The Student Rugby League is the organisation which administrates university and college rugby league in the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Rugby Football League and 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.
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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 four years, development tours visited the Czech Republic, Latvia, Ukraine and Norway.
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 of England.
The elite Super 8 competition was formed as the Super 6 in 2008.
The Super 8 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 BUSA Competition is split into nine playing leagues with the Premier North and the Premier South being supported by seven 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.
Regional and 4 Nations Championships that take place annually and form the basis of the Great Britain and Ireland Academic Lions squad. This squad takes on the Australian Universities and competes for the Academic Ashes.
The 'Pioneers' are a representative team that undertake rugby league development tours to emerging nations.
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