Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore has credited the hard work of the women in the national team in the lead up to their successful 2017 World Cup campaign for helping the game turn professional.
New Zealand Rugby announced earlier this afternoon the first contracted female players in rugby union.
Moore said the sacrifices are finally paying off for the female athletes.
"I guess you know the sacrifices that a lot of these players' made I'm meaning the two years leading into that World Cup it was a lot of programs and sacrifices that they had to make to operate at this level," said Moore.
"We wanted to be number one in the world leading up to the World Cup so there was a lot of early morning starts. There was a lot of time off work and back to train at nights.
"And when you are doing that for a couple of years and sometimes losing money out of your pocket it's very, very difficult."
Moore was appointed the Black Ferns' coaching role in 2015 and after the success of his side at the Rugby World Cup last year was granted an extension to his contract to stay on as head coach until the end of 2019.
Moore believes the interest at school level will grow.
"I think the other thing that is going to help is I think we'll see an improvement in numbers and quality of the FPC (Farah Palmer Cup) program." he said.
"There will be a lot more understanding of if players really want to get to that level and it’s only going to grow."
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