Women's Rugby League making a splash around the world

Stephanie Carroll made history at the weekend by becoming the first try scorer in the inaugural All-Ireland Women’s domestic rugby league fixture. However, Stephanie will not be the latest history maker for too long in the fast moving and growing game of women’s rugby league. By Friday she will be old news as Wales will play their first ever senior international match and then on Saturday, the attention switches to Australia and the Origin fixture, where both New South Wales and Queensland will have women coaches for the first time ever.

A great deal of the focus for 2021 will be on the World Cup in November, and so it should be. The RLWC2021 is leading the way for team sports demonstrating parity across all three competitions men, women and wheelchair. That great news will only highlight the immense work going on around the world

The Pacific has already crowned women’s champions in 2021 in Cook Islands, Vanuatu is in the midst of its competition and both Fiji and PNG have announced their new elite competitions for 2021. Australia and New Zealand have their very sophisticated range of women’s championships in play or ready to go with the prime NRLW competition already expanded for 2021.

The Cook Islands, together with the NZ Ferns and the Jillaroos will all have eyes on being world champions at the end of the year.

In the Americas, attention has been focussed on Brazil, the potential wild card of the world cup. They have completed their national championship and are in the middle of national training camps all with the backdrop of the terrible COVID statistics endured by the country. They are undeterred and will be ready for their first game when they face England at Headingley. In the USA the women have started their domestic season, but one eye will certainly be on qualification for RLWC2025.

The Middle East Africa (MEA) region has seen the women’s game grow in real time alongside the men’s game. Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon all running vibrant local competitions and capturing the excitement and joy of playing rugby league. It seems almost inevitable that at least one of the those countries will qualify for RLWC2025, however, Morocco has started its junior women's competitions to operate alongside the adult versions, which may give them a head-start.

Europe was making great progress prior to the pandemic and is showing signs of a return. Greece, Turkey and Serbia had all made their debut and look like August could be a re-start date. France have been a leading light in the women’s game for many years and as well as the return of their domestic competitions, they have been holding their RLWC2021 training camps and also taking a leading role in supporting French speaking African nations such as Cameroon.

International Rugby League Chair, Troy Grant commented on the dynamism in the women’s game saying, “There is a very welcome increase in the both the participation and profile of women’s sport across the world and IRL is proud to be at the heart of that movement led by our outstanding Women and Girls Advisory Group who are in the process of developing an integrated international women and girls’ strategic plan in preparation for the explosion of the female game after the RLWC2021.

“There is so much activity and enthusiasm for women’s rugby league and it’s across the whole membership of IRL. The World Cup in 2021 will be a very special tournament and I look forward to that and also the inevitable qualification competition that will be required for 2025 with the growing number of nations playing and excelling at the sport.”