Women, have since the birth of the game, in Halifax played a big part in the Rugby League scene in the town. But until the 1980’s, this involvement was only off the pitch as administrators.
Although not the first women’s Rugby League team, the Halifax Ladies were certainly at the forefront of Women’s Rugby League. Dudley Hill, Guiseley, Hindley and Widnes had already been playing games. Here in Halifax, it all started with an advert in the Halifax Evening Courier in 1987 inviting anyone interested to attend a taster session for Womens Rugby League. Dave Clayton was their first coach.
And so, the Halifax Ladies Rugby League team was born.
One attendee at that first ever session was Julie Archer who had just moved to the area for work after university. Julie hadn’t played before but saw it as a good way to get to know people in the area. She took immediately to playing Rugby League, Julie enthused about her time with the Halifax Ladies.
“I went along to the advertised session and I got chatting to this woman as we both arrived. It was Lisa MacIntosh! We had so much fun.”
The Halifax Ladies borrowed a set of jerseys from the Fire Service and made their debut against Warrington Ladies on 16th July 1988. They had a great start and won the game by 28 points to 24. They went on to be part of the Ladies Amateur Rugby League Association (LARLA) competition alongside Warrington, Keighley, Crosfields, Rochdale and Guiseley. Julie Archer became the first Chair of LARLA and by 1990 affiliation to and recognition by BARLA was forthcoming.
As there was at this time no girls Rugby League, teams had teenagers as young 13 playing for them, although mainly “put out on the wing”. Claire Innis was a prime example turning out at 15 years of age.
In the meantime, the Ladies were building a good rapport with the professional club at Thrum Hall. They were given permission to play two curtain raisers to Halifax games in 1989. The Halifax Ladies also appeared in the very first LARLA Challenge CUP Final. The match took place at Rochdale Mayfield in the January of 1989, Their opponents were Crosfields and the game took place in what was described as a mud bath. Sadly, Halifax Ladies lost a close game by 24-12.
1989 was also to be the year of the first ever “GB Ladies” tour to France. There were five or six Halifax Ladies in the team that went over the Channel including Julie Archer, Claire and captain, Lisa MacIntosh. The tour turned out not quite what it said on the tin. It was only when the GB Ladies arrived in France that they learned that the French Ladies did not ply contact Rugby League but touch! Two games were played but the GB Ladies still wanted a game of contact! So the GB Ladies quickly organised a game against an Under 21’s mens team who would take them on in a contact Rugby League game. For the record the men won the game 10-4!
Back at home, the Halifax Ladies were to play in three consecutive Challenge Cup Finals adding two more to their 1989 appearance. Sadly, as in 1989 they lost both finals. In 1990 they faced Guiseley at Heworth (York) going down 18-12 with a 28-10 loss to Wakefield in 1991.
Halifax Ladies also featured in the Yorkshire v Lancashire game which was the curtain raiser to the 1990 Premiership Final at Old Trafford when Widnes beat Bradford Northern by 28-6 (this game was refereed by Halifax referee, Colin Morris.)
The 1991 season was a busy one for the Halifax Ladies. They played around games in total with Lisa MacIntosh and speedy winger, Jill Deadman, both scoring freely. Lisa ended the season with 26 tries whereas Jill finished with 28 tries including 5 hat tricks.
Julie Archer, who played through to 1995, recall her time playing with great affection.
“Would I do it again? Yes!! Those players we had – we had so much fun and we socialised together.”
Lisa MacIntosh certainly enjoyed her time playing Rugby League, she explained,
“I really enjoyed playing and enjoyed the social side, we had some really good presentation nights!”
She continued
“The best were the Thrum Hall curtain raisers, We played and watched Halifax and then we all went down to the Plummet Line!”
In 1992, the Halifax Ladies entered the Dudley Hill (Bradford) Womens 7’s competition. Jill Deadmand was again star of the show as she scored 10 tries on the day. Halifax Ladies disposed of Widnes in the semi final and beat hosts Dudley Hill in the final by 30-18. The team on the day was, Lisa MacIntosh, Jill Deadman, Julie Archer, Janet Livesey, Niki Moore, Sarah Heywood, Helen Robertshaw and Jane Green
Whilst the Halifax Ladies did have some much appreciated sponsorship from Russell Dean Carpets, they had to raise funds themselves. The 3-legged pub crawls were legendary.
In 1996, the Women’s Amateur Rugby League Association organised their first-ever tour of Australia. Lisa McIntosh, who was captain on the 1989 tour to France, was chosen as team captain. In contract to today’s Lionesses, every one of the players in the team had to raise £700 for the tour. Lisa led the Lionesses to a memorable and historic 2-1 win in the Test Series. Historic as it was the very last time a GB team had a series win over Australia! Lisa toured again in 2002 having in between the two Australia tours the tour captain on the 1998 tour to New Zealand.
