University and College Rugby League

The University and College Rugby League (UCRL), formerly known as the Student Rugby League,^[1] is the organisation which administrates university and college rugby league football in the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Rugby Football League and British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS).

Rugby league in universities has been an important vehicle for expansion of the game as players from outside the heartlands often first began to play at university level. Many continue to play after leaving university and this has led to the creation of teams in non-traditional areas such as London Skolars and the University of Gloucestershire All Golds.

Yorkshire Universities and Colleges played against Lancashire at Halifax's then ground The Shay, Halifax in 1976. The Yorkshire side was selected by Fred Lindop, coach and professional referee and included a number of players from Airedale & Wharfedale College. 22 - 0 down at half time the Yorkshire side fought back to tie the match at 22 - 22.

History

Founded in 1967 when a team was created at Leeds University by Andrew Cudbertson, Jack Abernathy and Cec Thompson, other teams soon joined in areas of the United Kingdom which lay outside of the games traditional heartlands. The first university game was between Leeds and Liverpool in 1968. A year later the Universities and Colleges Rugby League was formed after student pioneers fought hard to get the sport recognised in higher education. Portsmouth and Swansea were early non-traditional areas to accept the game.

Rugby League reached Oxford University in 1976 and the first Varsity fixture against Cambridge University took place in 1981. The varsity match has 'discretionary full blue' status.

Student Rugby League reached Scotland in 1989 when a group of students at Aberdeen University established a team and formed the first Scotland Students squad

The Pioneers were formed in 2005 and made their inaugural tour that year to Estonia. In the following years, development tours visited the Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine, Norway, Kazakhstan, Greece, Poland, Morocco and in 2014, to Ghana.

By 2006, the Student Rugby League had over 70 member clubs playing in 9 leagues, club locations ranging from Napier in Scotland to Exeter in the South West of England.

The elite Premier North & South competition was formed as the Super 6 in 2008.

In 2014, the Student Rugby League was renamed the university and College Rugby League (UCRL).^[1]

Student Rugby League Pyramid

Premier North & Premier South
Northern 1, 2A & 2B; Midlands & Western 1; South East 1
HE Merit League

The Premier North & South competition is the elite student league. Five matches from the 2011 Super 8 including the inaugural Grand Final were televised live and free-to-view on Premier Sports. The BUCS Competition is split into nine playing leagues with the Premier North and the Premier South being supported by five regional leagues. The fixtures run from October until March leading up to the Championship play-off series.

The U19's College Competition is split into three leagues, the North West, Yorkshire and the Premier Division. The college leagues play from September until March culminating in a top four play-off series. The Carnegie Champion Colleges is the knock-out competition for the Further Education sector.

Alongside SRL competitions, the top university sides can qualify for the Challenge Cup.

Past winners

Year	Super 8	Premier North	Premier South	Northern 1A	Northern 2A	Northern 2B	Midlands 1A	Western 1A	South 1	South East 1A	Midlands 2A	Western 2A
2007-08	N/A	Leeds Metropolitan University	Loughborough University	Edinburgh Napier University	Bangor University	Leeds Metropolitan University 'A'	Nottingham University	N/A	N/A	N/A	Lincoln University	University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
2008-09	Leeds Metropolitan University	Edge Hill University	University of Wales Institute, Cardiff	Northumbria University 'A'	Bangor University	Leeds University	Cambridge University	N/A		Oxford Brookes University	Coventry University	University of Gloucestershire
2009-10	Loughborough University	University of Central Lancashire	Loughborough University 'A'	Leeds Trinity University	Liverpool University	York St Johns University	Sheffield Hallam University	N/A		Oxford Brookes University	Loughborough University 'B'	Glamorgan University
2010-11	Leeds Metropolitan University	Newcastle University	Exeter University	Northumbria University 'A'	University of Salford	Newcastle University 'A'	Nottingham Trent University	N/A		Exeter University 'A'	Coventry University	University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
2011-12	Leeds Metropolitan University	Leeds Metropolitan University 'A'	Exeter University	Northumbria University 'A'	Manchester Metropolitan University	Leeds Trinity University	Coventry University	University of the West of England		Oxford Brookes University	N/A	Bath University
2012-13	University of Gloucestershire	Newcastle University	Cardiff Metropolitan University	Northumbria University 'A'	Manchester Metropolitan University	Sheffield University	Nottingham Trent University 'A'	South Gloucestershire & Stroud College		Brunel University	N/A	University of Gloucestershire 'A'
2013-14	N/A	Leeds Metropolitan University	Loughborough University	Sheffield Hallam University	Manchester University	Leeds University	Nottingham University	Exeter University		Cambridge University	Warwick University	Swansea University
2014-15	N/A	Leeds Beckett University	Loughborough University	Manchester Metropolitan University	University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)	York St John University	Coventry University	Swansea University		Brunel University	Oxford Brookes University	N/A
2015-16
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20	N/A	Northumbria	St Mary's	Liverpool	Liverpool John Moors University	York St John	Nottingham 1s	Swansea 1a		Oxford Brookes	Northampton
2020-21	COVID Season
2021-22	N/A	Northumbria	St Mary's	Liverpool John Moors	University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)	Leeds 2s	Birmingham	Exeter 2s		Cambridge	Loughborough 2s	N/A
2022-23		Leeds Beckett 1s	Exeter	University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)	Manchester University	Leeds Beckett 2s	Nottingham	Exeter		Cambridge	N/A
2023-24*		Northumbria	Loughborough	Northumbria 2s	Lancaster	Sheffield Hallam	Loughborough 2s		Exeter 2s		N/A

