Rugby league will break new ground when four teams kick off the first Northern Ireland Conference later this month. Strangford Sharks, East Belfast Bulldogs, Ballinahinch Bulls and Portadown Pumas are the teams involved in the new competition. The Republic of Ireland already has an established competition in the shape of the Carnegie League.

The four teams will play round-robin fixtures which will culminate in a Grand Final in Portadown on 20 June. They will be joined by Antrim Storm in launching the season at a Nines tournament at Portadown next Saturday. Antrim Storm hope to join the Conference in 2010.

One of the men behind the pioneering move is former London Broncos full-back Gavin Gordon, who made his debut for Ireland in the 1995 Emerging Nations World Cup at the age of 17 and is now player-coach of Strangford. Rugby league in Ireland received a boost at last year’s World Cup when the team topped a group also containing Tonga and Samoa, before losing to Fiji.