The Bradford Bulls Women are an English professional women's rugby league team based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Formed in 1999 as an autonomous club, Dudley Hill Thunderbirds, the team was also known as Bradford Thunderbirds and Bradford Clayton Thunderbirds. As the Thunderbirds the club played in the Women's Rugby League Conference and later the Women's Rugby League. they compete in the RFL Women's Championship.
History 1999–2011: Origins The club were founded in 1999 as Dudley Hill Thunderbirds to partner the men's Dudley Hill team. Later on the Thunderbirds and Dudley Hill split and became Bradford Clayton Thunderbirds to reflect playing in the Clayton area of Bradford and later just becoming Bradford Thunderbirds. Since there was no official league for many years they played sporadic fixtures until leagues started being formed such as the Women's Rugby League Conference in 2008 which gave the Thunderbirds and women's rugby league more competitive games. They also won regional leagues of the competition.
2012–2013: Challenge Cup The RFL Women's Challenge Cup was founded in 2012 to give the Women's Conference a competitive cup competition. Bradford had some early success in the cup appearing in the first two editions, losing both to and respectively.
2014–2016: Women's Rugby League In 2012 the club entered the newly formed RFL Women's Rugby League alongside mostly men's community clubs that ran a women's team. In 2014, the club lost a third consecutive Challenge Cup Final to Thatto Heath 32–24. They also reached the Premiership Play-Off final.
After the early success and more popularity in Bradford women's rugby league, the club dropped the Thunderbirds moniker and linked up with the Bradford Bulls in 2016 adopting the Bulls' colours, name and playing at Odsal Stadium. In their first season as the Bulls they reached a second Grand Final in three years, although they lost 36-8 to treble winners Thatto Heath.
2017–present: Super League After the 2016 season the Women's Rugby League was disbanded and new competition was set up. The RFL Women's Super League was set up in 2017 to give the sport a bigger profile and more professionalism. The first edition featured only four clubs with Bradford finishing first at the end of the season and going onto win the Grand Final 36–6 against Featherstone. This win completed a league and cup double for the team as earlier in the season they had won the Women's Challenge Cup beating Featherstone 50–16. On 22 December 2023, the Bradford Bulls Foundation announced that Connor Matheson had been appointed as Head Coach. In January 2024, following the restructuring of the women's league pyramid, it was announced that Bradford would be in the Northern Women's Championship.
Players 2026 squad
Seasons SeasonLeaguePlay-offsChallengeCupDivisionPWDLFAPtsPos2012Premier14colspan=518Lost in Grand FinalRU20131190238019518Lost in Grand FinalRU2014colspan=8Lost in Grand FinalRU201514110356022122Lost in Round 22016colspan=8Lost in Grand FinalSF2017Super League 66003007612Won in Grand FinalW2018Super League 12507292312105thR22019Super League 1341830028296thQF2020Super Leaguecolspan="10"2021Super League820612829449thQF2022Super League (G2)12606202296124thGS2023Super League (G2)1021712435055thLost in Semi Final GS2024Northern Championship16301318251867thGS2025Northern Championship1010950336210th2026National Championship12101168490111th
Honours Leagues Super League / RFL Women's Rugby League Winners (1): 2017 Runners up (2): 2014, 2016
Cups Challenge Cup Winners (1): 2017 Runners up (3): 2012, 2013, 2014
Notes
References
External links
Bradford Bulls Bradford Bulls Foundation