Rugby Football League To Launch Women's Super League This Summer

The Rugby Football League is "drawing up plans for a Women's Super League," according to the PA. A formal launch "will be held in the summer to bring together elite teams from the women's game" into a streamlined, professionally-run competition alongside the men's Super League. Teams which now operate as community clubs "will be formally allied to men's Super League outfits, although the players will remain amateur." The move has the backing of Sport England, which this week announced a grant of £10.75M ($13.5M) over the next four years to the RFL to "aid attempts to attract more women, as well as black, Asian and minority ethnic players" into the game after it was revealed that 93% of the current total of 95,000 are male. The project is being led by Sarah-Jane Gray, "who took up the role of director of development and public affairs" with the RFL in November (PA, 3/24).