Leeds bid for Women’s Super League spot

James Gordon

Leeds are to launch their first ever women’s team and will bid for a place in the new Women’s Super League for 2018.

The team will play at the University of Leeds’ Sports Park Weetwood and some of their fixtures will feature as curtain raisers to the men’s team at Headingley.

Leeds Rhinos Women will also aim to add an Under-19s side to keep more girls engaged in rugby league.

Rhinos chief executive, Gary Hetherington, said: “Leeds Rhinos are totally committed to supporting the growth of Rugby League amongst women and girls and it’s so good to see so many currently playing the and we hope the creation of a potential new Super League team will encourage even more to play.”

The RFL are keen to attract more women to play the game – currently only 7% of the 95,000 players of the game are female.

Plans for a Women’s Super League were announced last year, though details of its make up have been sparse since.

Women’s sport has made significant progress in recent years, and football, cricket and rugby union all enjoy terrestrial television coverage.