'It's doing my head in' - Leeds Rhinos captain Courtney Hill can't wait for Women's Super League to resume

Rhinos’ women have not played since their Super League Grand Final victory over Castleford Tigers in October, 2019.

The first lockdown, last March, came just a week before the women’s season was due to begin and, unlike the men’s competition, group training is currently not allowed under coronavirus restrictions.

Hill, the reigning Woman of Steel, runs a fitness business with her wife Lauren Winfield - a Yorkshire and England cricketer - and is also a girls’ cricket coach, but admitted the lack of rugby is “doing my head in a little bit”.

The Australian scrum-half switched sports from cricket to join Rhinos ahead of their first season, three years ago and lifted the Challenge Cup and Super League trophies in 2019.

“It is an enormous frustration, particularly off the back of 2019,” she said.

“We wanted to go into 2020 and defend our titles.

“Girls are training really hard remotely and then they are back in and then out again - but every other club is in the same boat and many other sports are too.

“We have just got to ride this out.

“I am sure it will be welcomed with open arms when the gates are opened again and certainly met with a lot of gratefulness, from my angle anyway.”

The Rugby Football League (RFL) are in discussions with Women’s Super League clubs about their pre-season training schedule and Hill confirmed players are doing what they can to stay fit and motivated during the latest lockdown.

“We’ve all got our remote programmes to work on, our conditioning and strength programmes,” she said.

“Not everyone has equipment at home so we are trying to be innovative and find ways to go about things.

“If you can catch up with that one other person, five metres apart, to go for a run, I know some of us are doing that and just another face is lovely in the week.

“That keeps me going, certainly.

“Hopefully we’ll be out of this lockdown soon and waiting for the green light to begin rugby training.”

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