Jon Wilkin says this is vitally important for rugby league’s next TV deal

It is International Women’s Day today and rugby league has done its best to highlight the women’s game.

The sport is massively growing appearing on BBC and Sky Sports and has been boosted by the Rugby League World Cup last year.

But most players still aren’t getting paid and thus Jon Wilkin has called for a focus on equity rather than equality speaking on Sky Sports this afternoon.

He said: “The discussion now is equality and equity. Equality is fairness so everything is equal whilst equity is providing people with the tools they need to get to and those tools can be different whether you’re a man or a woman or what ever your situation is.

“We need to focus on equity rather than equality, that is important to have in this conversation.”

This came as he said the women’s game can help rugby league secure a favourable TV deal:

“It has come from not really being in existence to growing. It is in an exceptionally strong position. We have some challenges coming up, I think the TV deal, the women’s game can add an awful lot of commercial value to our game.

“Rugby league or any sport if you are not looking at the women’s side of the game or the diversity point of view to broaden your brand, you are crazy.

“Rugby League right now the women’s game is adding an unbelievable amount of value to the overall pot and that is exciting for me because we can make sure they get paid properly for doing a full tome job which is not the case at the moment.”