© PAWorld Rugby does not allow transgender women to play in women’s game, the RFU allows participation if testosterone levels are below 5 nmol/L.
The Rugby Football Union are reviewing transgender inclusion in women's rugby as a major new report concludes that trans women do retain advantages in physique, strength and stamina.
The report, which has been published by the UK's five sports councils, asserts that key physical differences remain even after reducing testosterone to the limits which have informed the current guidelines for most sports. "For many sports, the inclusion of transgender people, fairness and safety cannot co-exist in a single competitive model," it says.
This has meant recommending a sport by sport approach, which could include new 'open' or 'universal' categories, in an attempt to strike a balance between the competing priorities of inclusion, fair competition and safety.
The RFU's draft policy proposal was described in April by the campaign group, Fair Play for Women, as failing to assure either safety or fairness.
While World Rugby announced last year that it would not allow transgender women to play in the international women's game due to safety concerns, it does allow individual governing bodies to set their rules at a domestic level.
In England, trans women currently have to apply to the RFU to compete in women's rugby and, as part of that process, must record testosterone levels below 5 nmol/L for the previous year.
Seven transgender women have been approved to play contact rugby in England over the last three years. Draft RFU plans, circulated in March, suggested that trans women over 170cm in height or 90kg in weight would be risk-assessed.
This drew criticism from both sides of the debate. Fair Play for Women, said there was "no known method to reliably monitor and ensure safety and fairness for females while also allowing some males to play women's rugby".
Stonewall, however, questioned the research and said that "measuring anyone by their height and weight is reductive, but only asking trans women to be measured by this standard would be discriminatory and exclusionary".
The RFU have no plans to immediately change their position but they had already begun an extensive consultation process. This new report, which was written by the Sports Council's Equality Group, did not spark that process but will now help to inform the findings. There is no current timeframe on when that review will end but there is also specific criticism within the new guidelines of assessing athletes on an individual basis.
"It is difficult to foresee how someone could be expected to provide maximal effort when a positive outcome for them relies on achieving a lesser result," the guidelines state.
The new guidelines are advisory rather than mandatory but the report also urges national governing bodies to find "innovative and creative ways to ensure nobody is left out" such as new formats and non-contact versions of team sports.
"Sport must be a place where everyone can be themselves, where everyone can take part and where everyone is treated with kindness, dignity and respect," the guidelines state.
Comment: It sounds like they're talking about grade school level sports, not professional sports. At the professional level it's not about players 'being themselves' and everyone being 'treated with kindness' and ensuing 'nobody is left out' - it's a highly competitive environment where only the best are able to participate.
It says the governing bodies for each sport should work out their priorities, and choose whether they will focus on inclusion or "competitive fairness" or potential safety considerations within their sport's current format.
This means that contact, collision and combat sports, which may choose to prioritise safety, or sports based on strength, stamina or physique, which might prioritise "competitive fairness", could create extra universal categories for trans athletes.
The evidence which asserted that trans women retain certain physical advantages is itself controversial and disputed, although the report stresses that they have assessed the most recent research and interviewed more than 300 people and 175 organisations over the past 18 months.
Most sports currently follow the guidelines which were drawn up by the International Olympic Committee in 2015, which allow trans women to compete in female sport if their testosterone levels are below 10 nmol/L per litre. These rules, however, were described by the IOC themselves last August as "not fit for purpose". The five sports councils state that "there appears to be a retention of physical capacity in transgender people who suppress testosterone from male levels".
The extent of the competitive advantages between males and females were also laid out. Adult male athletes have on average a 10-12% performance advantage over female competitors in swimming and running events but this increases in jumping events and strength based events like weightlifting.
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