IRFU Announces Future Structure of the Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) today announced the outcome of a review of the adult Women’s Club competition, outlining a long term plan to strengthen retention from junior to senior age-grades, and grow the Domestic game across the four provinces.

Following an extensive review process involving Provincial Branches, Clubs, Coaches and Players, a short form competition for 18 to 23 year olds will be introduced, along with changes to the Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division. Senior Provincial Leagues will remain unchanged.

The Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division stands as the flagship competition of Ireland’s senior Women’s Club rugby. The review has strongly reaffirmed the importance of the league as a high quality local performance competition.

As the women’s High Performance game continues to accelerate through the Celtic Challenge and evolving international pathways, the All-Ireland League Women’s Division remains a pivotal step along the pathway, providing opportunities for both emerging and established talent transitioning into and from representative selection, while showcasing the best senior Women’s clubs on a national stage.

The changes to the Energia All-Ireland League Women’s competition are designed with a dual purpose. Firstly, they strengthen the long term future of the high performance Senior Provincial game by building a more robust presence across all four provinces as we accelerate growth of our provincial age grade and senior provincial teams over the coming years. Secondly, the new structure aims to lift the competitiveness of teams and fixtures in the short-term. With these foundations in place, the competition model will be positioned to evolve further.

Updated Women’s Division Structure

The review identified several challenges under the current 10 team format including provincial imbalance, uneven games and stretch within teams whose players are selected to play Celtic Challenge/representative rugby.

The updated Women’s Division structure will see the competition move to 12 teams with transition towards two divisions of six teams. This model is designed to prioritise representation across four provinces to support the growth stage of the women’s game, enhance competitive balance and support player development. The recommended provincial distribution – 5 Leinster, 3 Munster, 2 Connacht, and 2 Ulster teams – reflects the priority goal of provincial representation enabling the league to grow in a future focused way at this age and stage in its development.

The new model retains promotion and relegation, and introduces a structured club planning framework, annual club health checks, and a performance support programme for the All-Ireland League Women’s Division teams. A new two tier competition format will also be implemented.

This approach gives emerging teams opportunities in the earlier part of the season to compete against higher ranked sides, before the league separates in the second half of the season, enabling teams of similar rank to compete for top positions in closely matched games.

The split league format has to transition over a number of seasons whilst the Provincial 5,3,2,2 format is being prioritised, with the goal being the All-Ireland League Women’s Division operating in a full season of a 1A and 1B format.

Improved Stability And Connectivity For Clubs

Speaking about the changes, the IRFU’s Head of Women’s Strategy Lynne Cantwell said, “Over the past nine months, we have carried out an intensive review, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders across the game. We recognise there is no silver bullet to accelerate the system change and competition models we are targeting in the Women’s game. However, we are equally clear we need reforms to safeguard the future, by creating competition models that strengthen our provincial footprints, grow our base and accelerate performance standards and quality of rugby experience across the whole rugby community in the short and long term.

We know that Clubs will take time to process the changes, as they care deeply about the game and its ambition, direction and value. The proof will be in the delivery: in the long-term nationwide club and provincial health, improved stability, system connectivity and the acceleration of standards through close partnerships with Provincial Branches and Irish Rugby.

Cantwell continues, “As part of the new structure, the competition will transition to a 12‑team format for the 2026/27 season, introducing the transition to a split League format and including annual mechanisms to build performance capacity in each  Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division club, supported closely by each Province.

“This season’s progression will be guided by end‑of‑season outcomes in 2025/26, ensuring the league evolves in a balanced and competitive way. As staff increase and the provincial pathway investment programme take hold through early 2026, the Women’s rugby system will experience the system change benefits required for longer term rugby community success.”

Further details on these scenarios are available in the competition FAQs.