The British Army Rugby League team is the official

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

team representing the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The team was founded in 1994 when the Army first recognised rugby league as an official sport and lifted a ban on it. The new team was able to play in the Challenge Cup. The team play their home matches at

Aldershot Military Stadium Aldershot Military Stadium is a sports complex in Aldershot, England comprising a combined football and athletics stadium and a smaller adjoined rugby stadium. It is the home ground of the British Army's football and rugby teams, Aldershot, Farn ...

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. An Army women's team was set up in 2008.

History

Historically, rugby league had been banned in the British Armed Forces due to the strength of

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

and the Rugby Football Union's demands that anyone playing rugby league would be banned from playing rugby union. During the Second World War, the Northern Command Sports Board (NCSB) held sympathy towards Northern soldiers who wished to play rugby league. They set up a number of matches between unofficial army representative teams and Northern clubs. This arrangement only lasted until the end of the war when the Army ended a relaxation on the ban and because the NCSB did not wish to try to challenge the primacy of the

Army Rugby Union The Army Rugby Union (ARU) is the governing body for rugby union in the British Army and a constituent body of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The ARU was formed on 31 December 1906 and marked the fulfilment of Lieutenant J. E. C. "Birdie" Partr ...

. The ban was lifted in 1994 following an announcement by the

Armed Forces Minister The minister of state for the armed forces is a mid-level ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of the United Kingdom. When of Minister of State rank (until the appointment of James Heappey as a Parliamentary Under-S ...

Jeremy Hanley Sir Jeremy James Hanley, KCMG (born 17 November 1945) is a politician and former chartered accountant from the United Kingdom. He served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1994 to 1995, and as a member of parliament (MP) representing ...

. The new team was founded by Martin Coyd of the Royal Engineers. Due to the wide array of British Army deployments worldwide, the British Army do not play in a league in the English rugby league system. Occasionally they have players from the Army Rugby Union cross codes to play in their matches. As a result of the ban being lifted, the men's team became eligible to enter the Challenge Cup. Initially in 1999, the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

(RFL) were only going to allow the winners of the Inter-Services competition (which the Army won) to enter in the

2000 Challenge Cup The 2000 Challenge Cup (officially known as the 2000 Silk Cut Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby league football tournament which began its preliminary stages in December 1999 and ended with the final on 29 April 2000. The final w ...

but they were eventually persuaded that all three of the services teams were able to enter. The team's best result was to reach the fourth round of the

2020 Challenge Cup The 2020 Challenge Cup, known as the Coral Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 119th staging of the Challenge Cup, the main rugby league knockout tournament for teams in the Super League, the British national leagues and a number of ...

, the highest for a forces team since 2010 when the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

reached the third round. However none of the military teams took part in the

2021 Challenge Cup The 2021 Challenge Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2021 Betfred Challenge Cup, was the 120th edition of the Challenge Cup, the main rugby league knockout tournament in British rugby league run by the Rugby Football League (RFL). This yea ...

because the RFL decided that only professional Rugby League teams would be allowed to compete because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. In January 2022, the British Army were drawn against the Royal Navy in the Challenge Cup for the first time in the competition since their inaugural appearances. The Army women's team was established in 2008. In 2014, they were named the Army Sports Team of the Year award at the Army Sports Awards. They first entered the

Women's Challenge Cup The Women's Challenge Cup is a rugby league knockout competition organised by the Rugby Football League. The competition started in 2012. History 2012–2016: Foundations The Women's Challenge Cup was set up in 2012 to run alongside the men's c ...

in 2014 where they lost 30–16 in the quarter-finals (second round) to Thatto Heath. They reached the semi-final of the competition in 2016. In 2017, they were finalists in the Challenge Shield, losing 26–24 to

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC (known as the York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Knights played their home games at Huntington Stadium before moving to Bootham Crescent. ...

. In 2019, they faced York again in the final, but overcame them 40–4 to win the Challenge Shield. In 2021, the women's team were members of the inaugural Super League South and reached the Grand Final.

Results

Challenge Cup

Women's Challenge Cup

Women's Super League South

Notes

References

{{Reflist Rugby league in the United Kingdom Sport in the British Army 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom Rugby league teams in Hampshire