{"id":406825,"date":"2026-02-04T05:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406825\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T05:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:13:11","slug":"mikayla-gillespie-signs-with-st-helens-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406825\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikayla Gillespie signs with St.Helens Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealander is originally from Christchurch and came to England to work in the sports industry, within sports development, as well as to play netball with YWCA Bury.<\/p>\n

Working at the Rugby Football League as an RFL Development Officer, the opportunity to play the sport with St.Helens came after she was spotted running.<\/p>\n

In the latter half of the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby League season, Mikayla trained and developed as an aspiring player with the Red V. Now, after impressing in pre-season, Gillespie will be part of our Women\u2019s First Team squad.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old speedster adds further options to Derek Hardman and Craig Richards\u2019 outside backline.<\/p>\n

Speaking to saintsrlfc.com about the news, Mikayla Gillespie said: \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m so excited! It\u2019s not something I ever thought I would see myself doing or even having the opportunity for, so I\u2019m just really excited about this opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly felt like a bit of a fraud, trying to encourage all these girls to play rugby league when I didn\u2019t really play myself. Then the opportunity came from someone literally seeing me run, who said, \u2018We need that speed\u2019. After that, I got a message from Jodie asking me to come down and give it a go, and I haven\u2019t looked back since!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mikayla\u2019s first interview as a St.Helens Women\u2019s player will be available on Saints TV<\/a> very soon for subscribers.<\/p>\n

Moving across sports from netball to rugby league has been a challenge for Mikayla, but one she has relished, especially given her passion for sports development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something rugby league does a lot better than other sports, I think. The talent transfer system is a really cool opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely something to encourage more girls to try, because often they just don\u2019t get that exposure to the game growing up. So, being able to shift later in life after trying other sports and give rugby league a go is really awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about her goals and ambitions for the year ahead, Gillespie kept herself grounded, adding: \u201cI really just want to know that I\u2019ve given it everything and done the best that I can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the top team in the country, so just being in that environment is amazing. It\u2019s about working as hard as I can, learning as much as I can, and seeing how much I can grow as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joint Head Coach Craig Richards commented: \u201cMikayla has a lot of natural attributes that can serve her well in rugby league, because they served her well in netball too, such as being fast and tall.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has joined our environment beautifully and fitted in well, and now, this year, she adds competition in the fight for places to earn her chance on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Women\u2019s game has seen many successful talent transfers from other sports, such as Leah [Burke] from gymnastics or Dani [McGifford] from athletics and running. They are talented athletes, and the tools they have work in rugby league. Mikayla has players in our squad who can share their experience and knowledge, and how they went on to become successful at our club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealander is originally from Christchurch and came to England to work in the sports industry, within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151517,151518,5903,151519,101,151520,151521,56,54,55,658,37734,97259],"class_list":["post-406825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-mikayla-gillespie","tag-new-player","tag-rugby","tag-saints-women","tag-sports","tag-st-helens-women","tag-st-helens-womens-team","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-women","tag-womens","tag-womens-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}