The Women's Super League is currently enjoying its second season in 2018 with seven teams battling it out for the rights to be crowned champions at the end of the year. The foundations are there for the women's game to take off, the sport just needs the spectators to come out in force and support it. Arsenal and Chelsea Ladies played out the final of the Women's FA Cup on Saturday 5 May, in front of a competition-record 45,000 fans. The country as a whole is seeing a boom in both participation and interest in women's sport and it is now surely Rugby League's turn to experience part of this growth.
Castleford v Wigan
I admit, seeing the crowds of just a few hundred attending the opening rounds so far of the Women's Super League is not too encouraging, but this is only the second year that there has been any competition similar to the men's game. I was fortunate enough to be covering the Castleford-Wigan game at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle on Sunday in what was both sides' third match of the season. I had never been to a women's Rugby League game before, so for me it was a new experience and one which I will always look back at fondly.
As soon as I made my way into the ground I was made to feel welcome (as I am at the majority of grounds), but there was a different feel, as though spectators and fans were one.
Once the teams made their way onto the field, the atmosphere was genuinely impressive despite there being only around 300 spectators. Whilst in the men's game, supporters are very quick to jump on their own players' backs when they make a mistake, cries of "chin up" and "unlucky" were the responses to errors from their own side.
Skill and passion
Before the game started, I knew that those women playing Rugby League were committed individuals, but some of the big hits and skilful play actually surprised me. In fact, some of the tackling was so ferocious that two had to be carried off and another left the field with a bloody nose. Make no bones about it, the 36 women on show (17 for the Tigresses and 19 for Wigan) ran their blood to water and it made for an extremely exciting game.
Indeed, the game was only over as a contest once referee Neil Pascall blew the final whistle with the scores locked at 14-14 after Castleford had scored with two minutes remaining.
In the scorching conditions, both Castleford and Wigan played some breathtaking stuff. Warriors' half-back Gemma Walsh - who was later sin-binned - produced two perfectly-timed passes for two of her teammates to dot down, whilst Castleford's full-back Tara Stanley danced around the Wigan defence on more than one occasion.
What really struck me watching the game though, was the level of togetherness both teams had on the field. Both sides scored three tries apiece and every single four-pointer was celebrated by all of the team running over to congratulate the scorer.
Compare this to the men's game when some teammates cannot even be bothered to make the trip to the other side of the field and the disparity is huge.
There was none of this play-acting around the ruck that is beginning to creep into the men's game and nor was there any winding up of the opponents when they made a mistake. There was a multitude of respect for each other from both sides and that made for a much more enjoyable and flowing game. Even good skill by the opposition was met by applause from both sets of supporters. This is how Rugby League should be played. For years, the women's game has been trying to emulate the men's game, now the men's game could learn a thing or two from the women's.
