York Valkyrie faced a hard defeat, 40 – 6 against the Wigan Warriors at the Brick Community Stadium.

The defeat began the fight for the 2025 Betfred Women’s Super League title, as Wigan scored first, opening their winning and dominant play.

They ran in five first half tries – exploiting gaps in York’s defence which head coach Lindsay Anfield will surely have to look to. Halftime ended strongly for Wigan with a 28 – 0 .

The reigning champions, the Valkryie’s struggled to keep up with the Wigan Warriors although they won back-to-back super league titles the past two years.

Claiming their maiden win in 2023, they defeated the Leeds Rhinos in the Grand final with a score of 16 – 6, in front of a record crowd of 4,547.

This gave the team a start to their redemption arc after their defeat to Leeds in 2022.

York Valkyrie became the first team to retain the BWSL title in 2024 after defeating St Helens 18 – 8.

As the 2025 season has just begun the Valkyries still have time to assert their dominance and try for their third consecutive title.