Paige Travis: St Helens forward happy to return after NRLW adventure

As a star of the English game, both at club and Test level, Travis had plenty of games under her belt before taking to the field in the NRLW.

However, the quality of the pitches, the conditioning of the players and the depth of the junior pathways all added up to a faster, leaner game down under.

“It was a bit of a shock when I first started playing, especially when I moved into the middle, you’re in there and you’re working hard and ruck speed is really important,” Travis said.

“Everybody’s quite skilful as well; even the middle forwards are skilful, and everybody can chuck a good ball around.

“Equally, it’s just rugby and it’s just tough. Running at me or running at one of them, it felt the same. When you’re a forward and that’s what you do – it’s a bit different for the backs, and I can’t comment on that – as a forward you just run hard and you tackle hard, and that’s what I tried to do.”

What was refreshing, and sometimes sobering for Travis, was being able to see the games on TV, every week, and with the full broadcast treatment.

“It’s broadcast and shown really well, and that opportunity to watch yourself back constantly and to get your stats back really quick was like, ‘Woah! That’s good!’,” she said.

“You can see where you’re going wrong, but it’s also quite scary because you can think ‘Oh, I’ve had a really bad game’ when you see your stats are low.

“There’s no waiting till the dust settles on a Monday morning, that was hard; but such a good, rewarding thing as well that you can watch yourself back.”