Other Nationalities Rugby League Team

The Other Nationalities rugby league team regularly played international, and also county, rugby league football teams in Europe from 1904 to 1975. The team, created in 1904 to play England in the first ever rugby league international match, was at first made up of Welsh and Scottish players. However as rugby league in England grew, and more players from other countries were brought over to England to play in the domestic competitions, Other Nationalities were later represented by players from Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Other Nationalities wore green shirts.

England were the most regular opponents for the Other Nationalities team, having played them 15 times. But in the 1950s, on entry to the European Nations Cup, they also played Wales and France. In 1964 Other Nationalities played their only match in the Southern Hemisphere in a one-off match vs Sydney Colts at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The match was played as a curtain-raiser to the Australia vs France 3rd Test and was arranged in order to boost the attendance due to France's poor form on tour. The team was made up of foreign players from the NSWRL competition that year plus two Frenchmen that missed selection in France's 3rd Test team. In 1965, Other Nationalities also played New Zealand in a Kiwi tour match at Crystal Palace, London. In 1974 and 1975 the team competed in the County Championship, facing Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cumbria, twice each over both years.

Since 1975 the team became redundant, with Wales, Scotland and Ireland now having their own separate national teams and European-based New Zealanders now able to play for their country too. However due to the success of the All Stars match in Australia between the Indigenous All Stars and the NRL All Stars, new England head coach Steve McNamara proposed a plan to revive the concept, under the name Exiles, in 2011 in a hope of providing England with a more challenging opposition in preparation of playing and staying competitive against nations like Australia and New Zealand after the 2010 thrashing of France 60-6 followed by England's poor results in the 2010 Four Nations Tournament.