'Done a lot of damage': Lindsay Anfield fears Women's Super League becoming 'laughable' after Las Vegas humbling

The Jillaroos made light work of England in a 90-4 rout in March to highlight the gulf between the professional NRLW competition and Super League, which is still part-time.

Georgia Roche, Hollie-Mae Dodd and Paige Travis have all moved Down Under to accelerate their development, while Canadian forward Megan Pakulis left the Valkyrie this week to join Gold Coast Titans.

But in the wake of England's humbling in Vegas, Anfield fears Super League's standing – and its players' appeal to NRLW clubs – has taken a hit.

"After the Vegas game and the state of our league at the moment with the blowout games, I speak to quite a lot of people in Australia and unfortunately they probably think our game is a little bit laughable at the moment, which is poor," said Anfield ahead of York's last-four clash with St Helens on Sunday.

"I hate having those conversations about how they view it. They do watch it and are looking for players – but equally they want to see players who are tested week in, week out. They're not really seeing that.

"Meg was always on their radar because she won the Vegas Combine last year. She met a lot of coaches over there and impressed while she was there so was a little bit unlucky not to get a contract last year.

"She's definitely earned it but as for all the other girls, I don't think we're selling them as good as we could. Hopefully as the years go on, we will get more and more players over there which will only help us on the international scene."

England are building towards next year's World Cup in Australia but the drubbing by the Jillaroos has cast a long shadow over those preparations.

Anfield, whose York side are the reigning Super League champions, hopes the setback will ultimately be viewed as a turning point for the women's game on these shores.

"It's done a lot of damage," she admitted. "I'm not going to sit here and lie.

"I speak to the coaches over there, the players and people who just watch the game and it's not a great look, unfortunately.

"But it's happened now and we've got to do as much as we can to mitigate for that. Hopefully this will be the rocket our sport needs to put the women's game in a better light and professionalise the England set-up a bit more and make for more competitive games in our league."