Featherstone Rovers Women

Last updated

Featherstone Rovers Women
Club information
Full nameFeatherstone Rovers Rugby League Football Club
Colours Fevcolours.svg Blue and White
Founded2011;13 years ago (2011)
Website Official website
Current details
Ground(s)
Competition RFL Women's Championship
2024 8th (Super League)
Rugby football current event.png Current season
Records
Challenge Cup 1 (2012)

The Featherstone Rovers Women are the women's rugby league team of Featherstone Rovers in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. They play their home games at Post Office Road which is also home to the men's team. They played in the RFL Women's Super League from its inaugural season in 2017 until 2024 when they were relegated to the RFL Women's Championship.

Contents

History

The Featherstone Rovers women's team was founded in 2011 and initially competed in the Women's Rugby League Conference. [1] The club, which had previously been the Wakefield Panthers, [2] [3] included numerous England internationals [4] and were one of the most successful women's teams of the previous twenty years having won the Women's Amateur Rugby League Association Challenge Cup 14 times between 1991 and 2007. [5] They won the cup again in 2011 in their first season as Featherstone Rovers. [5] [6] In 2012, Featherstone won the inaugural RFL Women's Challenge Cup defeating Bradford Thunderbirds 46–0 in the final. [7] They also finished top of the Premier Division and defeated Bradford 46–8 in the Championship play-off final. [8] [9] In 2013, they reached the final of the Challenge Shield but lost 16-34 to Normanton Knights. [10] [11] The following season they won the Challenge Shield with a 64–14 win against Stanningley in the final. [12] In the RFL Women's Rugby League, Featherstone finished top of the league in 2015 [13] and also reached the final of the Challenge Cup in the same season. [14]

In 2017, they were one of the four teams to take part in the first season of the RFL Women's Super League and were runners-up in the Grand Final to Bradford Bulls, [15] [16] who also defeated Featherstone in final of the 2017 Challenge Cup. [14] In 2021, when the Super League split part way through the season, Featherstone finished top of group two, but lost 24–22 to Huddersfield Giants in the Shield final. [17] Featherstone reached the Shield final again in 2022, but lost 34–6 to Warrington Wolves. [18] In 2023, they won the group two League Leaders' Shield on the final day of the regular season with a 28–18 win over Salford Red Devils that saw them overtake Barrow Raiders on points difference and earn promotion to the 2024 Super League. [19] [20] The promotion led to Marie Colley being nominated for the Women's Super League Coach of the Year award, but she lost out to former Featherstone player Lindsay Anfield of York Valkyrie. [7] [21] [22] Featherstone began their 2024 season with a win over Sheffield Eagles in the Challenge Cup and qualified for the quarter-finals. [23] [24] This was followed by an unsuccessful league campaign in which they lost every match to finish bottom of the table. [25] They lost in a play-off against Leigh Leopards to be relegated to the Championship for the 2025 season. [26]

Players

2024 squad

Featherstone Rovers 2024 Squad
First team squadCoaching staff
  • 1 Danielle Waters
  • 2 Elland Lamb
  • 3 Francessca Copley
  • 4 Ella Johnson
  • 5 Brooke Price
  • 6 Tally Bryer
  • 7 Olivia Grace
  • 8 Shanelle Mannion
  • 9 Charley Blackburn
  • 10 Brogan Mellor-Churm
  • 11 Hannah Watt
  • 12
  • 13 Chloe Billingham
  • 14 Kacey Davies
  • 15 Chloe Smith
  • 16 Gabrielle Harrison
  • 17 Kirsty Higo
  • 18 Alyssa Courtney
  • 19 Ashlea Prescott
  • 20 Brogan Kennedy
  • 21 Gabrielle Cochrane-Kaney
  • 22 Natalie Carr
  • 23 Ellie Wainhouse
  • 24 Rachael Eastwood
  • 25 Saskia Lewis
  • 26 Katie Evans
  • 28 Shavon Craven
  • 29 Kaya-Jo Laing
  • 30 Madison Rainey
  • 31 Emillie Holmes



Legend:
  • (c) Captain(s)
  • (vc) Vice-captain(s)

Updated: 23 March 2024
Source(s): [27]

Internationals

Players who earned international caps while playing for Featherstone Rovers:

Seasons

SeasonLeaguePlay-offs Challenge Cup Ref.
DivisionPWDLFAPtsPos
2012 Premier 13Unknown261stWon in FinalW [7] [8]
2013 Premier 11605237278123rdLost in Round 1R2 [42] [43] [44]
2014 Premier UnknownLost in Round 2R1 [45] [46] [47] [48]
2015 Premier 14140049395281stLost in Grand FinalRU [13] [14] [49]
2016 Premier 54012083883rdLost in Semi FinalR2 [50] [51] [52] [53]
Super Six10712302156152nd
2017 Super League 620411620843rdLost in Grand FinalRU [14] [15]
2018 Super League 12101118046126thDid not qualifyQF [54]
2019 Super League 14608237450125thDid not qualifyR2 [55] [56]
2020 Super League Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Super League 830515230866thDid not qualifyQF [57] [58] [17] [59]
League Shield44001303681stLost in Shield Final
2022 Super League Group 2 12804364154163rdLost in Shield FinalSF [60] [61] [18]
2023 Super League Group 2 10802356103161stPromoted as ChampionsGS [62] [63]
2024 Super League 14001412860608thLost in play-offQF [64] [65]

Honours

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