England Women’s Rugby League prepare for 2026 World Cup with training camp at Leeds Beckett

The training camp is part of a four-year partnership between England Rugby League and Leeds Beckett, which provides the national team with access to high-performance facilities and sports science expertise.

Head coach Stuart Barrow, who is also Head of the Women and Girls Pathway, said the facilities play a key role in supporting the team’s preparation:

“We try to professionalise the sport as much as we possibly can at this level. To have access to amazing facilities like the gym we're stood in at the moment, the astroturf and the grass fields. Then to come in and do our recovery sessions in the cryobath and masseuses on hand as well has just been exceptional to give the players every opportunity to develop and advance in their careers.”

Involved in the training camps were current Leeds Beckett students Bella Sykes and Evie Cousins, plus alumna Tamzin Renouf and Keara Bennett, who are all looking to make it into the final world cup squad. 

Sean Scantlebury, Senior Research Fellow at Leeds Beckett and Lead Performance Coach for England Women’s Rugby League, said the University provides an ideal environment for elite training.

“It's absolutely brilliant to have the England Women's Rugby League team here. To be able to utilise our facilities with such fantastic athletes gives us a real opportunity to prepare the players to the best of their ability ahead of the World Cup in October.”

“We can do everything here, data collection, strength and conditioning, field sessions and then come back in and include recovery with sports mysticism with the cryobaths that we have, it means that we can do everything that we need to do to prepare the players for the world cup in one facility.”

The England camps follow a recent Player and Coach Education (PaCE) Day hosted at Leeds Beckett, which brought together the entire Women's Super League for league-wide testing, education and professional development.

Together, the events highlight the role Leeds Beckett plays in supporting the development of women’s rugby league, from league-wide testing and coach education to providing a training base for the national team and pathways programmes.

Stuart Barrow explained: “I think integral to the development of the women and girls game as well is this link with Leeds Beckett because I've come in five, six years ago and created a pathway that includes our under-16s P2P girls. They will also do a PaCE day, where they'll get tested for the first time ever in these sports science facilities so we're starting to gain data and information on the younger athletes as well.”

“We also run our DICE programme which is our Diploma in Sporting Education and that's produced seven players already for the senior international women who also come here and have training days as well and we gather data on them and they get exposed to these facilities and they then want to do more of it and come to the senior women in the future so it's aspirational as well as supportive.”

As England continue their preparations for the World Cup, the collaboration highlights how elite sport, research and athlete development come together at Leeds Beckett.