The Leigh Leopards Women are a women's rugby League team based in

Leigh, Greater Manchester Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, on low-lying land northwest of Chat Moss. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the cen ...

, England. The team originally competed as the ladies' team of the Leigh Miners Rangers before an agreement between the club and the

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 ...

led to the rebranding of the team in late 2022. In 2022 and 2023 the team took part in the Women's Super League. they compete in the Northern Women's Championship.

History

Leigh Miners Rangers

In the early 2010s Leigh took part 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 ...

where in 2012 they defeated Brighouse 12–10 to win the Plate competition. Leigh made their

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 ...

debut in the inaugural 2012 competition, losing to Chorley Panthers in the first round. The following season they defeated Chorley in round one for their first win in the Challenge Cup. In the

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 ...

Leigh won the Plate Final in 2015 and in the restructured league in 2016 they defeated the

Oulton Raidettes The Oulton Raidettes Women's Rugby League Club are an England professional Women's rugby league football team based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, founded in 2012. Oulton Raidettes have Affiliations with the Oulton Raiders and they play in the RFL W ...

20–12 to become League 1 Champions. In the 2016 Challenge Cup, Leigh reached the final, but lost 62–6 to

Thatto Heath Thatta ( sd, ٺٽو; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Thatta was the medieval capital of Sindh, and served as the seat of power for three successive dynasties. Thatta's historic significance has yielded several monuments in and ...

. In 2021, Leigh topped the Championship and then defeated Barrow Raiders 10–6 in the Grand Final. Both teams were admitted to Group 2 of the Super League for the 2022 season. On 15 May, Leigh made their Super League debut with a 28–14 home win over Wakefield Trinity. They won four of their matches to finish fifth in the table.

Leigh Leopards

In October 2022, it was announced that in a partnership agreement between the community and professional clubs in Leigh the Leigh Miners Rangers Ladies were to merge with the

. Offers were made for the players and members of staff to retain their previous roles and the team would compete in the Super League under the new name. In the 2023 season, wins over Barrow and Hull KR in the Challenge Cup saw Leigh progress to the quarter-finals of the competition. The team continued to use Twist Lane as its home, but played their first match at

Leigh Sports Village Leigh Sports Village is an £83 million multi-use sports,
retail and hou ...

on 11 June against Featherstone Rovers. In the Super League, Leigh were top of Group 2 going into the final day of the regular season ahead of both Barrow and Featherstone Rovers by one point, but 14–12 a loss to Barrow saw them finish in third place. They faced Barrow again in the final of the play-offs where a 14–8 loss denied them a place in the restructured Super League in 2024. In January 2024, it was announced that they would be in the Northern Women's Championship.

Seasons

References

External links

* {{RFL Women's Super League Women's rugby league teams in England RFL Women's Super League teams