Women's rugby league is the female-only version of

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

. There are women's clubs in Australia,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, overseen internationally by the Women & Girls Rugby League. Australia,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

compete on a regular basis with a

Women's Rugby League World Cup The Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament, contested by the women's national team of the International Rugby League (IRL). The competition has been held since 2000 in Great Britain and since 2008 has been ...

being established in 2000.

Governing Bodies

Women's & Girls Rugby League

The Women & Girls Rugby League is the international

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

of women's rugby league and was established in 2000 in conjunction with the first

. The organisation currently oversees the running of the international game for women's rugby league and helps organize rugby league domestically in several countries.

Australian Women's Rugby League

The Australian Women's Rugby League is the governing body of female rugby league in Australia and other parts of

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

and was established in 1993. It currently falls under the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

which oversees its running and management but it took the association five years to be recognized by the ARL. The AWRL is run at state level by its own governing organisations in the Queensland Women's Rugby League, New South Wales Women's Rugby League, Canberra Women's Rugby League and the Western Australian Women's Rugby League. The main women's competitions in Australia are the National Rugby League Women's Premiership, Sydney Metropolitan Women's Rugby League and the Brisbane and District Women's Rugby League. At international level the Australian Women's side is commonly referred to as the Australian Jillaroos.

Rugby Football League

The RFL Women's Rugby League is the governing body of female rugby league in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

; although some activity is run by the independent Women's Amateur Rugby League Association, originally established in 1985. With summer rugby becoming increasingly popular, the appeal of WARLA has waned, with the RFL running the largest women's rugby league competition in the world. At the beginning of the 2006 season there were between thirty and forty female only rugby league clubs running in

not including clubs that have teams of both sexes. The majority of these clubs are located in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. The RFL Women's Rugby League is a competition for female rugby league teams. The Women's Super League began in 2017 as the elite women's rugby league competition in the United Kingdom. At international level the Women's England side is commonly referred to as the Great Britain Lionesses In 2006, the RFL announced that after the

2007 All Golds Tour The 2007 All Golds Tour was a tour by the New Zealand national rugby league team, the Kiwis, of Great Britain and France. Conducted as part of the celebrations of a century of rugby league in New Zealand, it was a re-creation of the original New Z ...

the Great Britain team would no longer compete on a regular basis, and that players would be able to represent

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

at Test level. It is planned that the Great Britain team will come together in future only for occasional tours.

New Zealand Rugby League

Women's rugby league in New Zealand is controlled by the ''

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood '' ...

''. The national side is called the Kiwi Ferns. The NZRL Women's National Tournament is a competition for female rugby league teams. Women have been playing rugby in New Zealand since the 19th century.

Australian active competitions

Each state has their own games and competitions. One of the most anticipated games on a national level is the State of Origin. This series is played by Queensland and New South Wales. The series only consists of three matches. Each match is played at a different ground, including the

ANZ Stadium ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand * ...

in Sydney and the

Suncorp Stadium Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

in Brisbane. The team who wins two of the three games wins the State of Origin cup.

International

The following list of nations that compete, or have competed, internationally in women's rugby league. Table last updated: 21 November 2022. Notes: * In the Venues columns H: Home, A: Away, N: Neutral. * The tally of For and Against points for England and France excludes one Test Match, their first meeting in 2007. * A Great Britain women's rugby league team toured France in 1989 but played only touch football games against French women. They did play a tackle match against a men's Under 21 team, losing 4–10. * The 2000 World Cup programme lists previous Test series occurring between 1995 and 1999. * An article previewing the 2007 match between England and France mentions that it was the first international to be played by an English or Great Britain side since the 2003 World Cup. * Jamaica played in a Nines tournament in 2019 (with Canada and Ontario teams), but is yet to play in a full international. The following played tour, nines or other international matches prior to making a Test or World Cup debut.

Women's Rugby League World Cup

The Women's Rugby League World Cup was first held in Great Britain during 2000 to coincide with men's Rugby League World Cup with Australia, Great Britain and eventual winners New Zealand competing. New Zealand also won the second and third World Cups: a nine team tournament held at

North Harbour Stadium North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany, in North Shore City, New Zealand. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby union, association football, rugby league, and baseball are ...

, in the Auckland suburb of Albany in 2003; and an eight team tournament held at the Sunshine Coast Stadium and, for the final,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. In the 2013 World Cup, the Australian Jillaroos won the cup, breaking New Zealand's 13 year winning streak. Australia again beat New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup Final. The World Cup is played every 4 years. Delayed by a year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the most recent World Cup included eight teams and was held in November 2022 in England. It was played alongside Men's and Wheelchair tournaments. Australia won the tournament for the third time, all three in succession. The next World Cup will be played in France in 2025 with sixteen participating teams, and be held alongside Men's, Wheelchair and a Youth World Cup.

References

External links

Women's NRL
{{Women's sports Variations of rugby league Rugby League pages needing cleanup