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Leeds Rhinos celebrate after their derby win over Bradford, watched by 3,000 fans at Odsal.
Leeds Rhinos celebrate after their derby win over Bradford, watched by 3,000 fans at Odsal. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.com
Leeds Rhinos celebrate after their derby win over Bradford, watched by 3,000 fans at Odsal. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.com

Rugby league finally has a national women’s competition to celebrate

This article is more than 5 years old

Leeds Rhinos pulled off an upset against Bradford Bulls in the first weekend of the new seven-team Women’s Super League

By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required

So often the innovators, rugby league has been lagging behind other sports in establishing a serious women’s competition. That cavity is now being filled with the Women’s Super League finally kicking off last Sunday, featuring most of the highest-profile clubs in the sport.

Like its football namesake, WSL is partly a rebranding exercise, but rugby league finally has a national women’s competition to celebrate and promote. The seven teams (Widnes pulled out to spend this season in the eight-team Women’s Championship) play each other home and away between April and September, before a Grand Final at Manchester Regional Arena in the afternoon before the men’s event at Old Trafford on 13 October.

Anyone wondering why our biggest clubs have launched women’s teams should listen to St Helens second-rower Chloe Richardson. “Playing in Super League means so much to me. I’ve been playing for 10 years and this is a really big step. But pulling on the Saints jersey means even more. It’s something I’ve aspired to since I started supporting Saints as a little girl. It means everything – and it’s the same for the girls at the other clubs, like Leeds and Cas. We’ve idolised the players at our clubs and now we are playing for them, too.”

St Helens may, technically, be a new club but their squad is based on the successful Thatto Heath Crusaders team. Richardson admits the rebranding is working. “Being St Helens is a big factor in attracting players. We’ve got quite a few new players from St Helens but also girls from Leeds and down south who are at university in Liverpool.” They have also signed Roxette Mura, a former Australian touch football starlet.

Leeds Rhinos’ Danika Priim reacts to the referee’s decision. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/SWpix.com

Saints got off to a flier last weekend, hammering York City Knights 40-0 in their opener, but face a tough challenge at Bradford this Sunday. The reigning league champions and cup-holders are considered favourites and around 3,000 were at Odsal after watching the Bulls men’s team beat Coventry – the women’s game was top of the bill – to see Leeds pull off a 32-16 derby upset. There was a Friends Reunited element to that game: three of the Bulls’ 10 England World Cup players – Lois Forsell, Danika Priim and Charlotte Booth – were playing for Leeds.

Leeds, who are coached by Rhinos star forward Adam Cuthbertson, are a new entity. So are Wigan Warriors, but they do have the advantage of having the country’s most highly qualified female coach at the helm. Amanda Wilkinson has her work cut out though, as half of her new squad have never played rugby league before.

Castleford know how they will feel: they started from scratch last year and struggled in the pilot competition but their young squad, under former England full-back Lindsay Anfield, should improve. Featherstone Rovers were bridesmaids in the four-team league and cup last year and, led by England skipper Andrea Dobson, should be contenders again. York step up from the Merit League so may just be glad to get through the campaign intact.

Although no one is being paid for playing, sponsorship should ensure players are not out of pocket for representing their clubs. Richardson and her Saints team-mates also have access to far better facilities and expertise than ever before. “There is more emphasis on being professional now,” says the 19-year-old, who is a shipping and receiving analyst in the auto industry. “We train for longer and it’s more intense, more serious – but not too serious! We use Saints’ training ground at Cowley and they provide a strength and conditioning coach, a nutrition coach and a physio just for us. The club is a lot more involved.”

Four Super League clubs are not fielding a women’s team – Huddersfield, Hull KR, Salford and Warrington. Given that Salford do not even run an academy, the RFL are unlikely to force these clubs to launch a women’s team anytime soon. Richardson thinks they should: “Just look at how quickly women’s football lifted after the biggest Premier League clubs got involved: it took off. The rest of Super League need to muck in and get behind it.”

Foreign quota

The world of rugby league is changing – fast. Preparations for this summer’s Under-19 European Championship continue, with hosts Serbia coming from behind to beat debutants Bulgaria in Sofia, while in Moscow, in what sounds like a 1970s Uefa Cup tie, CSKA launched a fantastic comeback to snatch victory over Partizan of Belgrade in the inaugural Army Unity Cup. Partizan travelled 2,000km for the game – and some leaguies complain about going to Hull from Halifax.

Meanwhile, Cameroon Rugby League is up and running with a double-header and junior 9s tournament in Yaounde last Saturday. They stage their first women’s match – Sahel meet Raiders – next month. Imagine what Bill Fallowfield would say.

Clubcall: The Thorman Brothers

Wallsend’s famous rugby league clan are in the news again. Veteran Neil is back from spells in Australia and New York to kick goals galore for London Skolars, while Chris has the challenging task of sorting out Huddersfield Giants. Meanwhile, the other brother – former Skolars half-back and GM, Paul – is enjoying the sunshine of southern California.

Fomer London, Hull and Parramatta half-back Chris may be the first geordie Super League head coach. He certainly had one of the strangest England careers. In 2005, in the absence of the Great Britain stars, Thorman captained a young England side against France and New Zealand. But after failing to make the 2006 Lions squad, he turned down England to go on holiday. He never played for his country again.

Toronto could be on British satellite TV 30 times this season. Photograph: Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Goal-line drop-out

Despite holding the rights for five years, Sky still refuse to screen regular Championship games (but do show second-tier rugby union each week). However, with May’s Summer Bash on Sky, and Premier following Toronto Wolfpack to lesser-spotted locations such as Batley, Rochdale and Dewsbury, each Championship club will be on live TV at least three times this season. Half a dozen Toulouse games could end up on TV, while the Wolfpack could be on 30 times.

Premier, having just lost the NRL to Sky, have won the rights to union’s Pro14. So the only live professional club rugby on free-to-air TV will be the Challenge Cup on the BBC. It’s a shame the Beeb are only streaming this Saturday’s tie between vibrant third-tier York and struggling Catalans, not showing it on national TV. Expect a humdinger.

Fifth and last

The men’s and women’s sevens teams were not the only English rugby players to win bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games last week. While England were doing a double, Ali Jawad was coming third in the Para-powerlifting lightweight division. Seeing him celebrate wildly, I realised who he was. As a teenager in Tottenham, Ali came on as substitute for Woodside High School to play dummy-half against my Southgate College team in 2004. Given Jawad was born without legs, it was one of the most heroic things I have seen on a rugby league pitch. Taking up power-lifting, he has become one of Europe’s finest. Hats off Ali.

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