England's women have spent pre-season in Nottingham throwing a ball that is not quite the one they grew up with, and the man in charge is a good deal more relaxed about it than his first-choice goalkicker.
World Rugby's size 4.5 ball - roughly 3% smaller than a regulation size five, but the same weight - will be used across the WXV Global Series in September and October. It is now in daily use in the Red Roses camp, and head coach John Mitchell has declined to join the backlash.
"If you want to get better at something, regardless of the size of the ball, it's all about coaching. So I think our girls have been well-coached," Mitchell said.
He stopped short of endorsing the change on its merits.
"I think it's too early for me to say that it's going to help our offloading game or it's going to help out with the pass. I'm sure there's consequences as well," he said. "There might be more contestable kicking, which is probably something that we want to keep away from our game because it's a point of difference between our game and the men's game."
Mitchell said the attacking players and kickers were each given a ball to take home over the holidays, and that the real verdict would come after England's first three home Tests. "The sample at the moment is too small. We have had two weeks of team work with it and skill set."
His fly-half was rather less diplomatic when the trial was announced in May.
"It's the worst decision that someone has ever made," Zoe Harrison told BBC Sport, adding that she only learned of it when journalists asked her about it.
"I've not kicked any less than a size five since I was the age of 14," the Saracens stand-off said. "There is not the same amount of surface area for you to wrap your foot around."
Harrison is not an idle complainant. In this year's Women's Six Nations she landed all 15 of her shots at goal, and Opta's expected-goalkicking model rated her 6.3 points above her own established standard and 8.2 points above an average kicker in the tournament.
She was backed by Maggie Alphonsi, the former England flanker and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee, who wrote: "Well said, Zoe. I do not support the decision either. It's an unnecessary change."
The reaction has not been uniform across the home nations. Scotland's 75-cap fly-half Helen Nelson said the mood in her camp was nothing like England's, and that she wanted to hold a ball before passing judgement.
"Obviously, as a kicker, it's such a massive part of the game is how you kind of strike the ball, deflate the ball, that sort of stuff," Nelson said. "I don't have too much of an opinion yet, but I'll be very intrigued to see because obviously it implicates my job quite heavily.
"Until I've kind of held it and had a play with it and seen what it's like, I wouldn't want to comment. But I am very intrigued to see how it is."
The governing body's case is one of proportion. Men's hands are around 10-15% larger than women's, and the smaller ball is intended to promote accuracy, cut handling errors and reward running rugby - a logic already applied in the WNBA's smaller basketball, shorter hurdles in women's athletics and shorter boundaries in women's cricket. Critics counter that it risks framing the women's game as a scaled-down version of the men's, and pushes equipment costs onto grassroots clubs.
World Rugby has already adjusted the trial once. An earlier size 4.5 used at the 2024 Under-18 Six Nations was lighter as well as smaller; weight was added back in specifically to address kickers' objections.
"Along with the sevens players, we'll carefully take stock of player feedback, injury surveillance and shape of the game data from the WXV Global Series," said Mark Harrington, World Rugby's chief player welfare and rugby services officer. "From there, together with the wider women's game, we'll assess the findings and look at where we go next."
The WXV Global Series carries no trophy and no table, which Mitchell regards as an advantage while his squad adapts. England play Australia, Canada and New Zealand at home in September before travelling to Canada and the United States in October - a schedule he views as reconnaissance for a World Cup three years out.
"It's kind of like you're auditioning for Australia 2029 because geographically we're definitely going to be travelling some distance in this tournament," Mitchell said.
England's opener is against Australia on 12 September at Sale's CorpAcq Stadium. By the end of that month, the argument may have answers rather than opinions.
