{"id":468881,"date":"2026-02-09T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468881\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:22:12","slug":"womens-amateur-rugby-league-competition-to-end-after-more-than-40-years-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468881\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Amateur Rugby League competition to end after more than 40 years \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE 2025-26 season, which will climax with the traditional double-header finals day early next month, will be the Women\u2019s Amateur Rugby League Association\u2019s last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is little or no room for the winter-based competition, which was launched four decades ago and which significantly predates the Rugby Football League\u2019s Women\u2019s League, under the RFL\u2019s new National Community Rugby League initiative.<\/p>\n

The WRL said they were \u201csaddened to announce that after more than 40 years, the league will fold on Sunday, March 1, when the last Cup and Plate finals, and presentations, take place at a venue to be announced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement added: \u201cRepresentatives met with members of the RFL to discuss the women\u2019s game \u2013 more specifically, WRLA\u2019s role within it \u2013 and were informed that the National Community Rugby League drive would not include the continuation of the WRLA Winter League.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could, though, in the future be some type of pre-season scenario, which could include WRLA committee involvements in some capacity, if they were interested in doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcknowledgement was made of the part WRLA had had within the women\u2019s game, but the governing body was concerned regarding player welfare, with the number of games players were currently playing over a twelve-month period through a number of clubs playing both summer and winter competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

WRLA chair Steve Manning said: \u201cIt was with a heavy heart that at last Monday\u2019s WRLA Committee meeting I informed my colleagues of the governing body\u2019s decision, and of its way forward for the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were mixed emotions by them, to say the least, but I had to inform them that the decision had been made, and of the rationale behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a few league games left before the league splits, with the top four clubs competing for the Cup and the bottom four for the Plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWRLA\u2019s mantra has always been that if clubs want to play in winter then we would offer them that until it was no longer practical to run a league. That decision has been made for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cA venue has yet to be confirmed for our last-ever finals, but WRLA intend going out with a big bang and with heads held high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc Lovering, the RFL\u2019s director of participation and development, told League Express: \u201cDuring the last meeting there were discussions around what the shape of the WARLA offer might look like going forwards. We are just waiting on a response.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly, when we looked at the data there were only 13 women playing in the winter offer only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking Grassroots: Confusion reigns ahead of NCRL kick-off<\/a>South victorious in Student Origin<\/a>RFL insist north-east amateur game still on agenda<\/a>Records tumble as Hull KR hit century against Lock Lane<\/a>Hull KR\u2019s Noah Booth keen to face old club Lock Lane – where his dad is a sponsor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE 2025-26 season, which will climax with the traditional double-header finals day early next month, will be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-468881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}