‘I’m all-in for England and Leeds now’: Courtney Winfield-Hill’s long rugby league journey

Kevin Sinfield left an indelible mark on English rugby league during his career as a player, but if Leeds Rhinos lift the women’s Challenge Cup on Saturday and England follow suit in the Rugby League World Cup this autumn, a conversation Sinfield held three years ago will have undoubtedly played a part.It was late 2019 when Courtney Winfield-Hill considered ending her stint as one of the pioneering stars of the Women’s Super League and potentially returning to the sport where she initially made her name back home in Australia. A former star of the Big Bash League, Winfield-Hill wondered if it was the right time to pursue a cricketing career once again. “The financial rewards were a lot higher, getting a contract to play cricket in England, but what Kevin said kept gnawing away at me,” Winfield-Hill explains.

Sinfield, then working for the Rhinos in an off-field role, politely reminded her that if she continued playing league for long enough, she would ultimately qualify for England under the sport’s five-year residency rule. “Kevin had spent a lot of time with me, working on my game and he wanted to know what was next,” she reveals. “I was set on going to have a try at get a contract in cricket for sure at that stage, but he planted the England seed, and it made me think.”Fast forward to the present day, and plenty has changed. Winfield-Hill has married her long-term partner, the England cricket international, Lauren Winfield-Hill, and the postponement of the World Cup to this autumn has opened the door for the Leeds Rhinos star to potentially represent England in the tournament after she officially qualified in February. She was almost immediately named in Craig Richards’ train-on squad.

That is no surprise, given