2025 RFL Women's Championship | |
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The 2025 RFL Women's Championship is the ninth season of the RFL Women's Championship and the second since its restructure and expansion to include teams from across the country. The 2025 competition sees the expansion of all three regional leagues and saw Cardiff Demons and London Broncos transferred to the Northern Championship from the Southern Champioinship.
The winner of the Northern Championship was expected to take part in a promotion play-off against the bottom team of the 2025 RFL Women's Super League. This was scheduled to be played on 5 October, however, a month earlier it was cancelled due to Warrington Wolves being unable to fulfil their remaining fixtures. Therefore, the winner of the Northern Championship earns promotion to the 2026 Super League subject to meeting the competition minimum standards.
Northern | Midlands | Southern |
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In December 2024, the RFL announced that the Northern Championship would be expanded with Cardiff Demons and London Broncos transferring from the Southern Championship. Hull FC and Swinton Lionesses moving up from League One in the place of Stanningley would have resulted in a 12-team competition. [4] [5] However, the withdrawal of Dewsbury Moor meant that only 11 teams started the season. [1]
The 2025 RFL Northern Championship began on 23 March and the regular season concluded on 31 August. The play-offs were originally intended to include a relegation/promotion play-off between the winner of the Northern Women's Championship and the last-placed team of the 2025 Super League. However, as Warrington Wolves were unable to fulfil their remaining Super League fixtures of the season, the RFL announced on 5 September that winner of the Northern Championship would be directly promoted to the 2026 Super League with Warrington facing an enforced relegation subject to the Championship side meeting the required competition standards. [6]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | |
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1 | ![]() | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 402 | 94 | +308 | 19 | Advance to semi-finals |
2 | ![]() | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 364 | 56 | +308 | 18 | |
3 | ![]() | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 290 | 122 | +168 | 15 | |
4 | ![]() | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 234 | 140 | +94 | 14 | |
5 | ![]() | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 228 | 140 | +88 | 14 | |
6 | ![]() | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 206 | 212 | −6 | 10 | |
7 | ![]() | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 126 | 228 | −102 | 6 | |
8 | ![]() | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 100 | 260 | −160 | 6 | |
9 | ![]() | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 128 | 224 | −96 | 5 [a] | |
10 | ![]() | 10 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 50 | 336 | −286 | 2 | |
11 | ![]() | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 88 | 404 | −316 | 0 |
Semi-finals | Championship Final | ||||||||
1 | London Broncos | ||||||||
4 | Salford Red Devils | ||||||||
2 | Featherstone Rovers | ||||||||
3 | Cardiff Demons |
The Southern Championship expanded to six teams with Anglian Vipers, Brentwood Eels, Bristol Golden Ferns and North Herts Crusaders joining the competition. [2] The season began on 1 June in Hemel Hempstead with the Golden Ferns defeating the Vipers and the Army defeating Brentwood. [25] [13] Bedford Tigers were unable to fulfil any of their fixtures which were initially recorded as walkovers [26] before the team was removed from the final league table. The finals day took place on 3 August. The Army won the title by defeating the Golden Ferns 28–24 in the Grand Final. The match was preceded by a series of matches played by the non-finalists. [20]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | ARM | BGF | BRE | NHC | ANG | |
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1 | ![]() | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 208 | 30 | +178 | 8 | — | — | — | 56–0 | 72–0 | |
2 | ![]() | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 188 | 98 | +90 | 6 | 26–46 | — | — | — | — | |
3 | ![]() | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 52 | 102 | −50 | 3 | 4–34 | 8–44 | — | C–C [a] | — | |
4 | ![]() | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 54 | 120 | −66 | 3 | — | 16–52 | — | — | 38–12 | |
5 | ![]() | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 64 | 216 | −152 | 0 | — | 28–66 | 24–40 | — | — |
The Midlands Championship expanded to six teams with the addition of Midlands Hurricanes and Sheffield Eagles 'A', but retained the festival format used in 2024. Each team played ten games across the six rounds of the competition which began on 15 June and concluded on 3 August. [3] [28] [b]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | TEL | LEA | NOT | COV | MID | SHE | |
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1 | ![]() | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 250 | 40 | +210 | 16 | — | 4–18 | 36–0 | 28–0 | 24–0 | 30–0 | |
2 | ![]() | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 142 | 94 | +48 | 12 | 0–24 | — | 0–18 | 10–14 | 24–4 | 24–0 | |
3 | ![]() | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 130 | 100 | +30 | 11 | 18–14 | 6–10 | — | 34–0 | 8–12 | 24–0 | |
4 | ![]() | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 86 | 110 | −24 | 9 | 4–18 | 8–4 | 0–6 | — | 4–4 | 4–6 | |
5 | ![]() | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 86 | 166 | −80 | 7 | 0–24 | 30–0 | 24–0 | 0–24 | — | 36–10 | |
6 | ![]() | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 54 | 238 | −184 | 5 | 0–48 | 4–34 | 10–10 | 0–28 | 24–0 | — |