Adam Cuthbertson: Rhinos' '˜ambassadors' promote our game with pride and passion

I’m not talking about how successful it was for Leeds Rhinos as a club and a team, I mean it really worked as an event and that’s something rugby league could seize going forward.

The backing from both clubs, Leeds and Bradford, to advertise it and get the word out there about the game – and the fact we were the headline act for the men’s match – really brought it to life.

Bradford played Coventry first in League One and then we beat the Bulls’ women 32-16 in the main event.

I was happy with the result and performance and it was great to see the girls rewarded for so much hard work, but it was a brilliant display of rugby league as well.

It had everything: collisions, skill and desire in defence. Both teams put on a good performance for the full 80 minutes and it was great entertainment for the fans.

I was confident anyway, but having been part of it I think the women’s game can really broaden the appeal of rugby league going forward.

The really important part is the fact everyone – the women and the Super League clubs – are so willing to buy into it.

I’ve had nothing but praise about last Sunday. Gary Hetherington was there and I got a nice personal message from him afterwards saying how impressed he was and how much he had enjoyed it, and that is really positive for the future of the women’s side.

With the support the women’s game is getting from everyone in the sport, it can only go one way and that’s up. That has been seen in the NRL and it means we are going to have a strong sport.

At the last World Cup the England women were completely dominated by Australia and New Zealand. That’s because they have a legitimate competition that plays week in and week out. That’s why they have grown in stature.

As Women’s Super League gets established we will have that over here and it will be brilliant for the game as a whole going forward.

What I’d like to see now is Women’s Super League games played as curtain raisers for the men’s competition.

If that’s not going to happen with the under-19s and there’s no reserve grade, there is a gap the women’s competition can fill.

I think crowds will be more than happy to turn up and make a day of it.

When I heard Bradford were charging £18 for a League One game I thought that was a bit steep, but they made an event of it and had two fixtures and that made it a lot more worthwhile.

Not every Super League club has a women’s team, but fixtures for the ones that do could be rostered to match and it would be great value for money for the supporters.

I am writing this before the game at Hull. I was told during the week that I was coming up for my 100th Leeds game and I thought that was good going in three and a half years, but then somebody mentioned it will be Jamie Jones-Buchanan’s 400th and that took the wind out of my sails!

Jonesy is such a warrior of the game, for everyone who has played with him it has been a privilege.

He is such a character and he puts his heart and soul into the game, whether he’s on the field or off it.

Sometimes he goes out there and I swear he is playing on one leg and he does minor surgery on himself at half-time or during the game, to sort his knee out when it’s packing up on him.

And every game he continues to turn up and play rugby at a really, really high standard.

He has so much passion for the game and that is why he has got to 400 appearances, which is an amazing achievement.

He is not just doing it in matches either, he turns up to training every day and is probably the hardest trainer out of all of us.

He is such a competitor and I don’t think there’s a better ambassador for rugby league in this country, or maybe the world.

I am so glad I played alongside him in his 400th game and not against him!