Published: 31st August 2018
Delivered locally by Huddersfield Giants Community, The Girls England Talent Pathway (ETP) programme targeted at 11-16-year-olds raises the participation of girls in rugby league within the Kirklees area, providing a pathway for female players in a professional environment. The programme ensures the players receive a consistent, high standard of coaching & development, preparing them for future regional and national teams. The success of the programme has been evident and has resulted in three girls being offered trials with the Huddersfield Giants Women and Girls U19’s team.
Head of Women’s Rugby at Huddersfield Community Trust, Steve Stead has recently launched the new Huddersfield Giants Women U19’s team this year, with a further aim to introduce an open age team to compete in the Women’s Super League 2019. Steve is highly experienced within girl’s rugby league and commented: “The programme was a complete success with girls travelling from far and wide to be part of the Giants England Talent Pathway. It was our first year delivering this for girls and we could not be happier with the response and feedback we have received. Due to the popularity of the programme, we will be looking to grow this over the next 3 years with an aim to increase participation with 90 places available in 2019. The Girls ETP completes our female player pathway and to have girls already coming through this into our teams is a great achievement in itself.”
Helen Webb, parent of player Olivia Webb commented: “I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the coaches for a fantastic set of training sessions over the past few weeks! Olivia has had a brilliant time and has learnt lots, she really appreciates the effort everyone has put into making the sessions a success and already can’t wait to come back next year!”
Commenting on the success of the Girls ETP programme, Head of Sport, Jonathan Timms said: “Our recent Girls England Talent Pathway has been a roaring success seeing us sell out with girls attending from as far as Catterick and Wigan. This is in no doubt due to the high standards of development opportunity that we offer and our commitment to the growth of the women and girls game. Receiving positive feedback of how worthwhile and beneficial the days have been from players that have travelled so far is a testament in itself. We are in exciting times for female Rugby League and we are confident of building upon the recent success of our England Talent Pathway. Watch this space, we have some huge plans for the future.”
The Girls ETP is proudly sponsored by The University of Huddersfield.
