The Army Officer playing for Wales at a World Cup

Jade Mullen’s journey to the Women’s Rugby League World Cup has been an unconventional one.

A last-minute code switch within the sport allowed her to earn a place in Wales’ squad for the showpiece tournament in Australia.

Mullen has plenty of rugby union experience having captained the Army’s team at high-profile venues like Twickenham.

But she had never played rugby league until January this year after Wales captain Bethan Dainton, who is also enlisted in the British Army, encouraged her to try the 13-a-side game.

She started training with London Broncos and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Me and Bethan have been close friends for a few years. She’s played rugby league much longer than me and she always said that I’d enjoy it, so I thought I’d give it a go,” Mullen explained.

“I joined London Broncos at the start of the season so was training with them from January onwards ready for the season to kick off in March. I fell in love with the sport so I’m really enjoying it.

“For a while I was training twice a week at London Broncos and then also doing rugby union training at the same time. That was tiring.”

Mullen’s venture into rugby league has paid off.

Not only has she represented Wales in both games so far at the World Cup in Australia, she also was part of the London Broncos squad that won the National Championship to earn promotion to the Super League.

During that period she also had to play for the Army, and is grateful to the Broncos for their support.

“Luckily London Broncos were really understanding. They knew that the Army is my full-time job and that I was captain of the team, so they were really supportive of me,” Mullen said.

“They gave me two or three weeks off and then I went straight back to the Broncos and we finished on a high with the season we had.

“We grew as a team during the season. I enjoyed the physicality and I just love defending.

“I probably would say rugby league is a bit more physical. My union friends will probably hate that I’ve said that.”

Mullen left home at the age of 17 to join the British Army, and it was there she was introduced to rugby union.

“I picked up the sport when I joined the Army,” Mullen recalled.

“I wanted to improve my skill set and looked into club rugby. I started out for Pencoed back in Wales and then went to Worcester Valkyries.

“I then got picked by Harlequins in 2018 and stayed with them until last year.”

The 34-year-old, originally from Caerphilly, combines rugby with her military duties as a warrant officer currently attached to 1st Battalion, the Coldstream Guards in Windsor.

As captain of the Army team she led them to victory over the Navy at Twickenham in 2023.

“It was amazing. Being Welsh as well going to Twickenham and winning there is massive.

“To win the inter-services, which is a massive competition, is some achievement. So to lift the trophy there was pretty surreal.”

Wales are competing in the World Cup for the first time in their history.

They are in a challenging group and have lost heavily against England and Samoa in their opening two games.

They face another daunting test in their final group game against hosts Australia who are the current world champions.

It was always going to be a tough ask for Wales to finish in the top two to qualify for the semi-finals, but competing on the biggest stage has meant the players have received plenty of support from back home.

“My family have supported me my whole career obviously because I left home at the age of 17. So, they’ve always supported me from a distance,” said Mullen.

“The Army rugby team are currently in Canada and they’ve sent me their best wishes.

“It’s the first Army rugby union fixture I’ve missed for the last couple of seasons. The fact they’ve messaged and cheered me on from Canada is pretty special too.”