As women’s rugby league started to pick up momentum again, the first Women’s Rugby League World Cup was held in England with just three teams – Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain/Ireland.

Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) was spearheaded by the Women’s Premier League, which is a player-run-and-operated amateur league that’s been in the U.S. for around 50 years.

A new women's professional rugby league kicked off this spring with half a dozen teams. The U.S. women won their first Olympic rugby medal last summer, and the league has its eyes on the World Cup.

Women’s Elite Rugby, or W.E.R., was established on the foundation of the Women’s Premier League, a player-run, amateur organization that had served as the main pipeline to the women’s ...