JANE Banks heard it all. Why are women playing rugby league? You should be in the kitchen. What is the point?

Being inducted into the sport’s Hall of Fame, along with the history-making Great Britain Lionesses side she was part of in 1996, is a pretty good reason.

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She can also say something many male players can only dream of saying. I beat the Aussies in Australia.

Aged 17, the Royal Mail worker Jane was the youngest member of the trailblazing side that funded itself to make the trip 28 years ago. She had to wait 26 to get the cap for it.

Now as she joins greats like Jim Sullivan, Billy Boston, Brian Bevan, Ellery Hanley, Martin Offiah and Andy Farrell – both individually and with her team-mates – it all seems worth it.

Jane, who was working part-time in a Pizza Hut when she was selected at 16, said: “It was all self-funded, we had no backing from anybody.

“We had to raise just over £50,000 to get there. It was things like bucket collections and bag packing. We did loads of bucket collections, we were at every match shaking a bucket!

“And we got people coming up going, ‘Women can’t play rugby league,’ as we were shaking a bucket trying to raise money to go on tour to Australia.

“Attitudes then were very different. We had, ‘Women can’t play rugby,’ a lot. Now we’re the only team to have won a series against Australia on their turf to this day.”

Even though it was the mid-1990s, bank transfers were unknown. So, the Lionesses’ tour manager flew Down Under with a suitcase full of money to pay for accommodation and travel!

And recognition of their 2-1 series victory was not exactly forthcoming.

“We were invited to Wembley for the Challenge Cup final,” Jane added. “We were thinking, ‘We’re Ashes winners, they’re going to parade us around.’

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“We got there and it was like, ‘Here’s white tracksuits, white caps. You’re ging to shake that flag while the players come out.’

“It was crazy. At the time, we were like, ‘Are we dancing? A flag?’ It’s an ongoing joke now. It was bloody heavy, I’ll tell you!”

It may be more than 25 years late, but deserving recognition will come tonight when Jane, along with Michelle Land, is inducted individually into the Hall of Fame, along with the Lionesses – the first team to receive the honour.

Now working as a smoking cessation officer for Warrington Borough Council, the former player for her hometown team is ready for another ‘special’ moment.

She went on to be named player of the tour on the 1998 series in New Zealand and secured the player of the series award in the 2000 World Series, while playing in club matches her home town’s Victoria Park.

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But Jane told SunSport: “It’s huge recognition for what we did. I was shocked when I found out I was being inducted as an individual but to be as a team as well makes it more special.

“I’ve not seen a lot of them for a while. We all got back in touch about two years ago when we got Great Britain caps, which we never received at the time.

“A lot of that was because it was all fairly hidden. No-one really knew what we’d achieved, then the heritage programme went through everything and sought us all out.

“At that point, we hadn’t seen each other for pretty much 20 years. Now we’re all on a group chat and talking all the time.”

Out-of-favour 24-year-old winger Luis Palma has taken to social media to hint that he is ready to wait for his chance at Celtic after again being left on the bench at the weekend. (Daily Record), external

Ghana international Dennis Khorsa, a 28-year-old who can operate at left-back, left centre-half or as a holding midfielder, has begun a trial with St Johnstone set up by previous manager Craig Levein. (The Courier), external

Former Scotland striker Ally McCoist has confirmed that he will not be appearing on the 2024 series of “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!” after being heavily linked with an appearance on the ITV programme. (TalkSport), external

Manchester United are taking early measures to prevent Rangers supporters from accessing the home sections of Old Trafford, despite their Europa League meeting being over three months away. (The Herald), external

FCSB head coach Elias Charalambous says he knows nothing of Philippe Clement’s problems as Rangers manager and predicts a tough test for his side in Thursday’s Europa League game at Ibrox. (The National), external

Omonia Nicosia head coach Valdas Dambrauskas has apologised to the club’s fans following their 1-0 home defeat by Enosis left them in sixth place, seven points behind leaders Paphos in the Cypriot top flight, and in need of improvement against Hearts in the Conference League on Thursday. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

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The future of the games at stake

NOVAK DJOKOVIC has revealed he is still haunted by growing up in war-torn Serbia.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion has enjoyed an illustrious career over the last 21 years.

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He grew up in Serbia during the Yugoslav wars, with his homeland bombed by NATO – an experience Djokovic can never forget.

In an interview with La Nacion, he said: “It’s the fear of the unknown. Not knowing if the next bomb is going to hit your head.

“And so it was every day, the alarms, the sirens that woke us up every night when the planes were approaching.

“When I see these wars and everything that is happening… I lived through the war, my city was bombed day and night for two and a half months.

“It’s a horror. The worst thing anyone can experience. It’s the fear of the unknown.

“I saw dead people and now that I see wars in other parts of the world, I don’t understand.”

Djokovic, 37, also spoke about how the war helped him grow up fast, as his dad gave him responsibilities which included looking out for his brothers.

He continued: “I want to make it very clear – I don’t think anyone should suffer through war to develop mental strength, there are other ways to do it.

“For me, it was a very important part of my development and as a small child, I was forced to grow up. I had to take responsibility and share my father’s role because I was the eldest son and there was no time.

“My father spoke to me as an adult: ‘You have to do this, take your brothers there, go here.’ It was war.”

Larne qualified for the league phase of this competition thanks to a dramatic run through the qualifiers that saw them beat Ballkani on penalties before Andy Ryan’s hat-trick edged Lincoln Red Imps in a thrilling second leg.

The County Antrim side, who lost 3-0 to Molde in their opener last month, had league fixtures postponed during the period and are now working through the fixture backlog.

Saturday’s draw with Crusaders meant the side have won just four of nine domestic fixtures this season.

Meanwhile, thanks to the League of Ireland’s status as a summer league, Shamrock Rovers are embroiled in a tense conclusion to another title race, sat third with a pair of games to play but just two points behind leaders Shelbourne.

“It’s an experience we have to enjoy, have to embrace,” added Lynch.

“But also we have to make sure that the domestic league is our bread and butter. We know that from the 22 December, the Europa stuff is over and we can concentrate fully on our domestic league.

“There’s lots of things going on that we have to keep an eye on but we know what we want to do, we have a gameplan. Whether that works over the course of seven or eight months, I don’t know, but it’s something we’ve been working towards.”

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