Lois Forsell (born 26 July 1991) is a retired English international

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 ...

footballer who played as a for

Leeds Rhinos Women Leeds Rhinos Women are a rugby league team based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team is part of the Leeds Rhinos club and plays in the Women's Super League. They were the RFL Women's Super League champions in 2019 and 2022, and from 20 ...

in 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 ...

. Forsell has also played for

Bradford Bulls Women The Bradford Bulls Women are an English professional women's rugby league team based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Formed in 1999 as an autonomous club, Dudley Hill Thunderbirds, the team was also known as Bradford Thunderbirds and Bradford Cla ...

and Hunslet at club level, and has also represented Yorkshire.

Playing career

Forsell joined Hunslet Ladies (then known as Middleton) before moving to Bradford Bulls in 2012. In 2017 Forsell was a member of the Bradford Bulls team that completed the treble - winning the Grand Final, League Leaders Shield and Challenge Cup in the same season - and went unbeaten all season. Forsell was named Player of the Match in the inaugural Grand Final. At the end of the 2017 season Forsell was signed for the newly formed Leeds Rhinos Women's team and was named captain of the team for 2018. In her first season charge she led Leeds to victory in the

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 ...

and top of the league to win the

League Leader's Shield The League Leaders' Shield is a shield awarded to the team finishing the season top of Super League in the sport of rugby league football. Currently, and for most of Super League's history, the championship is decided on the basis of a play-off s ...

but the treble eluded them as they lost the Grand Final to Wigan Warriors - a game Forsell missed through injury. Forsell was nominated for the Woman of Steel award in 2018 but lost out to Castleford Tiger

Georgia Roche Georgia Roche (born 3 September 2000) is an English professional rugby league footballer for Leeds Rhinos Women, Leeds Rhinos in the Women's Super League (rugby league), Rugby Football League Women's Super League. She plays at either or . Roch ...

. In September 2018 Forsell suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

injury which required surgery. Recovery from the surgery prevented her from playing during the 2019 season and a check up towards the end of the season revealed that further surgery would be needed with no guarantee that it would enable Forsell to play again. Forsell therefore decided to retire from playing. Forsell is a development officer for the Leeds Rhinos Foundation and is the RFL's first women's player ambassador.

International career

Forsell made her debut for the England team in 2009 and was sent off in her first test match. Subsequently she played in two World Cups (

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup was the fifth staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup and was held in Australia between 16 November and 2 December 2017. Pool and semi-final matches was held at Southern Cross Group Stadium in Sydney ...

and was vice-captain for the 2017 tournament.

Coaching career

In February 2020 Forsell was named as the new head coach of the Rhinos women's team replacing Adam Cuthbertson.

Media career

Following her retirement Forsell was announced as one of the presenters of the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

rugby league show ''Inside Super League''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsell, Lois 1991 births Living people England women's national rugby league team players English female rugby league players Leeds Rhinos Women players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Leeds