Meet the Wigan Warriors star with a passion for developing women's game as day-to-day role detailed

The 28-year-old outside-back was one of the first players to join the Warriors ahead of their inaugural season in the Women’s Super League back in 2018, donning heritage number three.

Wilson scored a try in Wigan’s 18-16 win over Leeds Rhinos in the Grand Final at the Manchester Regional Arena in the club’s debut season.

Fast forward eight years, she is now working for the Wigan club on a day-to-day basis alongside her playing duties, training in the evenings and playing at weekends.

“My job is women and girls development manager,” Wilson told Wigan Today.

“At the moment, I am basically developing the women’s game commercially, trying to get sponsors in, fan engagement as well, so our matchdays are pretty much down to me! Our pre-match activities and the stuff we have going on, to try to get community clubs in, to get new people in, trying to reach a new audience, that’s basically what my job is.

“The first game of the year we had here against Barrow, we reached a record crowd (of 508) for a women’s game which was really good because we had a lot of community teams come down and had plenty of activities on pre-match and music and cheerleaders, so it was a really good atmosphere and from a playing point of view, that felt amazing and we’ve not had that in a long time, so hopefully we can keep building that this year and it obviously makes me look good at my job! Hopefully we can keep building numbers and getting more spectators down.”

Wilson is currently in her seventh season with the Warriors, having enjoyed a year in Australia in 2023 and 2024, where she played for Souths Logan Magpies and Norths Devils.

The Cumbrian rejoined Wigan early in 2024 and added a second trophy with the club as the Warriors won the Women’s Nines at Sewell Group Craven Park, and Wilson believes she returned to England as a better player following her stint in Australia, but more importantly, a better person.

“I loved it over there, I plan on living there at some point,” said Wilson.

“But just the level of rugby over there, playing with NRLW players week in, week out, challenging me and improved my understanding of the game and development, it was really good to be over there and the experience I gained from it was amazing, and I’m trying to bring that back now to help all the younger girls out in the Super League.

“I’m glad I went over there and got the experience. I think I would’ve been kicking myself if I didn’t bother going. I probably came back a better person for gaining that experience, being able to understand the game better than I did when I left and learning from the girls over there, and that’s where I want to try and improve and help the knowledge of the girls over here as well. It’s a very different game over in Australia, it’s much faster-paced, so it was different but good.”

Women’s rugby league in the UK has enjoyed a meteoric rise since the launch of the Women’s Super League, both in terms of popularity but also participation numbers from grassroots level right through to the elite.

“It’s great for the community girls to have role models and to be able to look towards the pathway,” Wilson continued.

“Obvioiusly, when I was growing up, there wasn’t really a pathway. For people like Molly Jones, there was an academy starting and she has come through the academy, but now we’ve got Pathway to Performance, so that’s Under-16s then you’ve got the academy girls and then you’ve got the women’s first-team so from a young age at community level, there is now a clear pathway.

“If someone is in the community game, they can carry on playing community, but also be part of Wigan Warriors and be a Wigan Warriors player. It’s just having those people to look up to and have that pathway to a potential career option when they’re older, they might start getting paid or be part-time athletes, which is an opportunity for them that they might not want to turn down.

“The community game has grown massively since I worked in the club’s Foundation a few years ago. I used to go around community clubs, and there were one or two girls’ teams per club, but now I go to most clubs and there’s like five teams, which is amazing, so just after the World Cup in 2022, there’s been a massive growth in the game and the participation levels.”

The Warriors have reached the semi-finals of the Women’s Challenge Cup following a 96-0 demolition of Cardiff Demons on Sunday afternoon. Denis Betts’ side will meet Leeds Rhinos at York’s LNER Community Stadium on Saturday, May 10 - before the Men’s semi-final between Hull KR and Catalans Dragons.