Wallaroos players will have a "degree of financial support" at the upcoming Women's Rugby World Cup thanks to A$1,000 ($797.40) payments that have been donated by construction company Buildcorp co-Founder Josephine Sukkar, according to Tom Decent of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. The majority of Wallaroos players, aside from a "handful" of Australian sevens representatives, will not be paid by the Australian Rugby Union to represent their country at the World Cup, which gets underway on Aug. 9 in Ireland. The ARU pays for accommodation, flights, food and all other expenses associated with an overseas trip, but "stops short of handing out match payments or any salary for that matter, because of the amateur status of women's XVs." However, Sukkar, who is also the president of Australian Women's Rugby, offered her support by providing grants of A$1,000 to each player in the squad. It comes after Buildcorp pulled its sponsorship of the National Rugby Championship this year over "the ARU's perceived inaction to create an equivalent women's competition." The A$1,000 donations are in addition to the A$200,000 ($159,500) the Australian Rugby Foundation "handed over last month," which will go toward "funding the program as a whole" (SMH, 8/1).
