Country England Founded 2012 Level on pyramid 4 | Other club(s) from Wales Number of teams 7 | |
Promotion to League 1 (via RLF application) | ||
The Conference League South is a British rugby league division in the RFL's tier 4. It is the highest level of amateur rugby league in the South of England, the English Midlands and South Wales.
It is one of the leagues that replaced the now defunct Rugby League Conference.
History
The Conference League South was founded in 2012 as a result of restructuring of the community game which saw the Rugby League Conference (RLC) broken up into regional leagues covering Britain and the heartlands National Conference League (NCL) move to a summer season. Some RLC sides joined a newly formed National Conference League Division 3 for a single season and applied for full membership of the NCL the following season.
The Conference League South was created for sides outside the rugby league heartlands of the North of England that wanted a higher standard of rugby league than the Midlands Rugby League Premier Division or the South Premier but were not yet ready to join the NCL.
In 2013 the six teams to compete in the CLS were [1], Bristol Sonics, Nottingham Outlaws and St Albans Centurions joined from National Conference League Division 3; Leicester Storm and Northampton Demons were elevated from the premier division of Midlands Rugby League and Sheffield Hallam Eagles joined as a new side after the collapse of the Championship reserve under-23 division.
Northampton Demons and St Albans Centurions were replaced with Oxford Cavaliers and Valley Cougars in 2014 however Oxford Cavaliers failed to complete the season. Bristol Sonics dropped down to the West of England Rugby League in 2015 which allowed four new clubs to join; Gloucestershire Warriors, Coventry Bears Reserves, Torfaen Tigers and Raiders RL alongside the return of Oxford Cavaliers.
London Charges were promoted to compete in 2016 alongside a new reserve side from University of Gloucestershire All Golds with Gloucestershire Warriors, Leicester Storm, Oxford Cavaliers and Sheffield Hallam Eagles dropping out.