How to grow rugby league’s WSL: tight games, better pay and use Gladiators

“In the NRLW system, there are not many games, but they are really high quality,” she says. “You play 11 games and then you might get to a quarter and semi-final. It’s something we definitely could look at. Why are we not using that model? Our seasons are far too long. It’s really important to have a slightly smaller set of important games. Even this year, how it transitions into the top four, will massively help us get ready for that World Cup. It would be nice to see a tighter, maybe six-team Super League. The girls would benefit from that.”

Attendances at WSL matches range from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand, but double headers with men’s games bring in five-figure crowds. The crowd at Wembley for the double header Challenge Cup final later this month should be the largest ever to see a women’s club game in the UK. There are other ways for the clubs to attract more attention.

Branching out from the mainstream Super League club brands could help. York were trailblazers when they prioritised the Valkyrie; Featherstone are keeping the Rovers flag flying in the league-mad town; and a relatively tiny investment from BAE Systems, who build their submarines within sight of Craven Park, could make Barrow contenders. Cardiff Demons – soon to become South Wales Jets – and ambitious London Broncos are among the best in the second tier.

The league could also market its players better. The WSL attracts players from a broad social and geographic spectrum. Leeds Rhinos have two army medical officers in Kaiya Glynn and Ella Donnelly. Donnelly reached the semi-finals of the TV show Gladiators, where she was beaten by another rugby league player – the eventual winner of the show, Emily Bell, a Cambridge graduate who plays for the London Broncos and Jamaica. Gladiators has propelled Donnelly and Bell beyond the sport’s bubble and the pair could help the game reach new audiences.

Emily Bell, on her way to winning the latest series of Gladiators. Photograph: BBC/Hungry Bear/Graeme Hunter

Raising the profile of the league is tough while only half of the clubs pay players. “I’d like to see us get to a point where at least we can be fully semi-professional and on a similar performance path to other nations,” says Travis, the 26-year-old England back row. “It’s very important that younger girls eventually don’t have to have a full-time job to be able to play the sport that I love. When we came through, we didn’t see any financial gain from the game, whereas now, it’s really exciting to think those girls can potentially have rugby at the centre of their lives. I’d like to get to the end of my career and think nationally, we’re on a more equal playing field than we are right now.”

Gentles is one of the league’s most visible players, having worked as a pundit on BBC and Sky. She insists the push for professionalism is not all about finance. “Money is just one part of it,” says Gentles. “A lot of things go into making a successful squad. It is about a professional mindset. When I went to Huddersfield, there were a lot of off-field things that needed to be changed, to get into that mindset. Money doesn’t really come into that.”

Full-time wages are a way off but the improved facilities available to players reflects a change in attitude at several clubs. WSL teams train three times a week and players have access to staff and facilities unheard of when Travis came through as a teenager. “When I started it wasn’t really broadcast much on TV, and the off-field stuff – such as nutrition, strength and conditioning programmes, and the physio that we get now at our club – we didn’t have that. You just did gym if you wanted to. It’s just come a long way, but it’s got so much more to go as well.”

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