Amateur Four Nations

The Amateur Four Nations was a rugby league competition contested annually by Wales A, Ireland A, Scotland A and England A. The teams from the Celtic nations would pick players from their domestic competitions, while England's squad would be picked from teams in the Rugby League Conference. Players would also come from university teams and the armed forces. The competition, sometimes referred to as the Four Nations Championship, had previously been sponsored by Cheltenham Regency and Parkhouse Recruitment and Skanska. In 2014 the tournament was renamed the Celtic Nations Cup following England's withdrawal

Friendly matches between A sides were played between 1998 and 2001 with Scotland facing Wales twice and Ireland three times and Wales taking on England once.

The success of these one-off friendly internationals saw the advent of the first Home Nations Championship in 2002.

Until the final match between Wales and England at Cheltenham, the tournament was low-key and had little publicity. But the England v Wales match received unprecedented national coverage with highlights on Sky Sports and resulted in a shock Wales win.

Wales would continue to "shock" for the next four years as they continued to win the title, only losing two matches in this period. It took the introduction of the Crusaders to weaken the Wales side and allow England to win the title for the first time in 2006. Even then Wales only lost by two penalties and travelled with a weakened injury-laden side.

The tournament has been successful in introducing new players to international rugby league in particular with the Celtic nations where some players have progressed to the senior side and also into semi-professional rugby league teams.

15 June - Scotland A 22 Wales A 40 at Old Anniesland, Glasgow

16 June - Ireland A 10 England A 32 at Dublin

20 July - Scotland A 8 England A 58 at Glasgow

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Wikipedia