The Student Rugby League was founded in 1967. Liverpool, Swansea and even Portsmouth took up the game over the next ten years and they started to make the game a force within the university sector. In 1986 the game went fully international and staged the first Student Rugby League World Cup in New Zealand. The game in this country grew to around 30 clubs spread across the whole of the land. In 1989 the World Cup was held in York and included 8 teams with the four Home Nations plus, Australia, New Zealand, France and Holland. The Aussies defeated England in the final at Wigan and started a domination of the world game that only ended in 1999. Since 1989 there has been a rapid increase in the number of Clubs, which has continued to the present day. Now the SRL has over 70 clubs who field almost 100 teams. Virtually all the major universities in England and Wales have a club with teams being set up now in Scotland and Ireland.

If unfamiliar with the rules of rugby league please read.