On July 1, 1995, the Jillaroos played their first Test match.
With jerseys two sizes too big, and shorts that didn’t fit, Australia’s first national women’s rugby league team stepped onto Lidcombe Oval to play New Zealand in what would become a historical moment for the game.
Such is the growth of the women’s game, that thirty years on, the Jillaroos are preparing to play a Test against England in front of more than 45,000 fans at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Jillaroos captain Kezie Apps with the other team captains ahead of the NRL’s matches in Las Vegas.Credit: Getty Images
The NRL’s Las Vegas venture, which is in its second year, has been dubbed as an opportunity for rugby league to crack into the US market. But with women’s professional American football still relatively amateur compared to the NRLW, rugby league chief executive Andrew Abdo sees the women’s game as potentially the NRL’s biggest area for growth in the States.
“We actually think if you benchmark against other global female sports, rugby league has got to be up there. If it’s not the best it would be absolutely close to the best actual elite sporting entertainment for fans and our female athletes are a great opportunity for us to win new fans in that market,” Abdo said.
“We think the actual product itself is strategically important to showcase, but also opens up the opportunity for us to again win new fans from a different demographic, and probably, to be honest, I think it would be crazy for us not to include a women’s game on a global stage when we’re talking about how much it’s growing here in Australia and New Zealand.”
2024 NRLW champions the Roosters.Credit: Getty Images
Back home, women’s rugby league is thriving, and expansion in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific is on an upwards trajectory.
The NRLW will increase to 12 teams this year, following the re-introduction of the Warriors – who were dissolved during the Covid-19 pandemic – and the introduction of the Bulldogs.
The minimum wage for an NRLW player in 2025 increases from $34,000 to $41,800, and under the current bargaining agreement that figure will increase to $50,600 by 2027.
Abdo said the Jillaroos Vegas Test was an indication of how healthy the NRLW was back home.
“Credit to the [ARL] Commission here in terms of wanting to keep growing the event and showcase what we think [are] the best female athletes on the planet to a global audience,” Abdo said.
“Having the women’s fixture there was definitely an opportunity for us to show what rugby league’s about…if you think about the upside in terms of the women’s game and appealing to female athletes, there is a big upside for us in America.”
Comparatively, American football for women is still in its infancy – female athletes aren’t paid and often have to pay to play, fund their own travel and equipment and work a full-time job.
As a way of reaching out to American athletes, the NRL is hosting a combine in Las Vegas this weekend.
Clubs will have the opportunity to offer combine athletes an NRLW development list contract for the 2025 season, which begins on July 3, with the NRL willing to cover return airfares and half the cost of development wages.
The sport’s governing body is hoping to attract American athletes from other sports, including codes such as union and American football, to the NRLW. However, clubs will have to pay the cost if they want to sign a combine athlete to their top-24 squad, and that cost will be included in the team’s salary cap.
“The advantage of doing things like the combine and showcasing the women’s league is that we are potentially opening up new athletes, and new athlete pools, so the conversion of athletes from those codes, but the other thing is that opens up storytelling opportunities for us,” Abdo said.
“And everyone enjoys following an athlete and their journey. So for us to be able to have US athletes potentially sign and make a contract is a great opportunity for us to win fans who then follow those individual athletes.”
The NRLW has already seen plenty of code-hopping in its first seven years.
New Zealand’s two-time Olympic gold rugby sevens medallist Tyla King is about to start her third season with the Dragons, while Titan Evania Pelite and Shark Emma Tonegato were part of the Australian team who won gold at Rio in 2016.
The American reach is great for the sport, but newly appointed Jillaroos coach Jess Skinner said the occasion was a milestone for women’s sport in general.
“Coming over here to Vegas, it’s the first time a female team has ever played on the stadium [Allegiant] on Saturday, so that’s a big growth,” Skinner said.
“But particularly in our camp, we’ve been talking more about women’s sport. It’s not necessarily about women’s rugby league for us on an international stage, it’s just highlighting why we’re the No.1 team in the world, but also elevating women in sport and encouraging that.”
The Herald’s travel expenses to Las Vegas have been partly funded by the NRL.
