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 2018 season being contested by seven teams playing home and away against each other with subsequent play-offs and a grand final.[2]

Women's Super League
Current season, competition or edition:
2020 RFL Women's Super League
SportRugby league
Founded2017 (2017)
No. of teams10
Country England
Most recent
champion(s)		 Leeds Rhinos
(1st title)
Level on pyramid1
Domestic cup(s)RFL 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 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, notably Bradford Bulls took over the Bradford Thunderbirds 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-present: Expansion

The league continued to grow with Warrington Wolves being elevated from the Championship for the 2020 season.[4] The structure was also slightly changed with the addition of the Shield Final for the bottom 6 clubs to play for.

Clubs
Super League clubs
Colours Club Debut Season Location
Bradford Bulls 2017 Bradford, West Yorkshire
Castleford Tigers 2017 Castleford, West Yorkshire
Featherstone Rovers 2017 Featherstone, West Yorkshire
Huddersfield Giants 2020 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Leeds Rhinos 2018[5] Leeds, West Yorkshire
St Helens 2017[6] St Helens, Merseyside
Wakefield Trinity 2019 Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Wigan Warriors 2018[7] Wigan, Greater Manchester
Warrington Wolves 2020 Warrington, Cheshire
York City Knights 2018 York, North Yorkshire

Season structure

Ten teams play each other once, home or away over nine rounds. At the end if the regular season the team finishing top is awarded the League Leaders Shield. The top 4 then playoff for a place in the Grand Final while the bottom six playoff for a place in the Shield Final.

Play-off structure

At the end of the regular season the top four teams play off in two semi-finals (1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd) with the winners of these matches qualifying for the Grand Final match. The winner of this match is the competition's winner.

City Stadium Years
ManchesterManchester Regional Arena2017-2018
St HelensTotally Wicked Stadium2019
LeedsHeadingley2020–present

Champions
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

Results
Club Wins Runners
up		 Winning Years
1 Bradford Bulls102017
2 Wigan Warriors102018
3 Leeds Rhinos112019
4 Featherstone Rovers01
5 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.

Club Wins Winning years
1 St. Helens12016
2 Bradford Bulls12017
3 Leeds Rhinos12019

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. Only St Helens had achieved this feat by the end of 2019 winning all three trophies in 2016

Awards

League Leaders

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

Club Wins Winning years
1 Bradford Bulls12017
2 Leeds Rhinos12018
3 Castleford Tigers12019

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).[8]

See also

References
  1. "Women's Super League kicks off..." Rugby Football League. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  2. "Women's Super League fixtures announced". Rugby Football League. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  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. "Leeds Rhinos launch women's rugby league team". Yorkshire Evening Post. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  6. "Saints and Thatto Heath Crusaders sign unique partnership". St Helens Reporter. 25 November 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  7. "Women's Super League: Wigan Warriors to set up women's rugby league team". BBC Sport. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  8. "Betfred sponsor Women's Super League as Grand Final brought forward". Love Rugby League. 15 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.