RFL Women's Super League

The Rugby Football League Women's Super League (known as the Betfred Women's Super League due to sponsorship) is the elite women's rugby league club competition in England. Originally competed between four teams in the 2017 season,[1] the league has developed with the 2023 season being contested by 12 teams playing home and away against each other in two groups with subsequent play-offs and Grand Final.

For the women's football league, see Women's Super League.
Women's Super League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2023 RFL Women's Super League
SportRugby league
Founded2017 (2017)
No. of teams12
Country England
Most recent
champion(s)		 York Valkyrie
(1st title)
Most titles Leeds Rhinos
(2 titles)
TV partner(s)Sky Sports
Level on pyramid1
Domestic cup(s)Women's Challenge Cup
Official website/Women's Super League

History

2014–2016: Background
See also: RFL Women's Rugby League

The first women's competition that was set up was the Women's Rugby League Championship, set up in 2014. It was mostly made up of community clubs with only Hunslet, Featherstone Rovers and Rochdale Hornets being professional clubs with a women's team. The Bradford Thunderbirds team became Bradford Bulls in 2016.[2] The league had a very low profile and only ran for three years until the Women's Super League was formed in 2017.

2017–2019: Foundations

To give the sport a bigger profile, the Super League name used by the men's game was adopted in 2017. The new league was still made up of community clubs but more professional clubs entered a women's team, The four founding clubs were Bradford Bulls, Castleford Tigers, Featherstone Rovers and Thatto Heath Crusaders.

The league expanded the following year with Leeds, York and Wigan joining while St. Helens took over from Thatto Heath Crusaders. The league was expanded again to eight clubs for 2019 with the addition of Wakefield Trinity Ladies.[3]

2020–2023: Expansion

The league continued to grow with Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants joining from the Championship for the 2020 season.[4] The structure was also slightly changed with the addition of the Shield Final for the bottom six clubs to play for.

In the 2023 season Wakefield dropped down to the Championship and were replaced by the Salford Red Devils and Leigh Leopards took the place of Leigh Miners Rangers following a partnership agreement between the two teams.[5]

Clubs
Super League clubs
Colours Club Location Debut Season Titles (Last)
Barrow Raiders Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria 2022[6] N/A
Bradford Bulls Bradford, West Yorkshire 2017[7] 1 (2017)
Castleford Tigers Castleford, West Yorkshire 2017[7] N/A
Featherstone Rovers Featherstone, West Yorkshire 2017[7] N/A
Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield, West Yorkshire 2020[8] N/A
Leeds Rhinos Leeds, West Yorkshire 2018[9] 2 (2022)
Leigh Leopards[5] Leigh, Greater Manchester 2022[6] N/A
Salford Red Devils Salford, Greater Manchester 2023[5] N/A
St Helens St Helens, Merseyside 2017[7] 1 (2021)
Wakefield Trinity Wakefield, West Yorkshire 2019[10] N/A
Warrington Wolves Warrington, Cheshire 2020[8] N/A
Wigan Warriors Wigan, Greater Manchester 2018[11] 1 (2018)
York Valkyrie York, North Yorkshire 2018[12] N/A

Season structure

Until 2019 the league was played with each team playing all the others home and away. At the end of the regular season, the top four teams played two semi-finals with the winners meeting in the grand final.

For 2021 a new structure was introduced. The ten teams play each other once, home or away over nine rounds. The top five then go into a play-off section where each team plays the others once more. The team finishing top of this play-off section wins the League Leaders Shield. The top four in the play-offs then meet in two semi-finals with the winners of these two game competing in the Grand Final.

The bottom five teams in the regular season enter the Shield competition which follows an identical format to the play-offs, where the winners of the two semi-finals meet in the Shield final.

2022 saw further changes with the Super League split into two sections; group 1 and group 2. This decision was made to introduce more competitive fixtures as the 2021 season drew criticism for the number of very one-sided matches.[13]

The same format was retained for 2023 but from 2024 the league will be reduced to eight clubs as part of a new integrated structure for the women's game in the United Kingdom.[14]

Final venues

Four venues have so far hosted the Grand Final. In 2021 the Grand Final and the Shield final were played as a double-header.

