Recordbreaking: An elite occasion for the women’s game amidst its growing pains

As St Helens lifted the Women’s Challenge Cup trophy in front of a women’s rugby league record crowd at Elland Road, supporters of the game were no doubt reflecting how far it had come.

In barely five years, the women’s game has gone from virtual anonymity to prime Saturday lunchtime billing on terrestrial television.

Viewership of Saints’ battling 18-8 win over Leeds peaked at 300,000, with an average of 200,000 throughout the 80 minutes.

Those figures will give great encouragement to the women’s game, especially heading in to the hotly-anticipated World Cup at the end of the year.

A crowd of 5,888 was credited with watching the women’s final – a record high in the UK – and while just how that was calculated on a day of three games is unknown, there was no doubting that the game caught the attention of those in the ground.

St Helens rocked up with an extraordinary record of not having conceded one point yet in five games in 2022, and on an unbeaten run that dates back to 2019, when Leeds beat them in the Super League play-offs.

Such has been the treble-winners dominance post-COVID, they were hot favourites and there may have been some fears a one-sided scoreline was in the offing; not ideal for such a prime billing spot.

There needn’t have been any worry. Leeds took the game to Saints and were excellent, particularly in the first half.

Some pointed to the fact that their narrow semi-final win over York had made them more battle-hardened than their counterparts, and that seemed evident early doors.

From the kick-off, where Courtney Winfield-Hill found touch off the bounce, Leeds fronted up. Eventual player of the match Zoe Hornby was a thorn to the Saints middles, and the wisely used interchanges – particularly Emma