The 2023 RFL Women's Super League (also known as the Betfred Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

, for female players in clubs affiliated to the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

(RFL).

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

were the defending champions having defeated York City Knights in the 2022 Grand Final. Since then both teams had announced that they would become semi-professional for the 2023 season and York had been rebranded as

York Valkyrie The York Valkyrie are the women's rugby league team of York RLFC (known as York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Valkyrie, who were established in 2016 as the York City Knights Ladies, compete in the Women's Super Leag ...

. On 9 April, they faced each other at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

in the opening match of the 2023 season. York went unbeaten through the regular season to retain the League Leaders' Shield and defeated Leeds 16–6 in the Grand Final on 23 September. In a change from the 2022 season the 12 teams were split into two groups of six. In Group 1

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, Leeds, St Helens,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

and York were joined by

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

who had won the 2022 promotion final. Group 2 comprised

Barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...

Featherstone Featherstone is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, two miles south-west of Pontefract. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 2011 ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

and

Leigh Leopards The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Ru ...

who replaced Leigh Miners Rangers. This was the last season of the two-group Super League before a restructuring of the league for 2024. The six teams in Group 1 will be joined in the 2024 Super League by the team finishing first in Group 2 and the winners of the Group 2 play-offs. Featherstone Rovers won the automatic promotion place while Barrow Raiders won the play-offs for the second promotion place.

Pre-season

On 14 October 2022, York City Knights became York RLFC and their women's team was rebranded as

. A week later it was announced

would take the place of Leigh Miners Rangers in the Super League following a merger agreement between the clubs. On 30 October,

announced that their women's team would become semi-professional for the 2023 season. This was followed by York Valkyrie on 4 January 2023, marking the first and second semi-professional women's rugby league clubs in the United Kingdom.

Teams

Group 1 teams

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

* St Helens *

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington Z ...

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

Group 2 teams

Barrow Raiders The Barrow Raiders are a semi-professional rugby league team in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The club was formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club. For the 1995–96 and 1996 seasons the club was known as Barrow Braves, becoming the Ba ...

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship (rugby league), Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rover ...

Salford Red Devils The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been t ...

Fixtures and results

Regular season

The season began on 9 April, with current champions Leeds taking on York at

whilst the 10 remaining teams started their season on 16 April. The Leeds-York match was a repeat of the 2022 Grand Final and attracted a new attendance record of 5,308 for a Women's Super League fixture. York remained unbeaten to become the first team to win the League Leaders' Shield in successive seasons of the Women's Super League. They were joined in the Group 1 play-offs by Leeds, St Helens and Wigan. Due to the restructuring of the league for 2024 Warrington and Huddersfield were not at risk of relegation. The eight-team 2024 Super League includes all six teams from Group 1 who will be joined by the team finishing first in Group 2 and the winners of the Group 2 play-offs contested by the teams finishing second to fifth in the group. The top spot in Group 2 was not decided until the final day of the regular season. Leigh were ahead of Barrow and Featherstone by one point, but lost to Barrow in their final game. Featherstone, who had started the day in third, also won and overtook Barrow on points difference to claim the automatic promotion place.

Group 1 table

Group 2 table

Playoffs

In the play-offs, semi-final wins for Barrow (over Bradford) and Leigh (over Salford) meant they faced each other again in the Group 2 promotion final with Barrow winning 14–8 to earn their place in the Super League for 2024. The other three teams, as well as Castleford Tigers who finished bottom of the group, will play in the Regional League Roses (part of the new second tier) in 2024. In Group 1 York won 22–6 over Wigan and Leeds defeated St Helens in golden point extra time to set up a repeat of the 2022 Grand Final. York were crowned champions following a 16–6 win against Leeds in front of a Grand Final record crowd of 4,547 at

York Community Stadium York Community Stadium (known for sponsorship purposes as the LNER Community Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Huntington, North Yorkshire, Huntington, York, England. It is owned by City of York Council, and is shared by York City F.C., Yo ...

Group 1

Group 1: Semi-finals

----

Grand final

Group 2

Group 2: Semi-finals

----

Promotion final

End of season awards

The End of season awards took place on 10 October 2023, alongside the men's Super League, Championship, and League 1 awards. The winners were: : Woman of Steel: Sinead Peach (

) :Young player of the year: Caitlin Casey (Leeds Rhinos) :Coach of the year: Lindsay Anfield (

)

References

{{2023 in rugby league RFL Women's Super League 2023 in English rugby league 2023 in English women's sport 2023 in women's rugby league