England Rugby League are delighted to announce that former Wales and St Helens Rugby League star Anthony Sullivan has been named as the new England Women’s head coach.

Sullivan brings with him a wealth of experience having scored over 200 tries during his playing career with St Helens whilst also becoming a dual-code Wales international and he will have the first opportunity to test his coaching skills when the Women’s team face both France and Australia in Test matches this July.

The former Great Britain International is already heavily involved within the RFL’s coaching set-up, working as a regional talent coach and recently joining the RFL’s Player-to-Coach pathway programme which will see him involved with the England Youth and Academy sides and he is relishing his latest challenge.

“I’m very pleased to have joined the England Women’s set-up and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said Sullivan. “I played for quite a few years and I’ve been coaching on the RFL Performance Pathway recently so hopefully some of that experience will come in useful to help this side develop and progress.

“I’ve already spoken with all the girls about driving the game forward. We want to ensure our performances are of the very best quality and we all want this side to be successful so that any girl involved in Rugby League will aspire to becoming an England international.

“Rugby League is open to everyone and the game is there for everyone to play in all shapes and forms and that’s something we’re all proud of.

“Hopefully if we can achieve good results on the pitch, we can encourage more women to get involved in the game.

“The side have come off the back of a tough series against New Zealand in the Autumn and we’ve got some work to do, but all the players are aware of that and they’ve been putting in some hard work with the English Institute of Sport to get their conditioning up and improve their skills. So I’m confident that we will see some good results come July.”