The RFL Women's Championship[1] (originally proposed as the RFL Women's Regional Super League) is a rugby league competition for women's rugby league clubs in Great Britain. The competition is the second tier competition in the British rugby league system with competition winners having the possibility of promotion to the RFL Women's Super League.[2][3][4][5]
Prior to 2024, the RFL Women's Championship acted like the men's competition, a single national competition below the Super League. The competition was founded in 2017, the same year as the RFL Women's Super League, following the abolition of its predecessor competition, the RFL Women's Rugby League. However due to the geographical distribution of rugby league club in Great Britain, all Championship clubs were located in Northern England. In light of the growth of popularity in the women's game, especially outside of the heartlands, the expanded Championship aimed to grow women's rugby league outside of the heartland and provide routes for non-heartlands clubs to enter the Super League.[2][3][4][5]
Original proposal for an expanded league
The original plan for the competition had teams divided into four geographical groups with each group having a maximum of eight teams as the competition grows. Winners of each group enter a playoffs draw with the winners being the season's champion. The champion would also enter a promotion play-off with the 12th placed team in the Super League for possible promotion, similar to the Million Pound Game.
The Roses region would inherit teams from the Super League and Championship whilst the South region would be a successor competition to the Super League South.[2] On 27 April 2023, the RFL confirmed a selection of teams to play in the North and Midlands region along with a soft launch of these two regions in the summer of 2023.[7]
Women's Super League North
The Super League North was given a 'soft launch' in 2023 with a series of matches between Newcastle Thunder and Workington Town with the aim that a Scottish team would be added to the competition in 2024.[8] Workington had announced plans to launch a team in 2022[9] and the Newcastle team had formed in 2023.[10] The first match took place on 9 July 2023,[11] after both teams had taken part in the RFL Women's Nines earlier in the year.[12]
The Women's Super League Midlands was launched in 2023 with four teams taking part: Cheltenham Phoenix, Coventry Bears, Leamington Royals, and Telford Raiders.[8] A Coventry team had previously taken part in Women's Rugby League Conference and the early years of the Challenge Cup,[13][14] whereas Leamington were launched in 2022 and Telford and Cheltenham were new teams.[8][15] The competition used a double round-robin format of each team playing home and away and the top two competing in the grand final.[8] On 19 August, Telford, who finished in top place, defeated Coventry 34-18 in the final at Leamington RFC.[16][17]
The Super League South was launched in 2021 with six teams: Army RL, Bedford Tigers, Cardiff Demons, Cornish Rebels, Golden Ferns and London Broncos.[18] Despite plans for expansion the league remained at six teams when Oxford Cavaliers joined in 2022 as Cornwall withdrew from the league.[19] Oxford withdrew the following season when Thurrock T-Birds joined the league.[20]
2024 structure
The RFL's January 2024 statement about the league stated there would be three regional competitions named Midlands, Northern and Southern Championships rather than the four previously proposed. Due to only having two teams, Newcastle Thunder and Workington Town, the "North" group did not go ahead. The "Roses" group would be renamed Northern Championship for the inaugural season. Due to limited numbers in the Midlands Championship, the Midlands group would play a festival format for 2024 thus would be illegible for the national playoffs and promotion.[1]
Clubs
Founding clubs
In January 2024, the RFL confirmed the nine clubs in the Northern Championship and four of the clubs in Southern Championship.[1] The teams in the Midlands Championship were announced in May.[21]
Teams entering the competition having been promoted from lower league from 2025 onwards are:
Relegations from Super League
Teams entering the competition after being relegated from Super League from 2025 onwards are:
Results
From 2017 to 2023, the RFL Women's Championship only operated in Northern England and thus were national second tier champions. Teams of this competition would go on to form the Northern Championship. Champions of predecessor competitions to the Midlands and Southern Championship are also shown.
