England Women captain Jodie Cunningham and former St Helens prop Kyle Amor joined Jenna Brooks and Jon Wilkin on the latest episode of The Bench podcast; listen to Sky Sports' rugby league podcast and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker
Wednesday 11 October 2023 10:45, UK
Catalans Dragons are in the Betfred Super League Grand Final, Toulouse Olympique and London Broncos will battle it out in the Betfred Championship decider for promotion to the top-flight the following day, and York Valkyrie are the recently-crowned Betfred Women’s Super League champions.
Rugby league has endured something of a mixed history with attempts to expand the sport, but those examples are among some recent positive signs across both the men's and women's games.
Were the Broncos to beat Toulouse in Sunday's match in the south of France, they would follow in the footsteps of their women's team who clinched the Women's Super League South title with a 22-10 win over Cardiff Demons in August.
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Their progress has been noted by England Women captain Jodie Cunningham, who is also the RFL's national women's and girls development manager, and the St Helens star told this week's The Bench podcast why she is so excited by the potential in both the south of England, and Wales.
"It's different challenges [to the men's game] because everybody at the minute is amateur, so we're transitioning a lot of players from rugby union to league, getting some really good athletes, and there is some potential there around representative opportunities," Cunningham told Sky Sports.
"London Broncos won that [south] competition against a really good Cardiff Demons side and it's hard to judge, but they're probably around that seventh or eighth top side for the women - they could easily be in the Women's Super League in a couple of years' time.
"We're trying to work with Scotland to get an Edinburgh side, so for the women's game we're at the point now where quite quickly they can move up the performance ladder, represent their country and be part of big occasions.
"That's why we're trying to put a lot of resource into the south and at present it's working, and we're getting some great athletes."
Should Toulouse earn promotion back to Super League on Sunday, it would mean there would once again be a second French team in the top division alongside Catalans, while the Broncos were one of the competition's founder members in 1996 and last featured in Super League four years ago.
Former St Helens prop Kyle Amor is keen to bring top-level rugby league back to his home county of Cumbria as well, and will be doing so on Friday when the county representative team face Wales in his testimonial match.
However, Amor, who began his professional career with hometown club Whitehaven, is eager for Cumbria to become an annual opponent to help grow rugby league both there and in some of the sport's developing nations similar to last year's Rugby League World Cup warm-up clash against Jamaica.
"I've always wanted top-flight rugby to come up to Cumbria and I've said it for years," Amor told The Bench. "The appetite for the game is still very much there and even when Scotland played [at Workington] in the Four Nations there were 4,000 or 5,000 there.
"That's what I'm trying to grab hold of, really, and we've spoken about how we want to make Cumbria Rugby League a regular fixture for some of these emerging or lower-tier nations.
"We've got Italy, Serbia, Ireland, Scotland, Wales - I genuinely think they'll get more experience playing Cumbria in Cumbria, a heartland of the game where loads of fans will come out and want to be associated with it.
"Rather than playing England and getting 60 points put on them...they don't get anything out of it and the team doesn't get anything out of it."
Catalans head coach Steve McNamara is in no doubt what it would mean for rugby league on a wider level if the French side can overcome Wigan Warriors in Saturday's Super League showpiece at Old Trafford.
McNamara's time in charge of the Perpignan-based side has seen them go from being 40 minutes away from being relegated in the 2017 Million Pound Game, to an historic Challenge Cup triumph the following year and winning the League Leaders' Shield and reaching a first Grand Final two years ago.
On that occasion, Catalans were edged out 12-10 by St Helens and the former England boss is fully aware of what doors could open up if the Dragons were to go all the way this time around.
"I think it'll make huge noise around the world if we could get the win," McNamara said ahead of the Grand Final. "Getting to the Grand Final is good but winning it would potentially open the door to a World Club Challenge and other avenues.
"The impact on the game in France would be huge. We're fighting against a big animal in France in rugby union, but we're holding our own without a doubt, and games like last Friday against St Helens grabbed the attention of everyone around the world.
"The club is continuing to develop and the young French players coming into the club now are a lot more professional than they were before.
"We still have some way to go, but the overall impact on the game [of winning the Grand Final] would be huge not only at the top end, but at the grassroots level as well."
Listen to the full interviews with Kyle Amor and Jodie Cunningham on the latest episode of The Bench on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Spreaker.
