JENNY Welsby flies off for her third Rugby League World Cup with England on Friday fully expecting to play in the biggest and best tournament yet.

With a final at Brisbane’s prestigious Suncorp Stadium, played as a curtain-raiser to the men’s event, the women’s game will get a profile beyond what it has enjoyed before.

And success for England could see the game begin to match the significant strides made by women cricketers, footballers and rugby union players this decade.

Welsby, who has been in the England set-up since she was 19, sees the potential of those positive spin-offs but is focused on doing her best in the white shirt alongside three other Warrington women – vice-captain Jodie Cunningham, Emily Rudge and Danielle Bound.

And after being edged in a bruising semi-final by New Zealand in 2013, Welsby and her team-mates are determined to beat the two strong Antipodean nations this time out.

The 28-year-old, who is employed in sports development in the town, said: “It is very exciting and I was delighted to get the call because I’d had an injury early on in the year so had not played as many games as I’d have liked.”

She is one of eight members in the England squad, along with Cunningham, Rudge and Bound, who play their club rugby for Thatto Heath-St Helens, for whom she is the captain.

Despite the rivalry, domestically, between the two club sides providing most players to the squad – with champions Bradford Bulls supplying 10 – all that is forgotten about when they don the England shirt.

Welsby said: “When you get there it is all about the common goal of this World Cup so all the battering of each other and trying to get one over them goes away when we are in camp.

“We have a tough schedule of four games in 11 days, but unfortunately that’s the way the women’s game has to run. It is a cost thing; all the women have full-time jobs so while the men go out there for six weeks, we have to save our holidays, have supportive employers and condense our comp into a fortnight.

“We have a day’s recovery after the game has gone and then it is straight on to thinking about the next game.”

Playing the finale at the iconic Brisbane Stadium is quite a juicy carrot dangling before the players, but for England stand off Welsby the match would have the same value regardless of the venue.

She said: “Suncorp is massive but if we were playing the final on a park field the fact that it is the World Cup means it is already huge. It is like the Olympics, around once every four years, and that is what we build for as international players.

“There is already plenty of hype around the tournament and we don’t need any more incentive to go out there and try and win the World Cup.”

Welsby’s first World Cup was in Australia in 2008 and she followed that up with the one on home soil in 2013.

She is hoping to use her experience to pass on to the younger players to help them not be over-awed by the occasion.

They open their account with a game against Papua New Guinea on November 16 and follow that up with a clash against the holders Australia three days later.

England conclude their group games on November 22 against Cook Islands with the top two in each of the two pools going into the semis on November 26.

All the games, bar the final, will be in Sydney starting with the one against the Kumuls.

Welsby, who grew up in St Helens but now lives in Warrington, said: “We don’t have the same access to video as the men’s game, but we expect PNG to be a big powerful side running at us. We will be prepared for them.

“Australia and New Zealand have always been the top two teams.

“New Zealand were favourites to win it last time but we gave them a tough semi and then Australia did them in the final off the back of that.

“Australia are going to be motivated — they will want to win it and be there at Suncorp but we want it just as much.

“The World Cup is definitely getting bigger and the very fact that the Women’s World Cup final is a curtain raiser to the men’s is something that has never happened before.

“It is fantastic to see how women’s football, with television and media exposure, and cricket and rugby union have grown.

“We in rugby league are moving in the right direction and if we can get a good result out there in Australia it will definitely help the game develop even more.”