England, Jamaica, Scotland to contest women's tri-series

Scotland will conclude their debut women’s season with a senior international match against Jamaica at Featherstone’s Millpond Stadium on Saturday, November 1 (12pm) in the final game of a tri-series also involving England Community Lions.

For Scotland, the tournament will mark the end of their debut year for women’s Rugby League after efforts over several years to launch a women’s side have finally come to fruition. Further fixtures are due to be announced.

Scotland will also play the England Community Lions women’s team on Saturday, October 18 (2pm) at Pilkington Recs, St Helens in the opening match of the tri-series before their women’s senior international debut at the home of Featherstone Lions two weeks later.

Scotland Head Coach John Whalley said: “We are really looking forward to these fixtures. It will be great to test ourselves against some strong and powerful athletes. Finishing the year with a senior international will crown a very special year for Scotland’s women’s team.”

Scotland women preparing for their international debut.

England will host Jamaica on Saturday 25^th October (1pm) at the same venue.

The Jamaican side for the tournament will be made up of heritage players from the UK as part the Jamaican Rugby League Association’s strategy to widen their available playing pool as they look towards competing for future World Cup qualification.

Jamaica Director of Rugby Romeo Monteith said: “We continue to build on our strategy to provide representative opportunities to both domestic and heritage players, the game against and the Lions will prove to be both transformative and inspirational. We expect to see many more Jamaica eligible players living in the UK put their hand up, and this can only make our program better.”

Jamaica lost to the USA in last November’s Americas Championships in Florida, with the home nation then playing Canada for a place at October’s World Series in Toronto.

The winner of the inaugural World Series between Canada, Fiji, Ireland and Nigeria will claim the eighth and final berth for RLWC2026 in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

With the men’s, women’s and wheelchair World Cups to then be staged separately, the next women’s World Cup will be played in 2028 and Jamaica are working towards securing a spot.

“A lot of hard work has gone on in the background after the game against USA to identify more Jamaica players based in the UK and as a result, these fixtures are possible,” Jamaica UK Lead Coach Darren Collins said.

“The ladies are looking forward to making history, especially for the full international against Scotland. We’ve a great balance of youth and experience from both rugby league and union, for the girls it’s a great opportunity to represent their heritage.” 

England Community Lions will pick players from the Championship competition and below, with players with Women’s Super League registrations or who have made two or more appearances for the England senior team deemed ineligible.

The Lions undertook their first tour in 2023 to Serbia and previously played a fledgling Wales women’s side, who have since earned qualification for RLWC2026.

“England Community Lions is pleased to be supporting Scotland and Jamaica with these two fixtures,” England Community Lions Programme Lead Alan Davidson said.

“We provided opposition for Wales when they were establishing themselves and we’ve supported Serbia’s preparation for World Cup qualifying in 2024 when we toured there in 2023 and I hope that playing these games gives equal support to Scotland and Jamaica whilst at the same time rewarding women’s playing in the English community game with an opportunity to earn representative honours.”

Fixtures

October 18
Pilkington Recs, St Helens (2pm)
England Community Lions v Jamaica

October 25
Pilkington Recs, St Helens (1pm)
England Community Lions v Scotland

November 1
Millpond Stadium, Featherstone (12pm)
Scotland v Jamaica