The Bradford Bulls Women are an English professional women's

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

team based in

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 ...

, West Yorkshire. Formed in 1999 as an autonomous club, Dudley Hill Thunderbirds, the team was also known as Bradford Thunderbirds and Bradford Clayton Thunderbirds. As the Thunderbirds the club played in the

Women's Rugby League Conference The Women's Rugby League Conference was a rugby league for female teams in Britain that ran from 2008 to 2013. The men's equivalent is the Rugby League Conference. History : The ''Southern Conference League'' began as a 10-team pilot league f ...

and later the

Women's Rugby League Women's rugby league is the female-only version of Rugby league. There are women's clubs in Australia, Great Britain, and New Zealand, overseen internationally by the Women & Girls Rugby League. Australia, France, England and New Zealand comp ...

History

1999–2011: Origins

The club were founded in 1999 as Dudley Hill Thunderbirds to partner the men's Dudley Hill team. Later on the Thunderbirds and Dudley Hill split and became Bradford Clayton Thunderbirds to reflect playing in the Clayton area of Bradford and later just becoming Bradford Thunderbirds. Since there was no official league for many years they played sporadic fixtures until leagues started being formed such as the Women's Rugby League Conference in 2008 which gave the Thunderbirds and women's rugby league more competitive games. They also won regional leagues of the competition.

2012–2013: Challenge Cup

The

RFL Women's Challenge Cup The Women's Challenge Cup is a rugby league knockout competition organised by the Rugby Football League. The competition started in 2012. History 2012–2016: Foundations The Women's Challenge Cup was set up in 2012 to run alongside the men's ...

was founded in 2012 to give the Women's Conference a competitive cup competition. Bradford had some early success in the cup appearing in the first two editions, losing both to

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 ...

and

Thatto Heath Crusaders Thatto Heath Crusaders is an amateur rugby league club situated in Thatto Heath, St Helens, Merseyside. The club currently competes in the National Conference League Premier Division History ''Thatto Heath'' RLFC began life in 1981, originall ...

respectively.

2014–2016: Women's Rugby League

In 2012 the club entered the newly formed

RFL Women's Rugby League The RFL Women's Rugby League was an amateur women's rugby league competition in the United Kingdom. First played for in 2014, the league ran for three seasons. It was replaced in 2017 by a new three division structure comprising the RFL Women's S ...

alongside mostly men's community clubs that ran a women's team. In 2014, the club lost a third consecutive Challenge Cup Final to

32–24. They also reached the Premiership Play-Off final. After the early success and more popularity in Bradford women's rugby league, the club dropped the Thunderbirds moniker and linked up with the

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 ...

adopting the Bulls' colours, name and playing at

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is the home of Bradford Bulls Rugby League team. It has also been used by the Bradford Dukes speedway team, BRISCA F1 and F2 stock cars, the football team Bradford City, following the Valley ...

. In their first season as the Bulls they reached a second Grand Final in three years, although they lost 36-8 to treble winners Thatto Heath Crusaders.

2017–present: Super League

After the 2016 season the Women's Rugby League was disbanded and new competition was set up. 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 ...

was set up in 2017 to give the sport a bigger profile and more professionalism. The first edition featured only four clubs with Bradford finishing first at the end of the season and going onto win the Grand Final 36–6 against Featherstone. This win completed a league and cup double for the team as earlier in the season they had won the

Women's Challenge Cup The Women's Challenge Cup is a rugby league knockout competition organised by the Rugby Football League. The competition started in 2012. History 2012–2016: Foundations The Women's Challenge Cup was set up in 2012 to run alongside the men's c ...

beating Featherstone Ladies 50–16.

Players

2023 Squad

Seasons

Honours

Leagues

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

::Winners (1): 2017 ::Runners up (2): 2014, 2016

Cups

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

::Winners (1): 2017 ::Runners up (3): 2012, 2013, 2014

References

{{RFL Women's Super League Bradford Bulls 1999 establishments in England Rugby clubs established in 1999 Sport in Bradford Women's rugby league teams in England Rugby league teams in West Yorkshire RFL Women's Super League teams