National League Cup

The National League Cup is a rugby league competition for clubs in Great Britain's National Leagues. For the period 2005-7 it will be sponsored by train operating company Northern Rail, and will be known as the Northern Rail Cup.

In 2003 and 2004 the competition was known as the Arriva Trains Cup (named for sponsors Arriva Trains Northern), whilst in 2002 (the first year of the competition) it was titled the Buddies Cup, after a soft drinks manufacturer.

tructure

The National League cup was first held in 2002 as was part of the redevelopment of the Northern Ford Premiership competition - 18 teams took part. The 2003 and 2004 competitions were for the 20 clubs in the new National Leagues One and Two. The 2005 competition saw four teams from National League Three enter the competition.

Each competition has featured an initial group stage, with groups based upon regions; In 2002 there were 3 groups of six (East, West and Central), in 2003 there were four groups (North, East, West and Central) of five teams each, while in 2004 there were five groups (North, East, West, Pennine, Yorkshire) of four teams each. Each club plays each other home and away, plus some cross group games to make a total of ten games (eight in 2005) before the top club from each group progresses to the knockout stages, plus lucky losers (this has been decided differently in different years). There were no cross-group games in the 2005 competition; each team therefore played only six games in the group stages, with the top team from each of the first five groups progressing to the quarter-final directly. The second-placed team in each of these groups, plus the top team from group six (the group of teams from National League 3) played an additional round to determine the remaining three spots in the quarter-finals.

For 2006 there were seven groups. Groups one to six comprised the 22 teams in National Leagues One and Two and the two southern National League Three teams (Hemel and St Albans). There were four teams in each regional division. The top two teams from groups one to six and the best three third-placed teams qualified for the last sixteen knock out stage along with the winner of group seven. Group seven comprised northern National League Three teams that choose to enter, and included three teams: Bramley, Warrington Wizards and Dewsbury Celtic.

From 2007 the competition will use a new points system

Win – three points; Draw – two points; Loss by 12 points or fewer - one point. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/national_league/6248231.stm]

Results

National League Cup

ee also

* Rugby League National Leagues
* Northern Ford Premiership
* Challenge Cup
* 2005 Northern Rail Cup
* Trans-Pennine Cup

External links

* [http://www.therfl.co.uk/dynamic/fixtures.php?zone=NATIONAL&team=None&round=None&competition=45 Fixture List for 2007 Season]
* [http://www.therfl.co.uk/NATIONAL/resultsmanual.php?competition=45&season=2007 Results for 2007 Season]
* [http://www.therfl.co.uk/NATIONAL/leaguetablesgroups.php?competition=45&season=2007 Tables for 2007 Season]
* [http://home.skysports.com/livescores/rugbyleague/ Scores from Sky Sports]
* [http://www.nationalleagues.co.uk/ National Leagues website]