in 1930 a women's league playing the full game was formed in australia, in the new south wales areas of tamworth and armidale, which ran until halted by world war two. photographs of women's teams also exist from new zealand from the same period and during the war maori women took up the game. after the war in 1956 the "belles of st mary’s"—an australian women's rugby league team—played games in new south wales—but even as late as the 1960s women's rugby was banned in samoa.