Featherstone Lions are an amateur

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club from

Featherstone Featherstone is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, two miles south-west of Pontefract. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 2011 ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

who play in the

National Conference League The National Conference League (NCL) comprises the five levels of the British rugby league system at the top end of the amateur pyramid below the professional RFL League 1, League One. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Rugby Football League ...

and the

Yorkshire Men's League The Yorkshire Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in Yorkshire. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC Yorkshire Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the RLC North ...

. The juniors (U7 - U18) play in the Yorkshire Junior & Youth League. The club also has open age women and 3 girls' teams. Their home ground is the Millpond Stadium. They are the town's second side, after

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Post Office Road and currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. Featherstone ...

who play in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

History

Featherstone Lions are the result of a merger between Jubilee Hotel and Traveller's amateur sides in the early 1990s. Featherstone's first season, 1994–95, was in the

CMS Yorkshire league The Yorkshire Men's League is a summer rugby league competition for amateur teams in Yorkshire. The competition was formed in 2009 as the RLC Yorkshire Premier by splitting the RLC North Premier into two competitions - this and the RLC North ...

First Division. At the end of the 1995–96 season, they had won promotion to the Yorkshire League Premier Division and finished 2nd in the table. They were accepted into

Division 2 for the 1996–97 season. In 1997–98, Featherstone Lions won promotion to NCL Division 1 as champions, won the Yorkshire Cup beating Siddal in a bad tempered final at

Thrum Hall Thrum Hall was a rugby league stadium on Hanson Lane in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was the home of Halifax R.L.F.C., Halifax for 112 years. The site on which the ground stood is now occupied by a supermarket. History In 1878, Halifa ...

and beat

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

in the third round of the

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

before losing to

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers (often abbreviated to Hull KR) are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Craven Park, Hull, Craven Park and compete in Super League, the top tier of B ...

. Featherstone reached the fourth round of the Challenge Cup, in 1998–99, after beating

Hemel Stags The Hemel Stags are an amateur rugby league club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. They were semi-professional and played in Betfred League 1 from 2013 until 2018. They withdrew from the professional system when their licence was purch ...

before playing

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

side Halifax. In 2000–01, Featherstone reached the National Cup Final before losing to Thatto Heath at

Spotland Stadium Spotland Stadium, known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose sports stadium in the Spotland district of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, which is home to Rochdale A.F.C., Rochdale Association Football Club a ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

. The following year, the Lions narrowly avoided relegation but in 2002-03 were promoted to NCL Premier League. However, they were relegated back to NCL Division 1 in their first season and followed this with another relegation back down to NCL Division 2. Following this double relegation, Featherstone withdrew from National Conference to rebuild the open age team. In 2006, they joined National League Three which they won a year later under its new name RLC National Division. In 2024, their U-16 boys team became the first youth team globally to tour

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, losing 22-30 to the youth side of

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

and defeating Morava Cheetahs youth team 34-0.

Juniors

Featherstone run a junior section in the Yorkshire Junior League with the following teams included: Under 7s; Under 8s; Under 9s; Under 10s; Under 11s; Under 12s; Under 12 girls; Under 13s; Under 14s; Under 14 girls; Under 15s; Under 16s; Under 16 girls; Under 18s;

Club honours

* NCL Division 1: 2016–Present * NCL Division 2: 2015-2016 * RLC National Division: 2007

Former players

Richard Agar Richard Agar (born 20 January 1972) is an English professional rugby league coach who is the former head coach of the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He play ...

* Tom Briscoe * Jack Briscoe * Joe Westerman *

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkabl ...

* Zak Hardaker *

Rob Burrow Robert Geoffrey Burrow (26 September 1982 – 2 June 2024) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a scrum-half (rugby league), scrum-half or hooker (rugby league), hooker. Burrow spent his entire professional career ...

* Liam Watts * Richard Whiting * Brett Ferres * Danny Kirmond * Josh Hardcastle * Luke Briscoe * Gareth Gale * Jimmy Beckett * Jack Townend * Jamie Rooney * Simon Tuffs

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Featherstone Lions BARLA teams Rugby League Conference teams Sport in the City of Wakefield Rugby league teams in West Yorkshire Rugby clubs established in 1994 1994 establishments in England Rugby league teams in England