Northern 2A

2019-20 Season

2019-20 Table
Position	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points
1	Liverpool John Moores	5	5	0	0	15
2	UCLAN	6	5	1	0	15
3	Manchester	6	3	2	1	10
4	Salford	6	3	3	0	9
5	Bangor	6	2	3	1	7
6	Lancaster	5	1	4	0	3
7	Chester	6	0	6	0	-3

2021-22 Season

2021-22 Table
Position	Team	Played	Won	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	UCLAN	6	6	0	222	30	192	18
2	Manchester	6	5	1	270	58	212	15
3	Manchester Met	6	4	2	138	60	78	12
4	Salford	6	3	3	82	128	-46	6
5	Bangor	6	1	5	0	426	-426	3
6	Lancaster	6	2	4	158	78	80	3
7	Chester	6	0	6	10	100	-90	-12

2022-23 Season

2022-23 Table
Position	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Manchester	8	8	0	0	340	36	304	24
2	Manchester Met	8	6	2	0	312	84	228	18
3	Salford	8	3	4	1	194	172	22	4
4	Bangor	7	0	6	1	42	424	-382	1
5	Lancaster	7	1	6	0	96	268	-172	0

2023-24 Season*

2023-24 Table*
Position	Team	Played	Won	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Lancaster	4	3	1	176	50	126	9
2	Salford	3	2	1	94	81	13	6
3	Manchester Met	3	2	1	119	36	83	6
4	Chester	1	0	1	6	46	-40	0
5	Bangor	3	0	3	6	188	-182	0
6	Leeds 2s	0	0	0	0	0	0	-1

Tries: Charlie Rudman (Lancaster University) / Nathan Bannerman (Lancaster University) 7

Conversions: Gabriel Black (Lancaster University) 26

Northern Conference Cup


Year	Winners	Runners Up	Tries	Conversions
2021-22	Manchester
2022-23	Manchester
2023-24	Lancaster	Sheffield Hallam	Nathan Bannerman 4	Gabriel Black 13

Representative teams

In England, a series of regional games take place which lead to a North and South team being selected to play the University Rugby League Origin Game, from which the England team is selected.

Wales, Scotland and Ireland run national teams.

All four teams take part in the 4 Nations Championships that take place annually and the Tertiary Student Rugby League World Cup every four years. England also take part in the RFL President's Cup.

Previoualy a Great Britain and Ireland Academic Lions squad has been selected but this has been mothballed since 2014.

The 'GB Pioneers' are a representative team that undertake rugby league development tours to emerging nations.

External links

References

^ ^a ^b "Community Board organisations". Rugby Football League. Archived from the original on 2017-06-29.

[RFL-community-orgs-2017-1] "Community Board organisations". Rugby Football League. Archived from the original on 2017-06-29.

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