The Breakdown | Meg Jones leads the call to provide fertility support for rugby players

The introduction of funding for egg freezing and wider fertility treatment in women’s football has started a wider discussion about fertility in women’s sport with the Red Roses captain, Meg Jones, shining a light on the topic in rugby. The Spanish football federation and Chelsea have both announced financial support around fertility recently and Jones has said it is something the Red Roses should “jump on too”.

On the Good, the Scaz and the Rugby podcast, Jones described those decisions made in football as “class” before revealing that she and her fiancee, former Trailfinders and sevens star Celia Quansah, have been to get their egg count checked. The admission prompted her England teammate Hannah Botterman to share that she and her partner, the Wales player Georgia Evans, had also been researching their IVF journey.

Jones called for England to take on the policy and said the announcements in football made her think about it in relation to rugby.

She told BBC Sport: “Why should my opportunity to have a family be taken away from me because I want to pursue my career? I wouldn’t have thought it was something that we were lacking from maybe a governing point of view, but now I think about it I’m like, yeah, actually, I haven’t got that opportunity to go and create a family and be guided on.”

The Rugby Football Union does have a robust maternity policy which has been utilised by players including Abbie Ward, Lark Atkin-Davies and Zoe Aldcroft and they also do have some policies that pertain to fertility. The governing body currently offers a week of paid leave per fertility treatment cycle for those receiving treatment and for those attending appointments. It is also understood that they are open-minded about exploring the topic but England do not yet have financial support in place for egg freezing or treatment.

In response to the possibility of fertility support, a RFU spokesperson said: “We work hard to support players in the decisions they make around fertility and family planning and are proud to have been at the forefront of industry-leading support in this area. We already have comprehensive maternity and parental policies in place and are always open to exploring how that support can evolve.”

The Spanish federation announced last week that it would offer financial support to all employees rather than simply players. The organisation has partnered with Tambre clinic until 2029 and the RFEF president Rafael Louzán said of the announcement: “If Spain and its national teams are the best in the world on the pitch, they must also be the best in matters such as work-life balance.”

Chelsea have also partnered with a fertility clinic and are offering financial support for players to have fertility treatment and to freeze their eggs. The club is the first to offer such support in the UK and reportedly have enough funding for the entire squad to freeze their eggs if they wanted to choose that fertility route.

IVF has been discussed by players before in women’s rugby. Former England captain Marlie Packer and her partner and teammate, Rosie Galligan, have shared their experience and Wales star Alisha Joyce-Butchers spoke with the Guardian after her Women’s Six Nations call-up in April, saying of the process “you have to plan and prepare and it is all very meticulous. Probably one of the best decisions we have made is just to go for it.” Joyce-Butchers and her wife and teammate, Jasmine, went through IVF to conceive their son Ralphie, who was born last November.

Evans has learned a lot about the IVF process from Joyce-Butchers and spoke after Botterman, who played her first game for England since the 2025 World Cup last Saturday, said she had been for pre-scans.

“It’s a bit of an eye opener of all of the things you have to go through,” Evans said. “All of the things you have to put in place for it, it’s not a happy accident that just happens unfortunately for us. But it is something we have looked into for the future.

“I think all the progression within sport itself, in women’s sport in general and all the support that’s got behind it and all of the attention it is getting is amazing because it is another step forward to allow us as elite athletes to plan for motherhood. Rugby is only such a small time frame in your life and for that it is such a bigger thing to look forward to, after rugby or during as you have seen with so many incredible women at the moment.

“Me and Hannah are in two different teams so again that’s a new dynamic to look at and what does that look like? We both feel very supported with [Sean] Lynn and management being amazing and I know she feels the same with England.”

Jones hopes sports can learn from each other. She added: “I think the more we can empower women the better for the game as a whole and better for women in general.”

On the pitch, meanwhile, the England captain led the Red Roses to their 39th win in a row against Australia in their WXV Global Series opener last Saturday, despite a slow start. Jones, who came away with a black eye for her efforts, cannot wait to play their opponents from last year’s World Cup final, Canada, in their trip to Sandy Park this weekend.

“Always excited to play them,” she said post-match last Saturday. “It is always an amazing battle so yeah very much looking forward to getting back up, regrouping and going again.”

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