"See It. Believe It" - Jodie Ounsley: Ex-England sevens star & Gladiator's 'Fury' is smashing down negative views of women's rugby

This campaign aims to break down the negative stereotypes around women’s rugby, and as they describe “let the rugby do the talking”.

They have brought on the likes of ex-England Sevens star Jodie Ounsley, also known for her role as Fury on Gladiators to be Goal Click Storytellers, to show the nation what women’s rugby is all about.

On her role as a Goal Click storyteller, Jodie said: “It's the storytelling and connecting with the fans, and with the players in the game, which are the best parts and is what women's rugby is all about.

“And I think that's kind of what Vodafone are doing with this campaign. It's kind of bringing a new angle to it, but doing it in a quite relatable, sort of authentic way, which is cool.”

New data released by Vodafone showed that 70% of Brits who hold a negative opinion of women's rugby have never actually watched it.

Jodie in an exclusive interview with the Ruck said: “I think even when I've been speaking to people, they just have no idea until they've tried it, basically. And it's the same with the sort of viewers coming from gladiators and things like that, people who just thought, oh, I won't like rugby, but then they've gone and watched it, and their mind and perception has just been completely changed.

“So, I think sometimes you just got to find ways of kind of just throwing it into people's faces without them even realizing and then they actually think, well, you know what, I like a bit of this.”

There is this idea that the more women’s rugby people see, the more positive their opinion and those people who have watched any women’s rugby in the past year describe the women’s game as “skilful and exciting”.

In addition, according to research by Vodafone over half of those people stated they would be more likely to watch the Guinness Women’s Six Nations compared to the men’s counterpart.

Within the new research by Vodafone, it was found 42% of Brits say the lack of coverage of the women's game is one of the biggest barriers to becoming a fan of women’s rugby.

For context, only 11% of Brits see women’s rugby on social media and just 15% can remember seeing it on the news.

Jodie on this topic, adds: “I also believe, like when people feel like they can relate to someone, they obviously have more interest in what it is. So, whether it's into a certain player, certain club, a certain team, if they have some connection towards it, then it just grows.”

The Vodafone ‘See It. Believe It’ campaign aims to help close this visibility gap which we can currently see between the men and women’s game.

And with the closure of that difference in coverage, there is hope that this will stem the continuation of negative stereotypes around the women’s game.