{"id":1704,"date":"2025-11-21T12:26:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2025-11-21T12:26:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:26:01","slug":"bath-talks-productive-with-pwr-about-womens-team-joining-top-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=1704","title":{"rendered":"Bath talks &#8216;productive&#8217; with PWR about women&#8217;s team joining top league"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Bath are having &#8220;productive&#8221; and &#8220;collaborative&#8221; conversations with the PWR about a women&#8217;s team one day joining the league says their chief executive.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bath applied to enter a new women&#8217;s team in Premiership Women&#8217;s Rugby in 2023 when the league rebranded but were unsuccessful at the tender stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The PWR is currently made up of nine clubs and while expansion has been ruled out for 2026-27, beyond that is undecided.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The conversations that we&#8217;re having with the PWR now are much more collaborative in nature, being able to take a longer term view to plan for that entry in the future in a way that means we can build a player performance pathway,&#8221; Tarquin McDonald, Bath chief executive told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Also having that commercial runway so we can enter in a sustainable way. What&#8217;s really good is that those relationships and conversations with the PWR are very productive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The reigning men&#8217;s Prem champions are one of just three men&#8217;s top flight clubs &#8211; along with Northampton and Newcastle &#8211; currently without a top tier women&#8217;s outfit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They partnered with existing team Bath Ladies in 2021 &#8211; who have a team that plays in the Championship 1 South, the second tier of the women&#8217;s game in England &#8211; and made a pledge to grow the sport across the region.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">PWR executive chair, Genevieve Shore, said the league was &#8220;open to talking to anyone&#8221; who is interested in investing in the women&#8217;s game and it was &#8220;exciting&#8221; Bath wanted to join.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We are willing to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to that end,&#8221; Shore said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Bath Rugby are incredibly committed to their women&#8217;s programme, and it&#8217;s exciting that a club as prestigious as Bath is interested in joining the PWR.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bath are having &#8220;productive&#8221; and &#8220;collaborative&#8221; conversations with the PWR about a women&#8217;s team one day joining the league says their chief executive. Bath applied to enter a new women&#8217;s team in Premiership Women&#8217;s Rugby in 2023 when the league rebranded but were unsuccessful at the tender stage. The PWR is currently made up of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}