25 years since Sophie Cox changed view of rugby league forever

The 1 May 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of when a young girl from Rochdale, Sophie Cox, changed the face of rugby league as she became the first girl to play the sport at Wembley.

Until 1993, the annual curtain raiser to the RFL Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, then the thrilling climax to the season, had always been known as the ‘schoolboy's’ game’. 

However, on 1 May of that year, that view was flipped with the headline, “Rugby ace Sophie is Wembley’s First Lady,” heralding a momentous change in the way that people viewed rugby league, and the way it should be played.

The Daily Express report read: “Sophie Cox will today step into sporting history when she becomes the first girl to play rugby league at Wembley.

“Originally selected to play for Rochdale Schools U-11 and then for North West Counties Schools, Sophie's dream of treading on the hallowed turf was shattered a week before her 11th birthday, 23 December 1992. The English Schools Rugby League ruled that Sophie could not be part of the Rochdale team because rule one of their constitution, drawn up 25 years before, stated that games were to be organised for boys.”

In his report for the North West Counties Schools Rugby 1993-94 the-then secretary, Antony Twist, recalled: “We had faced criticism of the last development side from our region to play in the curtain raiser and so this time we made great efforts to ensure we secured the best possible team. After a secret ballot, it was the decision of the executive that Rochdale be nominated.

“There would be no criticism this time, we had done everything by the book, we had taken more care than ever, we covered all the angles – or so we thought. 

“What followed had far reaching effects on the whole of schoolboy rugby league. What became known as ‘The Sophie Cox Affair’ brought Schools Rugby League into the national press, onto the television and radio, the ESRL secretary had letters from MPs, Parliamentary Committees, Doctors, the DFE, the Sports Council, the Women's Sports Foundation and numerous other women’s organisations. All wanted Sophie to play at Wembley for Rochdale, as did the professional body of the RFL”.

Such was the controversy around a girl playing at Wembley, then-secretary of the ESRL Tony Tucker quoted the decision to let Sophie, who had three sporty sisters, play as a major reason for his resignation.

Unsurprisingly, a whirlwind of media swirled around Sophie and her family, beginning with a feature entitled ‘Sophie’s choice is denied’ in The Independent the day before her 11^th birthday.

The media focus was positive and thought-provoking, presenting the case not only for equal opportunities for girls in rugby league but also raising the wider issues of the image and place of  girls and women in contact sport: the next day - Sophie’s eleventh birthday - a television crew from BBC North West was at Sophie’s house in Littleborough and a feature broadcast that evening.

Further detailed features followed on ITV (Look North), 'Where there’s a will', Woman’s Hour, phone-ins, articles in The Times and The Daily Telegraph - broadsheets that rarely gave rugby league a mention.  Supportive articles full of enthusiasm and praise for Sophie’s dream to play at Wembley also followed in the rugby league press; League Express and David Hadfield (regarded as ‘rugby league’s most respected writer’) were particularly at the forefront of the campaign.

Eventually, the ESRL gave permission for Sophie to play at Wembley and duly made good their promise to review their constitution at their AGM in June, changing the word ‘schoolboys’ to ‘schoolchildren.’

Thus, girls in future years would not have to face the same obstacles that Sophie had battled successfully to overcome. They would, as Blue Peter’s Diane Louise Jordan put it, ‘be able to tread in her bootsteps.’ 

The seven-minute Blue Peter coverage of Sophie and her team playing at Wembley provides an exciting, entertaining and enjoyable tale of Sophie's journey to Wembley; even 25 years on, it's a tingly moment when Roy French commentates: “And that's a bee-oootiful long pass from Sophie Cox”, as she sets up Rochdale’s winning try.

However, the honorary treasurer of ERSL, Jim Forshaw, echoed the sentiments of the diehards and doubters, he said: “On a personal level I have grave reservations about girls playing rugby league football because of the high degree of physical involvement.”

Natural justice, equal opportunities and common sense prevailed, as the-then Honorary Secretary of ERSL, Ray Unsworth, said: “In view of the evidence about Sophie, we decided it was a special case and cleared the way for her to play at Wembley. We will now look carefully at the constitution, which makes no mention of girls, simply because there were no girls playing when it was written, but Sophie is the first girl to come through to a representative side, and that has concentrated our minds.”

