Wakefield Trinity launch girls' academy

The academy will give girls an opportunity to step up to Super League from the under-16s community game.

The entire Women’s Super League competition in 2020 was written off because of coronavirus, but the Rugby Football League hope to stage a full season before next year’s World Cup.

Trinity’s head of women’s rugby James Stephenson said: “I am really pleased we are finally able to get the ladies’ academy up and running.

“We have had plans in place for this for a while now and obviously with this year going the way it has, everything has been delayed.

“However, come 2021 when, hopefully, we may start to experience more normality, the timing now seems right to offer this provision.

“To be able to further help develop female athletes in a performance environment and condition them both mentally and physically to the demands of what Women’s Super League brings will give any player an additional edge.”

Stephenson added: “I’m looking forward to working with our community clubs with close dialogue and identifying players along with offering substantial support to our community teams.

“We hope to help further contribute towards the growth and development of women’s rugby league, especially with the World Cup on the horizon at the back end of 2021."

Tom Brindle, head of growth at the RFL, praised Trinity’s initiative.

“As one of the founding clubs of the Women’s Super League, Wakefield Trinity have been part of the growth and progress of the women’s and girls’ game over the last five years,” he said.

“When we looked at the best ways to achieve that growth back in 2016, with a focus on the opportunities presented by hosting a Women’s World Cup in 2021, we identified the importance of using our biggest sporting brand – Super League – and the famous club identities such as Wakefield Trinity.

“We felt that would drive ambition and attract new players to the game.

“To reach a point in 2019 where we had title sponsors for both our Women’s Super League and Challenge Cup competitions- and live television coverage of both Finals - underlined the progress we had made in a short space of time.”

Trinity’s academy are set to begin training alongside the women’s team in January or February.

Girls aged 16 to 19 who are interested in joining the new set up - or open-age players wanting to trial for Trinity women - should email their name, age, date of birth, community club and position to [email protected].

Trinity are also seeking coaches and managers from the community game to join their academy development academy staff.

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