Ireland Women’s International, Cliodhna Moloney has joined forces with GUINNESS to promote the visibility of women’s sport and in particular, this year’s Women’s Six Nations, which is proudly supported by GUINNESS.
This is part of GUINNESS’ pledge to Never Settle until everyone belongs in sport.
Prior to this year’s Women’s Six Nations, just 6% of sports coverage in Ireland was dedicated to female athletes and teams.
In order for the disparity in representation within the sporting community to be closed, the shortage of data and information available on women’s players needs to be tackled.
This year, for the first time ever, the Women’s Six Nations is not taking place at the same time as the men’s championship, so building the profile of the players is key to attracting a wider fan base and encouraging more equity in coverage of women’s sport.
As a proud supporter of the Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship, introduced in 2020, GUINNESS and Six Nations will invite votes from members of the public for the first time in the Championship’s history.
Voting will open on Sunday 25th of April through the Women’s Six Nations website and social channels.
This is more positive news for fans of the Women’s Six Nations after Six Nation’s introduction of the Women’s Fantasy Rugby game featuring the same rules and structure as the hugely successful Guinness Six Nations Fantasy Rugby game.
This enables fans to select their team each week, earning points based on their players’ performance over the course of the Championship.
==
Speaking ahead of the first Women’s Six Nations Finals weekend on Saturday 24th, Cliodhna Moloney, Ireland Women’s International, said: “The #NeverSettle campaign is a fantastic initiative from GUINNESS.
"It’s exciting to see rugby sponsors like GUINNESS getting behind us and supporting the women’s game, helping to promote greater visibility for our team.
"Last year’s introduction of the Player of the Championship award supported by GUINNESS was a really positive step in the right direction so it’s great to see Six Nations and GUINNESS spotlight the award by opening it to a public vote.
"Hopefully, as a result of the Never Settle campaign, many new fans of the game will cast their vote from Sunday.”
==
Alan McAleenan, Guinness Marketing Director, Ireland said: “Following the announcement of the #NeverSettle campaign, it’s fitting that we are working with Six Nations to announce that the Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship supported by GUINNESS will be open to a public vote for the first time.
"This is a fantastic award for any player to win as it recognises the hard work, skill and outstanding performances over the course of a very competitive Championship.
"Through our partnership and the other dedicated activity across the Women’s Six Nations fixtures we will be helping to drive the visibility of the game and its players, attracting new fans and enabling everyone to get to know the Ireland squad a little better.”
==
Last week, GUINNESS also announced a partnership with Wikimedia to ensure that every member of the competing squads across Ireland and the UK is properly recorded on the site viewed by 18 billion globally every month – adding over 135,000 words to their profiles.
GUINNESS is also working with players on a global scale to update their Twitter profiles, ensuring they are in line with the new verification standards.
In the last twelve months, out of the 307,541 tweets mentioning rugby or the Six Nations globally, only 10% of those were about the women’s sport.
#NEVERSETTLE