Sophie's appearance at Wembley was by no means the peak of her rugby playing career. She played for Rochdale Ravens, including playing as one of their six representatives in the first-ever Lancashire versus Yorkshire U-13 game. During her secondary school years at Crossley Heath School in Halifax, she continued to play rugby league, and with her two younger sisters, Rosalind and Charlotte, played for Halifax Ladies. On one memorable occasion, they beat London Broncos at Stanley Park, Blackpool in the final of the national nines. 

At one stage of the game all three sisters were on the pitch together - making up a third of the team.

25 years on, Sophie is now 36, happily married and living in Rochdale, with a son Leo who will celebrate his third birthday on 7 May.

Sophie continued to play rugby until the age of 19, when her main sport of judo took first place, leading to two Olympic appearances and reigning UK champion at her weight for seven years.

Looking back after 25 years, Sophie said: “At the time I was aware of the fuss, but not too conscious of its implications. I just wanted to play rugby, make the tackles, score the tries, give the passes, be a valued member of the team.

“As the years have passed, I've come to realise the significance of being Wembley’s First Lady. 

“Reading one of the interviews at the time raises a smile, ‘It might have been nice to be a boy so I could have gone professional, but the ladies’ game is spreading, and maybe when I grow up there will be a women's professional league.’

“25-years later and it has happened.”

Sophie's legacy to rugby league is memorialised in little ways: she presented the 2013 Rugby League Women's World Cup and, as GB Lioness captain Brenda Dobek reminded her, the Sophie Cox medal is awarded to the winners of the Year 7 girls in the final of the Carnegie Schools competition. 

In 2013 Rochdale Hornets RFL won a Heritage Lottery grant to fund their Heritage Room: the project was named, ‘Hornets, Fijians and a girl at Wembley: the history of rugby league in Rochdale’.

One of Sophie’s favourite memories is being hoisted on to the shoulders of Joe Lydon (Wigan captain) and David Hulme (Widnes captain) in a pre-Wembley photo at Spotland; she met up with Lydon again at the Commonwealth Games, when she won a bronze medal, representing England in judo.

Sophie mused: “I couldn’t help thinking that rugby league had missed an opportunity here of worldwide exposure - why wasn’t it included in the Games, why wasn’t it promoting itself on the world stage? London 2012, Rio, now the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast - pictures of the men’s and women’s sevens teams with their bronze medals. Too late for 2020, but how about a real drive from the RFL to have nines included in Birmingham’s Commonwealth games in 2022?”

In between, after enjoying the physicality and team aspects of rugby - playing in the Leeds University winning national nines team - her judo commitments became all consuming. 

She was on the GB Junior squad, competing at the European Youth Olympics and winning silver at the World Schools.

With the opening of the National Judo Academy at Bisham Abbey and the award of lottery funding, Sophie became a full-time elite judo competitor and reluctantly had to forego the pleasure of team sport and concentrate on individual performance.

Sophie won two European silver medals, competed in Athens Olympics in 2004 (quarter finalist), then after 14 years of elite competition took five years out to teach English in Thailand. Time there included teaching, diving, buzzing around on a little scooter, Mu Tai boxing - experiencing different culture, different values, a different way of life. 

The lure of global competition, especially on 'home ground' drew her back, to train for the 2012 London Olympics.

On her return, Sophie won European bronze and six other elite medals. She was named BJA Player of the Year and was chosen by teammates as the BJA Players’ Player. 

The Olympics were a disappointment, as she lost in the first round, by a small score, to the eventual champion from Korea.

She continued for another year, winning the British Open and medals in Samoa and Europe, until pulling back from serious senior competition to concentrate on a life change to marriage, earning a living, and parenthood.

Sophie’s career is now focused on being a sporting mentor (Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, Sky Sports for Living and Street Games), teaching and coaching judo and jiu jitsu, delivering seminars about her sporting journey in all its aspects, positive thinking and motivation. She seeks to inspire youngsters and adults to realise their potential in life, to achieve their goals. 

Delivering interesting work ranging from the playing fields of Harrow to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym in Las Vegas to the success story of Kentmere Primary Academy in Rochdale, Sophie is also Regional Development Coach for England judo - and still finds some time for competition success at Masters’ level in jiu jitsu and judo.