Maggie Alphonsi wants more investment from RFU

Former England women's international Maggie Alphonsi believes the RFU should invest in both the England XVs and sevens game.

The RFU has confirmed that contracts for world champions England's 15-a-side women's side will not be renewed after the Women's Rugby World Cup next month.

The governing body will prioritise funding of the rugby sevens team with intentions of reverting back to full-time contracts for XVs players in preparation for the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup.

World Cup winner Alphonsi, who is the only woman of African and Caribbean heritage to represent England, believes the RFU should focus more on both forms of the game.

"I think it is important to recognise that the RFU have invested a large amount of money. You have to applaud the RFU because out of all the nations in world rugby the RFU have given the most amount of money to the women's game," Alphonsi told Sky Sports.

"I think when we look about going forward, and knowing that there is going to be a shift to sevens, you want to see more investment and you want to see investment in both the sevens game and the XVs game to maintain that standards are kept high to ensure that we win a Sevens World Cup, a Commonwealth Games and also a Women's Rugby World Cup in the next four years."

There are currently 50 players on either a full-time or part-time professional contract.

The decision by the RFU has gained criticism from MPs such as Gower MP Tonia Antoniazzi, a former Wales women's international, who called the news "another huge blow" and Barbara Keeley, Worsley and Eccles South's MP, who said: "Dreadful news for women's rugby"

The governing body has stated that they must prioritise sevens after next month's World Cup with the Rugby World Cup Sevens and Commonwealth Games taking place next year.

The RFU director of professional rugby Nigel Melville said he has been in dialogue with England's players about the situation since April, insisting there is a record of investing in cycles.

He told Sky Sports News: "We work in cycles and in this the final year of the World Cup cycle we've put added resources into the game to enable us to take the players away, play more games, go to the southern hemisphere and really prepare properly - and prepare like they have never prepared before for this tournament which starts next month.

"The strategy always was once we get through the World Cup to then focus for the next year on the Rugby Sevens. We'll then aim to grow the squad as we move into the next World Cup.

"I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding in some ways - they don't understand the investment that's going into the game in the next year.

"We're developing a new 10-team regionally-based competition coming out of the World Cup. Below that we have centres of excellence in place. Women's and girls' stuff is fantastic for the next four years and we'll double their level of participation in the game in that time.

"We have a lot of things going in that space. We have a small pool of players and we need to make sure at the top end we can make a bigger pool going forward. This is a way to do it - investing more than we have ever done before in the women's game with the hope of growing it on every front and moving of forward."

England are drawn in Pool B and will face Spain in their opening fixture in Dublin on August 9.