An expansion of Super Rugby Aupiki is a step in the right direction, but more is needed, if the Black Ferns and New Zealand hope to compete with rivals England and France.
After the success of its inaugural competition, the women's rugby competition will extend in length, while still operating at a semi-professional level.
Like this year, each team will play a three-games round-robin format, adding a post-season of semis, third-fourth playoff and a final - a schedule of five matches each and a combined total of 10 matches.
But those numbers pale compared to the northern hemisphere. With 10 teams, England's Premier 15s tournament consisted of 92 matches last season, while France's Elite 1 competition boasts 12 teams, down from 14 previously.
Those domestic models have helped the English and French national sides excel at test level, where they completed a 4-0 sweep by record scores over the Black Ferns on their northern tour last year.
And while the NZ women have enjoyed a resurgence under Wayne Smith's new coaching regime, they are still at longer odds than England to defend their World Cup crown on home soil over October/November.
New Hurricanes Poua coach Victoria Grant - one of the first women to lead a Super Rugby Aupiki franchise - insists expansion is welcome, but just a stepping stone to bigger things for the women's game in New Zealand and the wider Pacific.
"It's a good start, having the five games," Grant told Newshub. "But in the English Premiership, they have 24 games, semi-professional games.
"We really need to be pushing for more games within that space for our players to really compete on the world stage.
"It would be great for Aussie and ourselves to be in a competition together. The island nations, as well, would be awesome, in terms of developing rugby within our region, but also going full time.
"At the moment we're only [together] four days [a week]. The rest of the time, we're back in our normal jobs for the other three days.
"Having that time to be together, be working our systems and skill sets is vital. For us to launch off this platform, we need to move into a full-time campaign."
Both the Black Ferns and Black Ferns Sevens national programmes are New Zealand's only fully professional systems for the women's game.
For new Chiefs Manawa coach Crystal Kaua, a move towards full professionalism would be key to New Zealand keeping pace with their international rivals.
"The pre-season is so short," added Kaua. "When we got to the end of our Chiefs competition last year, we'd had four games - more than anywhere else - because we'd had the pre-season.
"We were at a place where we were starting to play a brand that was actually of our ability. I was, like, 'this is how it feels at the end of a pre-season, just about to start a season'.
"What could we do with the game, if we were able to create a longer competition, where people could play week in, week out and be professional athletes.
"You look at the sevens athletes, who are full-time professionals in an environment that's centralised, what you can do with the athleticism, skill, brand and style you can play is amazing.
"It's a great starting point, but we probably need to move faster to stay with what's happening in Europe."
