{"id":297273,"date":"2025-12-03T19:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297273\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T19:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:36:13","slug":"england-league-union-hybrid-rules-match-proposed-for-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/297273\/","title":{"rendered":"England league-union hybrid-rules match proposed for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

England’s rugby league team have been told that an expanded Super League has squeezed out the possibility, external<\/a> of playing a mid-season game in 2026, while England’s rugby union side are embarking on the first edition of the Nations Championship, which has filled their usual Test windows.<\/p>\n

The RFU also has an agreement with Prem clubs over the use of top players, designed to ensure they are in peak condition for England’s big games.<\/p>\n

“We have received an enquiry about Hybrid Rugby,” said Rhodri Jones, managing director of RL Commercial.<\/p>\n

“We have not assessed this specific approach yet. There are a multitude of things we would need to consider.<\/p>\n

“However, if we believe there is some tangible benefit to the sport, we will.”<\/p>\n

The advent of professionalism in rugby union in the mid 1990s heralded cross-code matches between Bath and Wigan – the two sports’ domestic superpowers at the time – with a league match at Maine Road in Manchester before a game of union at Twickenham.<\/p>\n

Wigan, featuring Andy Farrell, Shaun Edwards and Va’aiga Tuigamala, won the league encounter 82-6 and lost the union game 44-19.<\/p>\n

Sale beat St Helens<\/a> in 2003 in a match made up of one half played under league rules and the other under union.<\/p>\n

The annual 745 game, external<\/a> – to raise funds and awareness to combat motor neurone disease – began in 2024 and features composite rules and retired star players.<\/p>\n

Hybrid Rugby, whose most notable match pitched fabled Sydney union club Randwick against league side Western Suburbs Magpies in 2015, features a 60-second limit for sides to get over the halfway line.<\/p>\n

When the team in possession are in their own half the game is conducted under league rules, with union rules taking over when they cross into opposition territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England’s rugby league team have been told that an expanded Super League has squeezed out the possibility, external…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-297273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}