Castleford Tigers Women’s Head Coach and Assistant Coach England Women, Lindsay Anfield, has been chosen by RFL President Andy Burnham as the first recipient of the new President’s Awards. Lindsay receives her award in recognition of her commitment to coaching excellence and inspiring the next generation of coaches.
Anfield’s Tigers continued their 100% start to the season with a comfortable second-round victory against local rivals Featherstone Rovers in front of the Our League cameras in the Coral Women’s Challenge Cup – watched by a four-figure crowd, as the league aficionados of Castleford continue to respond to the new team representing the town.
This follows a strong showing for Castleford players in the Origin squad as Yorkshire took the win against Lancashire in a close fought match which opened Sunday’s Summer Bash action.
In April intrepid Cas took the women’s game to France for a special game against Déesses Catalans in Perpignan and brought home the Her RL Trophy after an emphatic win.
Lindsay is dedicated to the team’s success, and the wider campaigning around women’s rugby league; combining her coaching commitments with an exceptionally busy senior role in education.
Lindsay has undertaken the Women into High Performance Coaching – a UK Coaching programme. This was a yearlong, bespoke and rigorous programme aimed at female coaches who have been identified by their National Governing Body to have the potential to work within the performance environment within one to five years.
The RFL committed to support Lindsay in all aspects of the programme, in particular to facilitate her attendance and engagement. The RFL provided accommodation, the evening before each of the four seminars and actively provided opportunities for Lindsay to experience the high-performance environment including sessions with England Youth and Academy and introductions to high performance coaches.
Lindsay on her part: attended all four seminars and engaged fully with the peer mentoring, ensured that the England Performance Unit was kept up to date with her progress on the programme and completed all tasks relating to the programme with massive personal commitment. Lindsay is a huge champion of the girls’ and women’s game, a leading former player herself and a volunteer.
The RFL has supported Lindsay to achieve UKCC Level 3 coaching qualification. This has involved 1-1 tutorials and session observations. She produced a very high standard of written and practical work. She is one of a very small number of women in RL with the Level 3 qualification.
Lindsay will receive an expenses paid knowledge-sharing visit to another high performance team sport environment outside of rugby league.
The RFL is working with UK Coaching to support more women into rugby league coaching at all levels.
Lindsay’s England Performance Unit colleagues are delighted to see her recognised in this way by RFL President Andy Burnham.
RFL President, Andy Burnham, said: “I’m delighted to announce that the first winner of the inaugural RFL President’s Award is Lindsay Anfield.
"Lindsay is a coach at Castleford Tigers and part of the England Women’s coaching team. This award recognises her commitment to coaching excellence at the highest level and how she is also inspiring the next generation of women’s coaches.”
