Cunningham keeping in trim with game at a crossroads
St Helens player happy to improvise during lay-off which rugby league can ill afford, writes Fiona Tomas
Today, Jodie Cunningham should have been playing for St Helens on the opening day of the Betfred Women’s Super League campaign. Instead, she faces an extended pre-season with the equipment she has unearthed from clearing out her garden shed, after the competition fell victim to coronavirus before it had even begun.
“I pulled out a gazebo, paint pots and an unopened bag of stones for the garden,” she says. “I’m just trying to be intuitive with what weights I can use at home. All the home gym equipment has sold out everywhere.”
With all rugby league activity in England suspended indefinitely, there are fears the momentum sparked across the sport’s heartlands in the North could be halted. The elite amateur competition has expanded from just four teams when it was launched in 2017 to 10 this season.
“In the last two seasons, I’ve been asked for my autograph from young girls,” the full-back says. “Parents have told me, ‘You’re my daughter’s hero, can you have a photo with her?’ It’s crazy. Two, three years ago nobody was interested because there wasn’t the profile or the visibility.
“As a sport our roots are from working-class towns where clubs are at the heart of the community. That’s where we’ve seen our growth, by being associated with a really successful men’s club.”
The road to even semiprofessionalism is a long one for a sport which has a patchy national pathway. Although the England national performance squad expanded this month to include a “Knights” side, there are still no under-16 and under-18 sections, while the domestic level is far from lucrative.
“Our women’s team runs at a significant deficit,” Kevin Sinfield, the Leeds Rhinos director of rugby, says. “But we’re prepared to weather that as a club because our women players absolutely deserve it.”
Sinfield says the Leeds Rhinos women, the Super League champions, deserve to be “front and centre” at the club, as there is genuine potential for growth. “In the men’s Super League, the full salary cap is pretty much covered by a broadcast deal,” he says. “That would be a huge step forward if we can get a broadcast deal for our women’s competition.”
This year will be more important than ever if the women’s game is to build on the 200,000 viewing figures it had on the Rugby Football League’s streaming platform last season.
This is also Betfred’s first full season sponsoring the women’s competition, a major coup for players who juggle rugby lives with careers as solicitors, nurses, students and teachers. Cunningham’s day job is in the sport as full-time community engagement lead for next year’s World Cup.
The RFL says it is hoping to complete the original league structure.