St Helens’ Zoe Harris added to England Women performance squad | Rugby League News

Zoe Harris has earned a call-up to the England performance squad after a strong start to the season with St Helens in the Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup; Craig Richards’ team will be holding a two-day training camp over the Easter weekend

Zoe Harris has been called into the England Women squad ahead of the Eastr training camp

Zoe Harris has been added to the England Women performance squad following her impressive start to the year with St Helens.

The half-back was a key contributor in Saints’ treble-winning 2021 campaign and has carried on that form this season to help them reach the Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Harris will now link up with Craig Richards’ squad for a two-day training camp in Leeds over the Easter weekend.

“It’s great to be able to bolster our squad further with the addition of Zoe,” England head coach Richards said.

“She has been a standout performer for St Helens in their current run to the semi-finals of the Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup and she will offer even more competition for places in our halves.

“I am really happy with all the new inclusions we’ve made to our squad in recent months and feel we are building a really strong group of players with the Rugby League World Cup at the end of this year.”

Harris’ call-up comes on the back of Leeds Rhinos’ Australia-born former Woman of Steel Courtney Winfield-Hill and Caroline Collie, of Betfred Women’s Super League South side Bedford Tigers, earning places in the squad too.

Craig Richards has been impressed with Zoe Harris’ early-season form

England’s players will meet at Weetwood, Leeds on Good Friday for a two-day training camp which will include field and gym sessions on both days.

The camp forms part of the preparations for the match against France in a mid-season double-header alongside the England Men’s clash with the Combined Nations All Stars on Saturday, June 18, live on Sky Sports, as well as the Rugby League World Cup in October and November.

“It will be great to get the group together for a lengthier period and focus on some key areas of development,” Richards said.

England’s up-and-coming stars benefit from camp

The next generation of England Women’s players were put through their paces at a week-long training camp at Woodhouse Grove School in Bradford recently.

The Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) is a national programme for girls in school Years 12 and 13 who are deemed to have potential to represent England in the future and play women’s rugby league at the highest level.

Second-year students were in camp between April 4 and 6 while first-year students linked up for a joint session on April 6 before undergoing their camp until April 8. Both groups took part in field and gym sessions, as well as having access to recovery facilities.

“The DiSE programme and this residential stay was designed to put players in a training camp environment with focus on several topics which will give them the best chance of becoming a future England Women senior player,” head of England Pathways for female players, Stuart Barrow said.

“Clearly there is a lot of focus on the Rugby League World Cup later this year, but the work on this programme will make sure we are building for the next in France in 2025 and further forward.”

Rugby league has 30 places per academic year for each new group of Year 12 students. DiSE is a dual career programme which combines education alongside high-level training delivered on a camp basis by the England Performance Unit.