The Lion Red Cup was a New Zealand domestic

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 ...

competition that ran from 1994 to 1996 sponsored by brewers

Lion Nathan Lion is an alcoholic beverage company that operates in Australia and New Zealand, and a subsidiary of Japanese beverage conglomerate Kirin Company, Kirin. It produces and markets a range of beer and cider in Australia, and wine in New Zealan ...

. It was created due to the increase in public awareness of domestic rugby league due to the

Auckland Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

being accepted into the

Winfield Cup The Winfield Cup was an Australian rugby league trophy awarded to the winner of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership (NSWRL) Grand Final from 1982 to 1994, and then to the winner of the newly-founded Australian Rugby League (ARL) Grand Fi ...

. The competition was a huge success in its inaugural year, although it made a massive loss financially. Throughout its three-year history it continued to make a loss, eventually being scrapped by the

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league, rugby league football in New Zealand.#SPARC-2009, SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a 1910 Great Britain Lions tour o ...

Teams

The teams that participated were:

Seasons

Leading Scorers

References

External links

Zealand Competitions
''The Vault'' {{Rugby League in New Zealand Rugby league competitions in New Zealand