The 2024 RFL Women's Super League (also known as the Betfred Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the Women's Super League, for female players in clubs affiliated to the Rugby Football League (RFL).
It was the first season following a re-structure of the women's game. The number of clubs in the Super League was reduced from 12 to 8 but playing as one league rather than two groups of six as in 2023. The regular season comprised 14 rounds commencing on 19 April.
The Super League champions were determined after the top four teams played-off to decide which clubs would compete in the Grand Final on 6 October. York Valkyrie retained their title, after narrowly defeating St Helens 18–8 in the final, which saw a record attendance of 4,813 for a Women's Super League grand final.
The club finishing bottom played-off against the winners of the 2024 RFL Women's Championship for a place in the 2025 RFL Women's Super League. This match, which was also played on 6 October, saw Leigh Leopards promoted from the championship, after they won 34–16 against Featherstone Rovers.
Teams
The eight clubs that competed the 2024 Super League were all from Northern England. The six teams of the 2023 Super League Group A were joined by Barrow and Featherstone who won promotion from the 2023 Group B. Barrow Raiders Featherstone Rovers Huddersfield Giants Leeds Rhinos St Helens Warrington Wolves Wigan Warriors York Valkyrie
Fixtures and results
Regular season The season began on 19 April with Leeds Rhinos defeating Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors winning against Barrow Raiders in two Friday night fixtures. Also in the opening weekend St Helens lost to York Valkyrie in what proved to be their only loss throughout the regular season. St Helens secured the top place with a win over Warrington in round 13 and were presented with the League Leaders' Shield the following weekend. The teams progressing to the play-offs had been determined by mid August when York's win over Huddersfield Giants opened up a ten-point gap between the top four and the remaining teams with only three rounds to play. Leeds finished second ahead of York who defeated Featherstone Rovers on the final day, but failed to overtake Leeds on points difference. Wigan's loss to Leeds in the penultimate round meant that they finished in fourth place with Barrow taking fifth place. Sixth and seventh place were decided on the final weekend with Huddersfield winning against Warrington. Featherstone, who lost all 14 matches, finished bottom of the table and were relegated following a 34–16 play-off loss to Championship side Leigh Leopards.
Table
Play-offs
In the play-off semi-finals York won 12–10 at Leeds and St Helens defeated Wigan 18–4 to set up the Grand Final on 6 October at the Totally Wicked Stadium. St Helens, who had won the Challenge Cup earlier in the season, hosted the match due to their top place finish in the league, but were unable to the claim a treble when York came back from 8–6 down at halftime to win 18–8 and in doing so become the first team to retain the Super League title. The crowd of 4,813 was a record attendance for a Women's Super League grand final.
Team bracket
Semi-finals
Grand final
Player statistics Top 5 try scorers
Rank Player (s) Club Tries 1 Leah Burke 28 2 Anna Davies 22 3 18 4 17 5 16
Top 5 goal scorers
Rank Player (s) Club Goals 1 68 2 42 3 Isabel Rowe 39 4 Emma Knowles 33 5 Keara Bennett 26
Top 5 points scorers
Rank Player (s) Club Points 1 Faye Gaskin 160 2 Leah Burke 112 3 Isabel Rowe 110 4 101 5 Anna Davies 88
(Regular season and play-offs)
End of season awards The End of season awards took place on 8 October 2024, alongside the men's Super League, Championship, and League 1 and Wheelchair Super League awards.
The winners were: Woman of Steel: Georgie Hetherington (York Valkyrie) Young player of the year: Bella Sykes (Leeds Rhinos) Coach of the year: Matty Smith (St Helens)
References