Great Britain Police Rugby League, (sometimes referred in Rugby League media to as British Police,) is a British rugby league team representing the

police forces in the United Kingdom Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most law enforcement is carried out by police officers serving in regional pol ...

. The team have regularly played in the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

since 2010. They usually play their home games groundsharing with

Rochdale Mayfield Rochdale Mayfield are an amateur rugby league football club from Castleton, Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The club currently competes in the top division of the National Conference League. The club also operates academy teams who are known coll ...

at Mayfield Sports Centre in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. Playing membership is only open to serving members of the police.

History

A rugby league team representing the British Police had been around since the 1990s. They would mostly play matches against overseas police representative teams. The individual county forces play inter-police rugby league matches which determine selection for the Great Britain Police team. The majority of the Great Britain Police team come from serving officers from rugby league's heartland forces of Yorkshire as well as

Lancashire Constabulary Lancashire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Lancashire in North West England. The force's headquarters are at Hutton, near the city of Preston. , the force has 3,088 police officer ...

but team members also come from non-heartland police forces such as London's

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and

Leicestershire Constabulary Leicestershire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Leicestershire and Rutland in England. Its headquarters are at Enderby, Leicestershire. History Leicestershire Police was formed in 1839. In 1951 it amalgamated ...

. The Great Britain Police team played in their first Challenge Cup in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, joining the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force teams as the uniformed services representatives in the competition. Their first manager for the Challenge Cup was Jon Hamer, whom had played for

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

in the

1996 Challenge Cup The 1996 Challenge Cup was the 95th staging of the Challenge Cup tournament. Known as the Silk Cut Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from Silk Cut, it was the first Challenge Cup of the summer era. The tournament featured 40 teams playing 42 games ...

Final against St. Helens. Though the Great Britain Police team do not compete in the British rugby league pyramid, they do partake in international tours as well as the Inter-Forces Competition against 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 ...

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 F ...

and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. They also take part in a Tri-Nations competition against the representative teams of the Australian Federal Police and the

New Zealand Police The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintai ...

Challenge Cup

References

{{Reflist Rugby league in the United Kingdom Police sports clubs and teams Law enforcement in the United Kingdom Rugby league teams in Greater Manchester