The RFL President's Cup is an annual competition for men's representative teams drawn from the British Rugby league structure and is run by the Rugby Football League. It was previously known as the RFL Association's Cup and from 2014 to 2016 also featured a women's competition.
History
The RFL Associations Cup was founded in 2014 following the previous year's Rugby LeagueFestival Of World Cups with a view to better preparing each of the competing British entries ahead of their inclusion in future World Cups. Speaking at the launch of the competition, David Gent, the RFL's Director of Participation stated "This competition is about a regular fixed competition for these associations, but it is vital we support these squads in their attempts to win their respective World Cups." Additional benefits for the women's team would be to give selectors the opportunity to scout players from all sections of the women's game, to create higher intensity fixtures than the domestic competition at the time provided and to select players to the national women's squad. The first season saw the men's competition involving Great Britain Students, Great BritainArmed Forces, Great Britain Teachers and Great Britain Police and the women's competition featuring England Students, Great Britain Armed Forces, Great Britain Teachers and The Lionesses - a team made up of players from the women's domestic league who were not eligible for any of the other three teams. In 2015 England Universities replaced Great Britain Students in the men's competition following the movement of the Student Rugby League Four Nations Competition from the Easter period to a summer slot. No men's or women's competition took place in 2017 owing to teams participating in the Festival of World Cups in Australia. During this year, Great Britain Armed Forces re-branded to become UK Armed Forces. For the 2018 season, the competition was renamed RFL President's Cup. The women's competition was discontinued following the RFL revamping the international player pathway process and introducing a National Performance Programme with a focus on talent identification, player skill development, physical competences and the creation of a performance coaching environment in advance of the RFL opening a National Rugby League Centre in Manchester which will provide facilities for the England Women's team to train at. An Origin Game was also introduced to recreate international competition to develop the elite players.
Format
Each team plays each other once in a single round-robin competition, with the team finishing at the top of the league table being crowned champions. Competition points are scored as follows:
Win: 2 points
Draw: 1 point
Loss: 0 points
Default on game: 0 points.
Where teams are tied on competition points, points difference is used to determine league positions. The Pankhurst Trophy, previously played for annually and awarded to the winner of the England Students v Great Britain Armed Forces women's game, continued to be awarded to the winner of the fixture.
