| Clubname: | Leigh Leopards |
| Web: | leighleopards.co.uk/womens-team |
| Season: | 2023 |
| Position: | 3rd (Group 2) |
The Leigh Leopards Women are a women's rugby League team based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. The team originally competed as the ladies' team of the Leigh Miners Rangers before an agreement between the club and the Leigh Leopards led to the rebranding of the team in late 2022. In 2022 and 2023 the team took part in the Women's Super League. they compete in the Northern Women's Championship.
In the early 2010s Leigh took part in the Women's Rugby League Conference where in 2012 they defeated Brighouse 12–10 to win the Plate competition.[1] Leigh made their Challenge Cup debut in the inaugural 2012 competition, losing to Chorley Panthers in the first round.[1] The following season they defeated Chorley in round one for their first win in the Challenge Cup.[2] In the RFL Women's Rugby League Leigh won the Plate Final in 2015[3] and in the restructured league in 2016 they defeated the Oulton Raidettes 20–12 to become League 1 Champions.[4] In the 2016 Challenge Cup, Leigh reached the final, but lost 62–6 to Thatto Heath.[5] In 2021, Leigh topped the Championship and then defeated Barrow Raiders 10–6 in the Grand Final.[6] Both teams were admitted to Group 2 of the Super League for the 2022 season.[7] On 15 May, Leigh made their Super League debut with a 28–14 home win over Wakefield Trinity.[8] They won four of their matches to finish fifth in the table.[9]
In October 2022, it was announced that in a partnership agreement between the community and professional clubs in Leigh the Leigh Miners Rangers Ladies were to merge with the Leigh Leopards. Offers were made for the players and members of staff to retain their previous roles and the team would compete in the Super League under the new name.[9] [10] In the 2023 season, wins over Barrow and Hull KR in the Challenge Cup saw Leigh progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.[11] The team continued to use Twist Lane as its home,[12] but played their first match at Leigh Sports Village on 11 June against Featherstone Rovers.[13] In the Super League, Leigh were top of Group 2 going into the final day of the regular season ahead of both Barrow and Featherstone Rovers by one point, but 14–12 a loss to Barrow saw them finish in third place.[14] [15] They faced Barrow again in the final of the play-offs where a 14–8 loss denied them a place in the restructured Super League in 2024.[16] In January 2024, it was announced that they would be in the Northern Women's Championship.[17]
| Season | League | Play-offs | Challenge Cup | Ref. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Pos | |||||
| 2021 | Championship | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 246 | 104 | 18 | 1st | Won in Final | [18] | ||
| 2022 | Super League Group 2 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 174 | 298 | 8 | 5th | ||||
| 2023 | Super League Group 2 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 271 | 108 | 15 | 3rd | Lost in Final | GS | ||
| 2024 | Northern Championship | GS | |||||||||||