Far from fearing a player drain, Australia sevens coach Tim Walsh prefers to see the upside of so many sports putting women on a path to professionalism.
Walsh is in the middle of what ARU chief Bill Pulver describes as a "land grab for elite female talent".
The ARU helped Walsh shape an Olympic gold-medal winning side by plundering players from other sporting backgrounds.
Since that triumph in Rio last year, AFL has launched its national women's league, Cricket Australia has proposed major pay rises for female players and FFA has unveiled plans to host the women's World Cup.
The NRL has also made it clear it wants a national women's league in place soon.
"It's great. There's a lot of talent in Australia and the more professional women's athletes there are, the better," Walsh said at the launch of the ARU's new university-based women's sevens competition.
"If you come across to a professional program and you haven't been professional before, you don't know how to act or how to be resilient.
"If they're already professional and decide they want to come across, half of that work is done."
Walsh will be among the most interested onlookers during the inaugural women's university sevens series, which starts on August 25.
He is ready to hand out national contracts to the young guns who impress during the five-week tournament featuring eight university-based teams.
"We're encouraging the coaches and uni teams to take a punt on the rough diamonds that don't have that rugby experience but have that point of difference that is going to make the top team better in the future," Walsh said.
Pulver noted he is already "pretty certain" the new sevens event, in which members of the national squad have been appointed to different teams, will expand soon.
"We've already got four or five universities that want to join this competition," he said.
"Women's rugby, sevens in particular, is arguably the fastest-growing sport in the world.
"Women in rugby is a bit of a secret weapon for us ... this is an enormously important competition."
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