves that.
"We have women's teams operating in Ireland, it's a little bit hit and miss elsewhere, but I think we can pull together a really great competition that needs to be in conjunction with what the unions would like to achieve and clubs would like to achieve, because it'll take their funding to help it come into fruition.
"There's definitely a will, we'd love to see a women's URC, and we're just exploring how does that come about now," he added.
