AFTER the longest pre-season of them all, the final competition yet to start in 2026 is just about upon us.
The new Women’s Super League season kicks off on Saturday, 16th May, and promises to be one of the most competitive years yet, with significant changes expected to benefit the game both domestically and internationally.
It has often been said that the WSL is a competition of two halves — the top four and the bottom four — but that will literally be the case this year as a new format has been introduced to give the top players as much competitive action as possible before heading off to Australia for the World Cup.
Full details of how the split will work can be found on page 37, where we begin our in-depth preview of the season, but essentially, after everyone has played each other once, the season splits, with the top four playing out the rest of the season between themselves to make the Grand Final, and the bottom four doing similarly, but to avoid a promotion/relegation play-off against the winners of the Championship.
This will mean that in the latter stages of the season, the country’s top stars will find themselves taking part in close, tough, competitive games every single week.
I know this sport is often criticised for tinkering with its format and very few seasons being the same as the year before, but on this occasion, it is absolutely the right decision to reintroduce the mid-season split, which was last implemented in 2021.
Games in which Wigan, St Helens, Leeds and York are putting 50 or 60 points — sometimes more — on those clubs in the bottom half of the table are not enjoyable to watch, and I would imagine the players involved take very little out of one-sided routs like that. It certainly won’t prepare them for what’s coming up in the autumn when they travel down under.
Those players on the wrong end of those scorelines will take little from them as well — other than, perhaps, a dent to their confidence — especially if such a game came on the back of a couple of strong performances against one of the teams around them.
The new season structure will mean that for the final two months or so of the season, every single player is tested to their absolute limits.
Not only will that help the top players get fitter and stronger ahead of the World Cup campaign for England, but it will surely do the world of good for the confidence of those players lower down the league, who will also benefit, in the longer term, from having their own run of competitive fixtures to enjoy.
If they can then take that confidence into the following season and beyond, there will surely be a belief that, collectively, they can start to reduce the gap between the top and bottom even more.
As well as the games being closer in nature, the general standard and level of individual performances should also rise, given the massive carrot on the stick that is World Cup selection.
A squad of 33 players is already attending regular international training camps, with England coach Stuart Barrow always looking to add more when form dictates. But not all of them will make it onto the plane to Australia come October.
Some will have to miss out, and given Barrow has always selected his squads on form, every player involved in the new season will feel they are on a level playing field with others and will be determined to do all they can to get the nod from their international coach.
Traditionally, the England squad has generally come from the top four clubs, and while that is likely to continue, another big development for 2026 could see that shift as well.
A change in international eligibility rules has seen the tiering system scrapped by the IRL.
Previously, and like in the men’s game, players could only represent one ‘tier one’ nation — Australia, England or New Zealand — during their career, but now players can switch allegiance just as they could between other lower-tiered nations.
A number of NRLW stars, including Roosters duo Jasmine Strange and Jocelyn Kelleher, have already expressed an interest in representing England, and will now be able to do so without compromising their ability to represent the Jillaroos later down the line.
I fully appreciate that this change is an attempt to spread talent across the top women’s nations and make them closer to each other, but it very much feels like a short-term solution to a longer-term problem.
Very careful consideration will be needed later this year when Barrow and his coaching team come to name their final squad.
Yes, they could select a whole host of NRLW players that, given how far advanced the game is over there compared to here, would give England a far better chance of winning the World Cup for the first time — but at what cost?
Imagine being a leading Super League player who has come through the British pathways, put in the hard graft all season, made numerous sacrifices to attend all the England training sessions, then is not selected because an NRLW player in the same position also wants to play and is deemed better, even though they’ve yet to link up with the squad.
What is to stop that player, and others in the same situation, from suddenly feeling disillusioned by the whole thing and drifting away from the game?
If those same heritage players then do enjoy some success and later earn selection for their home nation, where would that leave us? Probably further back from square one.
If NRLW players are going to play for England, there needs to be some level of commitment to it. They can’t just see it as an easy route to the World Cup and then jump ship when a ‘better offer’ comes along.
If they want to play for England, they need to show it in more ways than simply pulling on a shirt. They need to be in it for a long time, not just a good time.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 520 (May 2026)