Georgie Hetherington goes down for the try for York Valkyrie (then York City Knights). Photo credit: York RLFC.
Stu Barrow has been busy this summer, after announcing his England Women’s National Performance Squad, he now announced the Knights’. The Knights offers a pathway system into the senior England set up, keeping emerging players on track and demoted England players in the frame. Players from this squad could potentially make it into the Autumn International fixture England women will be hosting versus Wales women at Headingley Stadium.
Leeds Rhinos representatives Jasmine Cudjoe, 18-year-old Caitlin Casey and former Huddersfield Giants’ Super League Shield Final 2021 winner Izzy Northrop all make the Knights squad. Both Casey and Northrop made their Leeds debuts versus York Valkyrie at the top of this season.
Forward Izzy Northrop came through the Huddersfield Academy ranks before being promoted to senior side Vice Captain in 2022. She was also called up to represent England RL Students the same year. Rhinos’ half back Caitlin Casey has seen honours for her former side Oulton Raidettes, previously winning U16’s League One Grand Final in 2021 and Championship Grand Final in 2022. Jasmine Earnshaw-Cudjoe has been a key player in the Leeds attack since her debut for them in 2022. Prior to joining Leeds, she had been a mainstay for the Castleford Tigers, joining them after their formation back in 2016. To date she had featured in two Challenge Cup Grand Finals and Super League Grand Final with the Tigers, before winning the SL Grand Final with Leeds last year.
Wigan boast a large number of players in the Knights squad. They’ve 5 players from the Warriors side, with Kaitlin Hilton, Mary Coleman and Anna Davies retaining their places in the squad and new additions of Molly Jones and Eva Hunter to join them.
Kaitlin Hilton made her debut for Wigan back in 2021 in the Women’s Super League versus the Featherstone Rovers. She went on to play 4 appearances in 2021 to earn her the Young Player of the Year award. Mary Coleman switched from Union to League back in 2022, joining Wigan from the Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Union, as well as a rich background in Kent age group athletics. Coleman first featured for the Warriors in the Challenge Cup in a fixture versus the Rovers. In her 10 appearances for the club last season, the second rower picked up 3 tries. Joining her in the second row will be Eva Hunter, a product of the pathways system after breaking into the side in a 2022 fixture versus Huddersfield Giants. Hunter has enjoyed an impressive start to the season and claimed a hat-trick when the Warriors Women’s Academy defeated St Helens 34-18 at Wigan St Jude’s.
Molly Jones is a recent addition to the Wigan wing, coming up through the academy ranks to make her first appearance in 2022. Jones was awarded Player of the Match for her performances in the England Women’s Student’s fixture against the UK Combined Armed Forces. Anna Davies is another Union to League convert, a former player of the Bath Ladies whom she picked up a player of the year award with. In just her second rugby league match, she scored a hat-trick for the Team GB teachers side versus Wales Women. She joined the Warriors in 2021, playing all 12 games and scoring 6 tries across the year. The winger boosted her try scoring account the following year, finishing the club’s Top Try Scorer with 7 tries from another 12.
St Helens’ Katie Mottershead and Megan Williams came through the renowned Thatto Heath Crusaders academy and St Helens to come through to their senior side. Mottershead has scored 3 tries in her 11 games for the Saints, one most recently coming versus tough competition Leeds Rhinos after a quick offload from Cunningham allowed Mottershead a 20 metre run to the tryline. Williams debuted for St Helens this year starting from the bench, and got her first try on the board against Castleford in a 106-0 win over the Tigers.
York are scarcely represented in the Knights squad due to the large quantity making it into the senior England National Performance Squad. GB Students’ Liv Whitehead earns a place in the side alongside Emma Kershaw and Georgie Hetherington. Kershaw is a former Wakefield Trinity player as well as Whitehead, both moving to York from the West Yorkshire side. Whitehead has an impressive kicking resume, notching up 16 goals in the 2022 Challenge Cup. Halfback Hetherington came from rivals Castleford Tigers in 2021, after spending 4 and a half years with them.
Featherstone have just the one player in the squad with Dani Waters, with Huddersfield Giants’ Amelia Brown, Erin Stott and Bella Sykes and Warrington Wolves’ Emily Baggaley and Georgia Sutherland rounding up the rest of the squad.
England Women Head Coach, Stu Barrow, says:
“The England Women Knights is a really important part of the international pathway and it gives some of our younger players who are knocking on the door a chance to push into the senior squad.
“With our Autumn International confirmed, these players now have a real opportunity to display the quality I know they all possess and earn themselves a place in the team to face Wales.
“With the Betfred Women’s Super League still in its early stages, there is still plenty of opportunity for more players to be added to the England Women Knights as the season progresses.”
The England Knights Women’s Performance Squad:
Emily Baggaley (Warrington Wolves), Amelia Brown (Huddersfield Giants), Caitlin Casey (Leeds Rhinos), Mary Coleman (Wigan Warriors), Jasmine Cudjoe (Leeds Rhinos), Anna Davies (Wigan Warriors), Georgie Hetherington (York Valkyrie), Kaitlin Hilton (Wigan Warriors), Eva Hunter (Wigan Warriors), Molly Jones (Wigan Warriors), Emma Kershaw (York Valkyrie), Katie Mottershead (St Helens), Izzy Northrop (Leeds Rhinos), Erin Stott (Huddersfield Giants), Georgia Sutherland (Warrington Wolves), Bella Sykes (Huddersfield Giants), Danielle Waters (Featherstone Rovers), Liv Whitehead (York Valkyrie), Megan Williams (St Helens).
Written by Ellie Indie