City Stadium Years
ManchesterManchester Regional Arena2017–2018
St HelensTotally Wicked Stadium2019, 2022
LeedsHeadingley2020–2021
YorkYork Community Stadium2023

Champions
See also: RFL Women's Super League Grand Final
Season Champions Score Runners-up League Leaders
2017 Bradford Bulls 36–6 Featherstone Rovers Bradford Bulls
2018 Wigan Warriors 18–16 Leeds Rhinos Leeds Rhinos
2019 Leeds Rhinos 20–12 Castleford Tigers Castleford Tigers
2020 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
2021 St Helens 28–0 Leeds Rhinos St Helens
2022 Leeds Rhinos 12–4 York Valkyrie York Valkyrie
2023 York Valkyrie 16–6 Leeds Rhinos York Valkyrie

Results
Club Wins Runners up Winning Years
1 Leeds Rhinos222019, 2022
2 York Valkyrie112023
3 Bradford Bulls102017
3 Wigan Warriors102018
3 St Helens102021
4 Featherstone Rovers01
4 Castleford Tigers01

The Double
Main article: The Double (rugby league)

In rugby league, the term 'the Double' is referring to the achievement of a club that wins the top division and Challenge Cup in the same season. Since the establishment of the Super League it has been achieved by the following teams:

Club Wins Winning years
1 Bradford Bulls12017
Leeds Rhinos12019
St Helens12021

The Treble
Main article: The Treble (rugby league)

The Treble refers to the team who wins all three domestic honours on offer during the season; Grand Final, League Leaders' Shield and Challenge Cup. In 2012, Featherstone Rovers won the first Challenge Cup, finished top of the Women's RLC Premier Division and won the Championship final.[15][16] In 2016, Thatto Heath Crusaders won the treble[17] as well as defeating French champions Biganos to claim the European Challenge title.[18] Since the establishment of the Super League the treble has been achieved by the following teams:

Club Wins Winning years
1 Bradford Bulls12017
St Helens12021

Awards

League Leaders' Shield

The League Leaders' Shield is awarded to the team finishing the regular season top of Super League.

Club Wins Winning years
1 York Valkyrie22022,[19] 2023[20]
2 Bradford Bulls12017[21]
Leeds Rhinos12018[22]
Castleford Tigers12019[23]
St Helens12021[24]

Woman of Steel award

The Woman of Steel is an annual award for the best player of the season in Super League. It was formed in 2018 to become a part of the Man of Steel Awards at the end of the men's Super League season.

Sponsorship

In August 2019 a sponsorship deal with bookmakers Betfred was announced to start immediately and which will run until the end of the 2021 season (concurrent with Betfred's sponsorship of Super League).[25]

See also

References
  1. "Women's Super League kicks off..." Rugby Football League. 24 July 2017. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  2. "Club of the Week: Bradford Bulls". Rugby-League.com. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  3. "Wakefield Trinty join Women's Super League for 2019 season". BBC Sport. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  4. Heppenstall, Ross (8 November 2019). "Women's Super League expands again as Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants sign up". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  5. "Salford Red Devils and Leigh Leopards to join BWSL in 2023". Rugby-League.com. 23 October 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  6. "Betfred Women's Super League to expand again in 2022". Rugby-League.com. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  7. "These Girl Can: The Wider Impacts of the Development and Growth of Women's & Girls' Rugby League (March 2021)" (PDF). Rugby Football League. p. 16. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  8. "Giants and Wolves to join Betfred Women's Super League in 2020". Rugby-League.com. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  9. "Leeds Rhinos launch women's rugby league team". Yorkshire Evening Post. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  10. "Wakefield Trinity join 2019 Women's Super League". Rugby-League.com. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  11. "Women's Super League: Wigan Warriors to set up women's rugby league team". BBC Sport. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  12. "Sports | York City Knights Ladies need you!". York St John Students' Union. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  13. "Women's Super League: Barrow Raiders and Leigh Miners Rangers join expanded 12-team competition for 2022". Sky Sports. 2 November 2021.
  14. Ibbetson, Stephen (5 February 2023). "RFL take national view in restructure of women's leagues from 2024". TotalRL.com.
  15. "Featherstone win Women's Challenge Cup". Love Rugby League. 16 July 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  16. "Women's Rugby League". Women's Rugby League. Archived from the original on 29 December 2012.
  17. "Bradford Bulls Women's Team". Bradford Bulls Foundation. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  18. "Club of the Week | Thatto Heath Crusaders". Rugby-League.com. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  19. "York City Knights claim Betfred Women's Super League Leaders' Shield". Rugby-League.com. 28 August 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  20. "Women's Super League: York Valkyrie secure top spot to retain Leaders' Shield". BBC Sport. 20 August 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  21. "Bradford Bulls seal Super League Grand Final place". Rugby-League.com. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  22. "Leeds Rhinos win League Leaders' Shield as semi-finals confirmed". Rugby-League.com. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  23. "Castleford lift League Leaders' Shield". Rugby-League.com. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  24. "St Helens Women clinch League Leaders' Shield". Rugby-League.com. 19 September 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  25. "Betfred sponsor Women's Super League as Grand Final brought forward". Love Rugby League. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
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