London Broncos Ladies on the hunt for silverware
London Broncos Ladies kicked off their Rugby League season with defeat to St. Helens in the Challenge Cup last weekend, but that won’t change their goals for this year. To preview the season and gauge the growth of Women’s Rugby League in the South, the Sports Gazette speaks to club captain, Courtney Treco.
In late August last year, London Broncos Ladies, in only the second season of its existence, travelled to Wales to participate in the Betfred Super League South Grand Final against Cardiff Demons.
As you make your way through the turnstiles at Crosskeys Rugby Football Club, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were stepping into God’s back garden, and not a 100-year-old rugby stadium.
Tucked away in a Welsh valley, Crosskeys RFC gives the impression of an old-school, traditional sports venue, but its location between the bright green rolling hills gives it a distinctiveness and beauty hard to find at contemporary stadia in the UK.
The scene for the final was very much set.
Despite finishing the regular season unbeaten, including a win against their eventual opponents in the final, Broncos were beaten comfortably by Cardiff in the Welsh countryside.
Fast forward eight months, and Broncos are back in training preparing for the new season, hoping to go one step further.
“We’re looking to get back to that final, get that exposure, and get to play a team like Cardiff more than once. It was unfortunate to lose, but we want to be playing against higher calibre teams more often,” club captain, Courtney Treco, told the Sports Gazette.
In the off season, Treco and some of her teammates fill the vacuum left by the end of the League season with a logical jump to Rugby Union. While the fundamentals are the same, there are some aspects of League that Treco understandably prefers.
“It’s (Union) a much longer season, cold weather, muddier pitches… it’s a different atmosphere. Definitely looking forward to playing in the sunshine on 4G. I’d take the 4G burns over being coated from head to toe in mud any day,” she said.
Cold weather and muddy pitches are synonymous with all sport in England, but Broncos benefit from playing their season during British summer time. Perhaps the warm weather contributed to the team’s success last year but it’s more likely down to the aptitude and work ethic of the players.
Such was the calibre of performance last season that four of the first team players gained national recognition. Alongside Treco, Kirsty-Lee Griffiths, Katie Wallis, and Kaye Selby all featured for England Community Lions in February.
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Traditionally a sport played more in the upper reaches of the country, Treco was keen to learn from her new-found northern teammates.
“It was really good to play against and with players who play rugby league all the time.
“It was about how you advance from taking the basics of what we’ve been doing at Broncos – very simple in terms of set piece moving from yardage and transitioning – and how you better manipulate the ball when you’re attacking space.
“It’s the fine tuning of things. We’ve been learning to do it, but seeing people do it as second nature is really interesting to see,” she said.
Broncos Ladies only formed in 2021, and spent much of their early years in the sport developing the essentials needed to play competitively. Although, the fashion in which they dealt with opposition last year wouldn’t leave you thinking that most of the team are newcomers to the sport.
In an inaugural double-header at Plough Lane last year that saw the men and the women play back-to-back, it was the latter side who stole the show. A 44-6 decimation of Bedford Tigers in front of a vociferous home end was a watershed moment for the players. It’s an occasion Treco speaks of with fondness.
“All the girls look back to that day and think of how great of a day it was. Not just because of the result, but because of the feeling around the entire day. It’s so exciting to play in front of the Broncos community,” she said.
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Men’s and Women’s double-headers have become common practice in Rugby League in recent years. Last October, the Rugby League World Cup saw both tournaments – as well as the Wheelchair tournament – play out simultaneously for the first time in the history of the competition.
The average attendance for a women’s game at the World Cup was over 8,500, with a collective audience of more than 18 million viewers across all the games – a record high.
Lauren Mueller – who hadn’t played a game of Rugby League before 2021 – represented Broncos Ladies on the world stage playing for Canada.
From more fans at games to increased presence on social media to more women giving the sport a go, rugby league is on the up.
“I had a moment on the train, and a random person on the train saw me with my hoodie on: ‘Do you play for the women? I’m a season ticket holder.’ Being recognised because of that branding is great.
“We’ve got loads of new players who have popped down as well who want to give rugby league a go.
“I remember in season one in my first training session, there were only four players there, but we went to our first match with 13 players. Now we’re almost always running close to 13 vs 13 in training. That’s a huge change in numbers going into our third season,” she said.
While they didn’t get off to an ideal start against St. Helens last weekend, Treco and her teammates are relishing the upcoming challenges against high-level opposition in Warrington Wolves and Castleford Tigers in the Challenge Cup next month.
“Whatever the path may become, we want to be a team that, even if we’re in a separate regional league, we’re good enough to challenge the likes of those in the Super League.
“We want to be able to mark ourselves against some of those teams to see where we fit into the puzzle of the wider game,” she said.
The wider game extends across the north of England, as well as Wales and the South-West, but has struggled to infiltrate and take hold in the capital.
Treco’s time at Broncos in the capital has, however, been nothing but enjoyable, and when the question was raised about what she would say to anyone thinking about dipping their toe into Women’s Rugby League, the Broncos captain was firm.
“Come give it a go. It’s a super inclusive environment, it’s a great game, there’s so much to learn, and everyone’s still learning so you’re never an odd one out.
“Getting into Broncos, getting to know this group of girls, and developing as a rugby player… rugby league has really opened my eyes and helped develop my skills to make me an overall better player, and better teammate and leader.
“It’s been really important to me for the last couple of years.”