Brighouse Rangers Ladies took over the womens Rugby League mantel in Halifax/Calderdale and in 2008 were part of the Womens Rugby League Conference playing initially in the Yorkshire Division and subsequently in the Central Division playing against the likes of Dudley Hill Thunderbirds and Keighley Cats.
When the Rugby Football League took over the running of the game and reorganised the Womens competition for the 2012 summer season, it remained Brighouse Rangers who continued to fly the flag although they were joined briefly in 2012 by Ovenden Ladies. Brighouse Rangers were in the Yorkshire and North East Division for 2012 and then in Division 1 until 2016 when the RFL once again reorganised the women’s competition structure.
The new RFL structure was to have three competitions: The RFL Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship and Women’s Championship 1. This led to the top teams being concentrated around professional clubs. Brighouse Rangers Women’s team went into Championship 1 and remained there for a couple of seasons before being assumed by the Halifax Foundation to be their women’s team.
The record shows Brighouse Rangers won just one of their 5 games in 2018 and when they became Halifax in 2019 they finished third with 8 wins from 15 league games. The Covid pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 season when Halifax were due to play in the Championship.
After covid in 2021, both Halifax and the new Illingworth Ladies played friendlies before they both joined Womens League 1 for the 2022 season.
Illingworth were now the leading women’s team in the town. They won 8 of their 13 games to finish third.
Illingworth Ladies had a great season and one notable event was the first mother and daughter to play in the same Illingworth team. Codie had just had her 16th birthday and turned out with her Mum for the Illingworth ladies team.
As for Halifax, they managed to finish one place below Illingworth winning 5 of their games.
The following 2023 season Illingworth were flying high and vying with Thatto Heath Crusaders for the top spot in Women’s League 1. They fell just short to finish runners up winning 11 of their 14 games. The fortunes for Halifax could not have been more different. They had 12 games and failed to win a single one. Indeed, they forfeited 5 games during the season.
Now in Womens League 2 after relegation, Halifax Panthers Women had an improved season playing against mainly amateur clubs. They won 5 of their ten games to finish mid-table. Illingworth Women were still challenging in League 1 amongst several professional club’s teams, such as Hull FC, Widnes Vikings, Wakefield Trinity and Swinton. They finished mid-table with 6 wins from 14 games.
Halifax Panthers Women went into the 2025 season full of confidence with England International and local lass Amy Hardcastle as head coach, assisted by St Helens star Caitlin Casey, and a squad of 24 players.
Illingworth continue to prosper in 2025 and produce some good performance based on solid defence.
Lisa MacIntosh
When Lisa turned up for that first taster session for Womens Rugby League back in 1987, she and the Rugby League world had no idea what was to come in the following years. Lisa had been a passionate football supporter and player. She had played mixed football at school and at 14 went to train with Manchester United Ladies where she continued during her time at college. So, at 19 Lisa took to Rugby League.
Not only did she play in Halifax Ladies first ever game, Lisa went on to captain the “Great Britain” side on their tour to France in 1989 which ended being games of touch Rugby League but also captain the full Great Britain Ladies side on their historic first tour to Australia in 1996 when 26 ladies Rugby League players with no international experience travelled down under. And what a tour that turned out to be as Great Britain Ladies won the Ashes against Australia on their own turf. Great Britain played 7 matches in total winning six games including two of the three tests against Australia.
The tour was not just playing there had been a lot of fundraising to ensure the tour went ahead as there was no funding available. The players had to pay for themselves. Lisa explained,
“ there were bucket collections at the Millenium Stadium and at Murrayfield to raise money. I loved the fund raising in Edinburgh in the (Bradford) Bulls’ bus! There was some competitive fundraising.”
Lisa by this time was playing her club Rugby League at Dudley Hill in Bradford along with other ex-Halifax lasses like Lisa Coulter.
In 1998, Lisa was back touring and this time to New Zealand.
“The Kiwis were great players and great off the pitch”
The Great Britain Ladies won their three tour games against NZ Māori, Auckland and Cantebury but lost all three Test matches versus New Zealand.
With the World Cup in UK in 2000, there was another opportunity for Lisa to play international Rugby League. Sadly, it was not to be a home triumph as Great Britain, despite beating Australia twice on the way to the final, were beaten once again by New Zealand
Australia was the tour destination for 2002 and once against Lisa was selected as captain. It was not such a happy return as the Australians won the test series 2-1.
Lisa continued to play and enjoy her Rugby League, finally hanging up her boots at almost 40 years of age. A successful playing career of 20 season which included 15 Great Britain caps and time coaching others. She was the first black woman to captain a Great Britain team in any sport.
In 2022, Lisa was one of the first group of three to be inducted into The Rugby League Women’s Hall of Fame.
Lisa MacIntosh: Rugby League Hall of Fame showreel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjErBQ0BPsE&list=PL0ECR8iCToNRGfVtSj-btddUpzbR05GHR&index=4
Lisa MacInotsh’s interviews with “Women in Rugby League” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0TWU5is8u0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6h5POKViIY
The excellent source for the history of Womens Rugby League in England see “Women in League” on Facebook.