Zoe Harris to retire at end of 2026 season, closing a St Helens career that began at the club's birth
Zoe Harris, the St Helens and England stand-off, will retire from rugby league at the end of the 2026 season.
The 32-year-old announced the decision in comments to the St Helens club website on 28 August, with the club's official women's social media accounts confirming the news the same day (St Helens R.F.C.).
Harris has been part of St Helens' women's team since it was formed in November 2017 — one of the original group who built the side from nothing into a trophy-winning force. In 104 appearances for the club, she has won four Challenge Cups, two League Leaders' Shields (the award for finishing top of the regular-season table) and the 2021 Super League title (BBC Sport).
Her Wembley record is striking. Harris was part of the St Helens side that won the first women's Challenge Cup final played at the national stadium in 2023, and she was named player of the match in the corresponding final at Wembley the following year (BBC Sport). The stand-off role — the playmaker who directs attacking moves and kicks for position — has been hers throughout her Saints career.
On the international stage, Harris earned six England caps, including an appearance at the 2022 Rugby World Cup (BBC Sport). She was also part of the squad during a period when the women's game moved towards professional recognition, with St Helens' women's team becoming semi-professional in 2024.
The retirement outlet TotalRL, reporting on Harris's decision, noted that she is the latest in a line of St Helens players to step away from the game (TotalRL). The club's women's social media channels described her as one of the "pioneering" group of players who helped establish the women's programme nearly nine years ago.
What makes Harris's career worth marking is the arc it traces. She arrived at St Helens at the founding of a team that did not yet exist, and leaves as a two-time Wembley medallist and England international. The women's game in this country has grown substantially in that time, and Harris has been on the pitch for much of that growth — not as a bystander, but as the player pulling the strings.
She still has the remainder of the 2026 season to play before hanging up the boots.
