RNRL Academy have the honour of kicking off the Series when they face RAFRL Academy kicking off at 1300, the Womens match follows at 1600 with the day rounded off at 1900 with the Senior Men’s clash for the Dog Watch Trophy.

Since 2008 and the first match between the Wrenegades and RAFRL Women there has not been a trophy to be awarded to the winners. This year all has changed and the two sides will compete for the newly commissioned Julia Lee trophy. If you are not familiar with Julia the following is an extract from the Women In Rugby League website

“Julia surprised local officials in her home city of Hull by taking up refereeing at the age of 17. Her journey was never an easy one, but she went on to break barriers and achieved many ‘firsts’ in her career, an example of these achievements were the first to officiate in London, then officiated for a brief spell in Sydney, and returning to climb through the refereeing ranks and regularly take charge of matches in the National Conference League, the Alliance competition, and in 1993, historically, a professional fixture at Keighley. By the time Julia retired in 2000, having refereed more than 500 matches, she had already moved into administration, taking up a role as the RFL’s director of community projects and events, and has more recently moved into consultancy, advocating for women’s involvement in Rugby League, and documenting its history, including on the Life with the Lionesses project with National Lottery funding. In 2022 Julia was inducted in to the Rugby League Roll of Honour for her contribution to the sport”
You can find out more about Julia ‘in her own words’ at this link
https://womeninrugbyleague.org.uk/pioneers/julia-lee

So the details for the day are as follows
Royal Navy RL v Royal Air Force RL
Friday 13th September
United Services Sports Ground
Burnaby Road
Portsmouth
PO1 2EJ

Academy Kick Off 1300
Women ‘The Julia Lee Trophy’ - Kick Off 1600
Seniors ‘The Dog Watch Trophy’ - Kick Off 1900

Free admission to all spectators, Service and civilian

It will be great to see USSG packed for another top day of Inter Services Rugby League but if you cannot make it the good news is that our friends at British Forces Broadcasting will be streaming the Womens and Senior Mens games live on the BFBS Sports YouTube Channel
Please do not accept any other ‘offers’ to view the games online as they will all be scams!

Details of our ‘away’ fixture against Army RL are yet to be finalised, details will be posted as soon as possible once we have confirmation