England to consider NRLW heritage players after record loss to Jillaroos

England coach Stuart Barrow will consider bolstering his side with NRLW stars for the 2026 World Cup after admitting his players had been “shocked” by the ruthlessness of the Jillaroos in their historic Vegas Test.

Australia exposed the gulf in depth and quality between the NRLW and England’s Women’s Super League, by inflicting a 90-4 loss - England's worst defeat - at Allegiant Stadium.

Only a last minute try to Newcastle Knights halfback Georgia Roche prevented a whitewash.

Hollie-Mae Dodd plays for Canberra and her second-row partner Paige Travis is set to join Parramatta, but Barrow said he had resisted approaches from heritage players until now.

“I've been contacted by several agents regarding heritage players. It's something I will look at, but we are trying to develop our domestic game as well at the same time,” Barrow said.

Sydney Roosters outside back Jasmin Strange, who was part of the Triple M commentary team at Allegiant Stadium after helping the Los Angeles Roosters win the NRL Vegas Nines, is believed to eligible for England, along with Broncos Origin forward Keilee Jospeh.

Cowboys playmaker Kirra Dibb is understood to be another player with English heritage, but she is ineligible after having previously played for Australia.

“I didn’t say no [to those players],” Barrow said. “I just said it was something we would review before the World Cup.

“It will be something that we'll reflect on after this tournament. Again, like I say, we didn't really know where we were at as a group until you play this opposition.

“We can watch all the video and admire the NRLW from afar, like we do, but until you actually get on the field and see what's coming at us … it was hard."

The margin of Australia’s win was greater than their 82-0 defeat of Papua New Guinea during last year’s Pacific Championships and the Jillaroos would have passed 100 points if Tarryn Aiken hadn’t missed six of her 17 goal attempts.

The Jillaroos had 12 players who ran over 100 metres, including winger Julia Robinson (259m) and prop Shannon Mato (216m), whereas England’s highest metre maker was centre, Amy Hardcastle, was limited to 81m with the ball.

“We've learned some lessons today about what international rugby league is about at the highest level,” Barrow said.

“We'll take a lot of learnings away from that, but obviously we didn't expect that result today. I'm not going to hide behind that and, and that's on me as the leader.

“It was a shock today for a lot of our girls. I think it was the shock factor.

"I think it blew them away from the first five minutes and that's because they haven't experienced anything at that intensity in the domestic competition and not in our internationals we previously played.

“We tried to tell them that was coming and we looked at a lot of video and we tried to go through that and we've tried to replicate the intensity in training and in manufacturing Yorkshire-Lancashire Origins, but until you actually get out there and feel it and I think it caught us by shock and the players by shock on the field.

Barrow said he would like more English players to play in the NRLW and also believes England needs to play Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific nations more regularly if they are to improve.

“I think we've got plenty of players who could go over there and bring back their learnings - you saw Georgia Roche today, Hollie-Mae Dodd and Paige Travis, who will be joining them this year as well, so that can only make them better," he said.

“The domestic competition obviously in Australia is intense and it brings the best out of people.

“We're struggling at the moment. In our Women's Super League, we probably have three, maybe four [good] teams in a bigger league, so they have lots of weeks where they're not having competitive challenges.

“So, we've got to try and look at our domestic competition as well, going forward to see how we create environments like we've just witnessed on the field."