Women’s Rugby League will be bigger and better than ever in 2019, kicking off with a blockbuster opening Sunday featuring all three domestic leagues on April 7.
Wigan Warriors, who were Women’s Super League Champions in 2018, will launch their title defence at home to local rivals St Helens (to be streamed live on the Our League app and website, part of more coverage than ever before, for the women’s game).
Newcomers to Super League, Wakefield Trinity will make their 2019 debut with a tough trip to face the Challenge Cup holders, Leeds Rhinos, at Weetwood. York City Knights will face Castleford Tigers in Round One, and Bradford Bulls will welcome Featherstone Rovers as part of a double-header fixture at Odsal, which will also see Bradford Bulls men’s side take on Dewsbury Rams, in the Betfred Championship.
In the Women’s Championship, the newly created Warrington Wolves will travel to face Barrow (playing their first competitive fixture), while Huddersfield Giants – who enter the senior competition for the first time in 2019 after fielding an Under 19s side last year – will travel to face Widnes Vikings.
To round off the opening weekend of the Championship competition, Oulton Raidettes will welcome Leigh Miners Rangers and an all-Yorkshire fixture will see Hull FC take on Stanningley.
Nine teams will take part in the 2019 Women’s League 1 – Cutsyke, East Leeds, Halifax, Hull KR, Keighley Albion, Rochdale Hornets, West Leeds Eagles Ladies, Whitley Bay Barbarians and Wigan St Patricks.
In both the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship, every team will play all the others, home and away, over 14 rounds of the regular season.
In League 1, as there are only nine clubs involved in the competition, each club will have a number of bye weeks during the season.
In all three leagues, the season will begin on April 7 and end on September 29.
The top four teams in Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship will then enter into semi-final play-offs, with first place playing fourth and second playing third, before the Women’s Super League Grand Final and Championship Grand Final both take place on Sunday, October 13, at Emerald Headingly Stadium.
Women’s League 1 will follow the same format for the closing stages of the season, with a Final venue to be announced at a later date.
The Coral Women’s Challenge Cup, which will take place alongside the domestic league competitions, is expected to be bigger and better in 2019, as more teams than ever before enter.
The Women’s Final will take place as part of a tripleheader event, alongside the Coral Challenge Cup men’s semi-finals at the University of Bolton Stadium, on Saturday, July 27.
Round One, which takes place on Sunday, May 5 will feature sixteen teams – eight teams from the Women’s Championship and eight teams who progress through the preliminary qualifying round.
All eight Women’s Super League teams will then enter, in Round Two, which will take place on Sunday, May 26. The quarter-finals will be played on Sunday, June 6 and the semi-finals on Sunday, July 7.
Selected fixtures from across both the Women’s Super League and Coral Women’s Challenge Cup will be streamed live on the Our League app, and website. Further details will be announced in due course.
Full fixture list
