Giants promoted to top flight as league to expand
THE Betfred Women’s Super League will expand again in 2022 after the pandemic delayed planned expansion to 12 teams in 2021 – with Huddersfield Giants being promoted to group one status.
Barrow Raiders and Leigh Miners Rangers, who finished first and second in the Women’s RL Championship in 2021, have been promoted to join the 10 BWSL clubs.
Huddersfield Giants, who won the BWSL Shield on Grand Finals Day at Emerald Headingley in October in dramatic fashion defeating Featherstone Rovers after the 10-team competition split into two groups of five midway through the season, have earned promotion to a six-team Group 1 in 2022.
They will be joined by the top five from 2021 – Wigan Warriors, Castleford Tigers, York City Knights, Leeds Rhinos and the champions, St Helens, ensuring highly competitive Rugby League every week.
Huddersfield Giants Community Trust chief executive, Lisa Darwin, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for our ladies side and was a goal of ours to be in the very top flight when we started out on our journey a couple of years ago.
“The year we have had has been quite sensational and with our new facilities coming online soon together with the squad additions we have made we have an exciting future to look forward to.
“The realities of the top flight are clear and challenging in terms of the resource needed to compete at this level and we look forward to being an integral member of the Betfred
Women’s Super League Group One.
“Our clear goal will be to maintain our upward progress and continue to develop both on and off the field and use the Super League side as role models in the community to further develop the overall participation of women and girls in the sport.”
Barrow and Leigh Miners will be joined in
Group 2 by Bradford Bulls, Featherstone Rovers, Wakefield Trinity and Warrington Wolves.
There will be promotion and relegation between the groups – one up, one down at the end of the 2022 season.
In addition, applications are being invited for a possible expansion of the Betfred Women’s
Super League South – which kicked off in 2021 with six teams – and further expansion in the Midlands and North also in the pipeline for 2022.
The continued growth reflects the vision of a full national pyramid by 2024, which was the long-term vision outlined in 2016 ahead of the launch of the BWSL.
Thomas Brindle, the BWSL general manager, said: “The Betfred Women’s Super League, like Women’s and Girls’ Rugby League more generally, continues to be a good-news expansion story for the sport.
“Consultation with the clubs has confirmed a substantial majority in favour of building on that success, by maintaining BWSL as one competition split into two groups.”