Rugby: "Totally unfair" – Black Ferns star Michaela Blyde denounces lack of coverage of women's rugby

World Rugby player Michaela Blyde laments the lack of television coverage of the World Series.

The Black Ferns started their second tournament of the HSBC Sevens series in Dubai last night, but will not be televised entirely in New Zealand.

The first day of the tournament will be broadcast on the World Rugby Sevens Facebook page and the Sky Sport 1 finals.

Blyde says that she and her teammates love to play for their family and their country, but when their games are not televised as they deserved, it may be hard for New Zealanders to support them.

"We certainly encourage a lot of people to support us, obviously it's much more difficult to never play at home in New Zealand, and we're not often on TV, unlike men who are always on TV , is totally unfair, "said Blyde.

"We are really trying to get our family and friends to make an effort to look at us.We love to play for our families and we love to play for our country, we really want to get all the support we can and hope that more people can We watch." live."

She added that the Black Ferns deserved full coverage of their matches on television. The only way she could continue to do that was to continue to prove that women's rugby had so much to offer.

"I guess the more we play, the more we show that we are the best in the world and the more we want to express our feelings on social media to get people to understand that we really want our family and friends to watch us at home Let's hope we can get more respect and get this TV coverage.

"I think for us, it's about continuing to play, to continue to do what we do and to show, not just at home, but around the world, that women's rugby is extremely fun and that we so we need so much more support with respect to this television coverage. "

She added that some countries were blocked by links to official websites, which meant that some people had trouble viewing and supporting them. She thought that if they were a New Zealand men's team, they would be televised.

In a statement, Sky TV confirmed that it would take a 2.5-hour show from the Dubai series at 10:05 tomorrow on SKY Sport 1 (SKY channel 051).

This would include 30 minutes of highlights, followed by live coverage of the last four games of the second day, including fifth place, the Challenge Trophy, the bronze medal match and the final.