Wigan have won more league titles than any other team in men’s rugby league, but their dominance in the women’s game is a recent and rapid development. They swept the board last season, winning the Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield and their first Women’s Super League title since 2018. As Wigan begin the defence of their title against Leeds Rhinos this weekend, we take a look at the main issues facing the league.
The continued development of the league is reflected in the increase of high-profile coaches leading women’s teams. Denis Betts, the former Wigan, England and Lions player who previously coached in Super League, guided Wigan to the treble last year and has led the way for others to follow. The season opener on Saturday between York Valkyrie and Huddersfield Giants brings together two former Bradford Bulls fullbacks, with Leon Pryce in charge of York and the former Scotland coach Nathan Graham now managing Huddersfield.
Wigan have lost several overseas players since winning the treble but they have signed England international Kelsey Gentles and Wales captain Bethan Dainton from Leeds, the lure of working under Betts a major factor. “It’s not often that Wigan come calling, is it?” says Gentles. “I felt Denis was going to be a good coach for me, to open up a different kind of rugby. It’s been a while since I’ve been taught and I thought this would be a good challenge.”
Wigan returned to the summit in spectacular fashion last season, but they will be pushed hard by St Helens again this year. The two clubs meet in the Challenge Cup final on 30 May – a repeat of last year’s final. The same names crop up a lot. One of the league’s major weaknesses – as well as sharing a name with the much more famous football competition – is the range of ability in the competition. The international players concentrated in the top few clubs stroll to huge wins over the amateurs and teenagers who play for teams in the bottom half.
Leeds beat Leigh 82-0 in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals; Wigan thrashed 2024 champions York 52-0 in the semi-finals last weekend; and Saints travel to Barrow this Sunday having put 68 points past them in the cup last month. “Having 70-0 games is not getting bums on seats when we’re trying to get more people engaging to get us to that professional level,” says St Helens player Paige Travis. “People are not going to go back. Players don’t want to play in 80-0 games, either. They’re not doing anything for us and or the other team. It’s really tough to get up for those games.”
Hopefully things will improve this season with a change of format. The season will be split after seven rounds, meaning the top four will play each other again home and away before a shortened playoffs. Having spent last season at Parramatta Eels, Travis thinks the WSL would benefit from following the NRLW’s less-is-more model.
“In the NRLW system, there are not many games, but they are really high quality,” she says. “You play 11 games and then you might get to a quarter and semi-final. It’s something we definitely could look at. Why are we not using that model? Our seasons are far too long. It’s really important to have a slightly smaller set of important games. Even this year, how it transitions into the top four, will massively help us get ready for that World Cup. It would be nice to see a tighter, maybe six-team Super League. The girls would benefit from that.”
Attendances at WSL matches range from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand, but double headers with men’s games bring in five-figure crowds. The crowd at Wembley for the double header Challenge Cup final later this month should be the largest ever to see a women’s club game in the UK. There are other ways for the clubs to attract more attention.
Branching out from the mainstream Super League club brands could help. York were trailblazers when they prioritised the Valkyrie; Featherstone are keeping the Rovers flag flying in the league-mad town; and a relatively tiny investment from BAE Systems, who build their submarines within sight of Craven Park, could make Barrow contenders. Cardiff Demons – soon to become South Wales Jets – and ambitious London Broncos are among the best in the second tier.
The league could also market its players better. The WSL attracts players from a broad social and geographic spectrum. Leeds Rhinos have two army medical officers in Kaiya Glynn and Ella Donnelly. Donnelly reached the semi-finals of the TV show Gladiators, where she was beaten by another rugby league player – the eventual winner of the show, Emily Bell, a Cambridge graduate who plays for the London Broncos and Jamaica. Gladiators has propelled Donnelly and Bell beyond the sport’s bubble and the pair could help the game reach new audiences.
Raising the profile of the league is tough while only half of the clubs pay players. “I’d like to see us get to a point where at least we can be fully semi-professional and on a similar performance path to other nations,” says Travis, the 26-year-old England back row. “It’s very important that younger girls eventually don’t have to have a full-time job to be able to play the sport that I love. When we came through, we didn’t see any financial gain from the game, whereas now, it’s really exciting to think those girls can potentially have rugby at the centre of their lives. I’d like to get to the end of my career and think nationally, we’re on a more equal playing field than we are right now.”
Gentles is one of the league’s most visible players, having worked as a pundit on BBC and Sky. She insists the push for professionalism is not all about finance. “Money is just one part of it,” says Gentles. “A lot of things go into making a successful squad. It is about a professional mindset. When I went to Huddersfield, there were a lot of off-field things that needed to be changed, to get into that mindset. Money doesn’t really come into that.”
Full-time wages are a way off but the improved facilities available to players reflects a change in attitude at several clubs. WSL teams train three times a week and players have access to staff and facilities unheard of when Travis came through as a teenager. “When I started it wasn’t really broadcast much on TV, and the off-field stuff – such as nutrition, strength and conditioning programmes, and the physio that we get now at our club – we didn’t have that. You just did gym if you wanted to. It’s just come a long way, but it’s got so much more to go as well.”
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