In the absence of Colm Parkinson, Derval O’Rourke joined Off the Ball this evening as a panellist on the show. Inevitably, the discussion surrounding the media’s coverage of women’s sport arose and Derval spoke about her feelings on the topic as a female athlete.

“I come from an athletics background which is, I believe, very gender-equal when it comes to the treatment of competitors. We get the same prize money, pretty much get the same coverage, it’s a minority sport. I think it [gender imbalance] is way more obvious in a sport like rugby.

“This is the world we live in. We live in a world where women’s sports aren’t covered.”

Regarding the angry reaction to the much talked about Niamh Horan article in the Sunday Independent on August 10, O’Rourke believes that the backlash to Horan didn’t necessarily benefit the cause.

“I think the outcry is a little bit of a surprise because, if you want to read a certain type of article about sport, go to the sports pages then you have a lot of really good journos writing about the women’s rugby so I don’t think it helped.”

The full discussion can be heard below.