| Pixels: | 160px |
| Founded: | 2003 |
| Teams: | 5 |
| Levels: | 5 |
| Domest Cup: | Challenge Cup |
The South West Rugby League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in South West England. The competition was formed in 2003 as the RLC South West Regional.[1] Its name changed following the 2012 restructure of amateur rugby league in Great Britain.
See also: History of the Rugby League Conference.
The Rugby League Conference was founded in 1997 as the Southern Conference, a 10-team pilot league for teams in the South of England and the English Midlands.
The conference made the leap from 30 to 52 teams in 2003 and a South West Division appeared for the first time. It disappeared in 2004 as South West teams took part in the Western Division and Cardiff Demons joined the newly created Welsh Division.
The Premier divisions saw a change in boundaries leaving the North Premier division covering a larger area to give the English Midlands clubs their own premier division without having to face heartland teams, this left the West Midlands division with too few teams to run, resulting in a merged West Midlands and South West Division.
After a campaign by the RFL to form new clubs in the South West, a new South West division was created in 2007 for teams from the West Country. By 2010, there were enough teams to have a South West conference split into two pools.
For the 2011 season, there was a new RLC West of England alongside the RLC South West. The initial idea was that the two leagues would compete side by side with play-offs at the end of the season to decide an overall South West champion. In 2011, Gloucestershire Warriors defeated Somerset Vikings in the Championship play-off. In 2012, the intended play-off match was cancelled as the majority of the Devon Sharks team, the South West Champions, were unable to break off from the start of the rugby union season to fulfil the fixture.
The South Western Rugby League was formed in February 2013 to organise and administer the South West Men's League following the switch of the majority of community clubs in England to a summer season and the ending of the Rugby League Conference in 2011.
See also: British rugby league system.
See also: Rugby League Conference trophy winners.
The South West cup is a knock-out competition played for by members of the South West Division. It was originally known as the Devon Cup.
The South West Nines is a rugby league nines competition. It is competed for by RLC South West and RLC West of England teams and local student rugby league sides.
In 2010, an intended one–off County of Origin style match was played between Devon and Cornwall with Devon winning 44–20.[2] The match was featured on the BBC national news and was widely covered by the rugby league press. It has since been competed for on several occasions as the Martin Roddy MBE Trophy. Winners are:
The first South West County Championship took place on the May Bank Holiday weekend in 2011 at Aretians RFC in Bristol. The 2012 Event took place at Bridgwater RFC in Somerset. Winners are: