RICHARD de la RIVIERE has long been a devotee of Women’s Rugby League and in this article he reacts to England’s shattering 90-4 defeat to the Jillaroos in Las Vegas last week.
WHERE DOES women’s Rugby League in the UK go from here?
England’s 90-4 defeat against Australia in Las Vegas last weekend was a calamitous result. I won’t dwell too much on the match, but it’s only right to recognise that a handful of players did play well, namely Anna Davies, Georgie Dagger, Hollie-Mae Dodd, Liv Wood and Vicky Whitfield.
It should also be pointed out that England’s best fullback, winger and centre – Tara Stanley, Leah Burke and Caitlin Beevers – missed the match through injury.
Coach Stuart Barrow had to front the media straight after the game, which can’t have been easy. He spoke of improving the domestic competition and trying to get more credible opposition for England than the annual games against France and Wales.
In the dressing room, I understand he was fairly sure he’d be sacked, but the Rugby Football League told me last week he will remain in his job.
I think that’s an error, but I also cannot seriously argue that England could have beaten Australia with anyone else leading the team.
And that, to a degree, is part of the governing body’s problem. Whoever the coach is, we’re too far away from second and comfortably ahead of the rest to get any meaningful matches in the calendar if we can’t play the Jillaroos and the Ferns.
But a 90-point defeat should have resulted in the RFL mulling over the future of the coach longer than they did.
I would say that perhaps half of the Jillaroos’ margin of victory is down to the gulf in class between the NRLW and the Women’s Super League.
The other half is down to the following: continued systemic failures in the RFL’s management of the national side, the appointment of Barrow, who has never even been head coach of a team of any real merit, training which I’m led to believe focuses far too much on aerobic fitness like running and not on power and physicality, and the constant omission of genuine enforcers in favour of much smaller forwards who could not cope with the New Zealand pack in 2022 nor the Australians last week.
But the decision to stick with Barrow has been made, so let’s move on and try to figure out how things can change.
Shrinking Super League
AS STUART BARROW admitted in his post-match press conference, the WSL’s elite players don’t play enough games of high intensity, which is effectively an admission that the decision to increase the WSL from five teams to six and then to eight, all made post-Covid, were incorrect. And he’s right.
It would be interesting to know who made the decision and what they think of it now. More importantly, if teams are going to be kicked out, when will it happen? Fixtures have already been announced for the new season, which kicks off in mid-May.
Champions York, serial cup-winners Saints, Leeds and Wigan are four superb teams that the RFL is lucky to have because it is they who are driving the women’s game forward in this country.
But what of the rest?
Huddersfield have occasionally looked like they may challenge the big four, but then they fall away, and the heavy defeats start to mount up again. Last season, they conceded 100 points in a match against Wigan.
They have some top players like Amelia Brown, Lois Naidole, Bethan Oates and a young winger in Mollie Iceton, who looks an international in the making.
But the Giants are not going to challenge the top four this year.
Barrow Raiders did very well in 2024 to finish fifth in their first season and they represent a new geographic region, but they have lost several top players since the end of the season.
Warrington were disappointingly poor last year and have since lost their coach and numerous players, including many of their best. Despite the club’s financial muscle, they have shown little ambition in the women’s game and are currently offering the WSL nothing.
Newly promoted Leigh will replace Featherstone Rovers in the 2025 WSL. They showed in their comfortable play-off win over Featherstone that they boast some quality, but, again, they have no chance of making the top four.
It’s very likely that in 2025 we won’t see a single match where a top-four side is beaten by a member of the bottom four. That last happened in 2023 when Leeds fielded a weakened side against Huddersfield a week ahead of Wembley.
The WSL probably does need to be reduced to four or maybe five teams, but are they really going to boot out four teams and scrap promotion at the same time? That would also be harsh on Championship clubs who have genuine ambitions of reaching the WSL.
If a reduction in teams happens, there’ll be a lot of complaining, but if it’s for the greater good, it will be justified.
Better representative games
THE NEXT ISSUE Stuart Barrow raised is the quality of matches on the representative scene.
Every year England play Wales and France, racking up scores of between 40 and 80 points. It is no preparation for Australia or New Zealand, and I feel coaches have read too much into these wins.
I’d argue for the France match to continue, as they are better than Wales with more scope for improvement, but last year’s 82-0 win over the Welsh should be the end of that fixture unless they can scour the WSL for heritage players. Saints’ Faye Gaskin and Luci McColm are two. Can they find eight or ten more to add to the handful of class players like Leanne Burnell that Cardiff Demons boast? If not, it’s time to end the fixture.
Can the RFL realistically fix up more matches with Australia and New Zealand, especially after Vegas?
There was supposed to be a women’s Ashes series this year, but talk of that dissipated very quickly. I’ve asked the RFL, the NRL and the international board what’s going on and no one seems to know.
Two things can happen in the meantime.
First, the two Yorkshire-Lancashire Roses fixtures need to be turned into meaningful contests.
That would mean independent coaches instead of Stuart Barrow picking both teams. I’d suggest York’s Lindsay Anfield for Yorkshire and Wigan’s Denis Betts for Lancashire, as neither are involved with England and both are clearly great coaches.
The games should be proper matches and not how they have been for the last two seasons, where there are no goal kicks and according to player feedback, there’s little direction and structure to the games.
Secondly, a new fixture should be created where England play what would effectively be a second string which, again, would require outside coaching.
Imagine Barrow’s first-choice pack going up against Emily Rudge, Savannah Andrade, Jas Bell and Eva Hunter. That would be box office because those players would be desperate to show they are better than their opponents.
I believe this fixture did take place in the early years of the women’s game, and the opposition was called the England Wildcats.
I floated this idea as preparation for Vegas, and it would have given the players match hardness they didn’t have. It’s too late for that now, but there’s not a single downside to the idea, and it needs to be introduced as an annual event straightaway.
Keep women in Vegas
FINALLY, there is speculation that the Vegas showpiece will be reduced to three matches with the women’s game scrapped.
My solution would be to keep it at four but with the women’s game played first, so those who don’t want to watch it or those who can only manage three matches can drift in at their own leisure.
As for the fixture, England won’t be invited back. Australia v New Zealand is a possibility, but there’s still a significant chance the Jillaroos would rack up 40 or 50 points.
After last year’s series, I’d be tempted to go for a State of Origin clash. That is the game most likely to showcase women’s Rugby League in the best possible light.
And after last week, that has to be the primary consideration.
