The four-week tournament will feature men’s Under 23s rugby league and open-age ladies League Tag players representing their respective regions with matches taking place in Campbelltown, Lismore, Macksville and Maitland; with additional venues to be decided by participating teams.

This year’s Country Championships will feature 10 regional representative sides in each division including – CRL Newcastle, Monaro Colts, North Coast, Northern Rivers, Riverina Bulls, Western Rams, Central Coast Roosters, Greater Northern Tigers, Greater Southern Region Wests Tigers and the Illawarra South Coast Dragons.

Round one will see an exciting double-header at Campbelltown Stadium featuring the Riverina Bulls, GSR Wests Tigers, Western Rams and Illawarra South Coast Dragons; along with the Greater Northern Tigers taking on Northern Rivers in Lismore and North Coast taking the field against the Central Coast Roosters in Macksville.

Country Rugby League CEO Terry Quinn believes the success of last year’s tournament has set the stage for an exciting Country Championships in 2018.

“The inaugural men’s U23s tournament was a great success last season and we’re expecting to see some quality sides taking the field this season,” Quinn said.

“There are some really exciting young players who have been named to participate in this year’s Championships, including players who have progressed from our Under 16 and 18s junior representative competitions over the past few years, which is really pleasing to see.

“We’ve also seen some great football played in the ladies League Tag championships over the past two years and I’ve got no doubt the standard will lift once again in 2018.”

The 2018 CRL Country Championships will be live streamed via CRL’s Facebook page and website courtesy of Bar TV Sports.