In conjunction with the NRL 9’s World Cup on the weekend, the University 9’s Rugby League competition kicked off in style with University of Newcastle (UON) taking out both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The competition began on Friday 18 October at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence at Olympic Park and concluded on Saturday evening at Bankwest Stadium as curtain raisers to the World Cup 9’s event.

UON took on Western Sydney University (WS) in the men’s and women’s finals and proved too strong in both.

Josh Mantellato (former international rugby league player) and Alex Langbridge (recent Australian Touch Football representative) were standouts for the men whilst a number of the UON women have come through the Newcastle Knights system, the Tarsha Gale Cup and Country Rugby League teams with the experience proving too much to match for WS.

It was an entertaining two days of League 9s with teams from University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University, University of Sydney, Macquarie University and University of the Sunshine Coast all taking part.

University of Sunshine Coast (USC) took out the men’s Minor Final which was played at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence on Saturday 19 October.

UniSport worked in partnership the NRL, NSWRL and the NSW Office of Sport to provide this opportunity to the universities and students.