Construction services provider Buildcorp has rekindled its partnership with Rugby Australia by becoming the naming-rights sponsor of the body’s new Super W women’s competition.
The multi-year deal will see the competition, which gets underway next week, officially be known as the Buildcorp Super W. Buildcorp will also retain naming rights to Australia’s women’s national team, the Wallaroos, under the agreement.
As part of its sponsorship of the new league, Buildcorp’s logo will feature on team shirts and around the grounds on match days.
The new deal has been signed just months after Buildcorp ended its sponsorship of the men’s National Rugby Championship amid Rugby Australia’s reluctance to launch a similar competition for women.
Commenting on Buildcorp’s withdrawal from the deal and its subsequent return, the company’s co-founder Josephine Sukkar, who is also president of Australian Women’s Rugby, told Fairfax Media: “I attended a two-day World Rugby conference on women's rugby with (then-RA chief executive) Bill Pulver last year and we saw the full World Cup and I have a very, very clear understanding of the state of women's rugby globally as a result of that.
“Our withdrawal from the NRC went around the world, we had everyone talking to us about it, there is now a new threshold for this stuff. You don't want sponsors telling governing bodies what competitions they should run, that would be the worst outcome.
“But I want to support these girls to have a crack at winning and there is so little investment in the Wallaroos.”
Pulver has since been replaced as Rugby Australia chief executive by Raelene Castle, the first woman to take on such a role at a major rugby union body.
The Super W gets underway in Brisbane on March 10, when Queensland Women host NSW Women in a double-header at Suncorp Stadium.