Volunteers sought for Southern Community Carnival and Representative side

The Rugby Football League is calling on volunteers to get involved in the community game’s developing performance pathway across London and South East, Midlands and South West regions.

Alongside a core group of existing volunteers, the Rugby Football League is working on strengthening and expanding their representative programme outside of the game’s northern heartlands and is looking for individuals keen to get involved in the running of regional representative teams, the annual Southern Men’s Regional Carnival tournament, and the South of England men's team – a representative side made up of players and volunteers from the community game across the South of the country.

Volunteers are being sought to help with a variety of tasks across the programme, from coaching, medical and physio roles to social media, match reporting and team management. In addition, the RFL is also looking for sponsors and partners to support and strengthen the developing programme. Interested individuals should register online by filling in the form at this address here.

The Southern Men’s Carnival has become an annual fixture over the last few years, with teams representing London, the Midlands, the East and – on some occasions – the South West competing to take home a trophy. In 2025, hosts the East of England beat 2024 champions the Midlands to take home the title at Old Brentwoods RFC in Essex. This year, following essential ground redevelopment work, the tournament will return to Pennine Way, home of Hemel Stags RLFC.

The Southern Men’s Carnival also acts as a selection trial for the South of England representative side. In 2025, the side played two fixtures, narrowly losing to the Australia & New Zealand Exiles side in West London, before notching up a famous 30-16 win over Wales’ national community side, the Dragonhearts, at the Gnoll in Neath.

The Rugby Football League is keen to build on this success and is currently working on an expanded programme of 2026 fixtures for the South of England side. Details of these fixtures will be announced in due course.

Stephen Guan, Southern Regions Development Manager at the Rugby Football League, said: ‘’We will again look to build on the success of our 2025 Mens Representative programme and continue to develop this offer in 2026 to ensure those players, coaches and volunteers taking part have a positive experience and the programme continues to support our clubs and playing Leagues retaining and recruiting players and coaches.

"Implementing several key interventions coming from feedback and reviewing last year’s programme will see some subtle changes that will allow for a more consistent approach across our regions and lift the standards across the 2026 programme.

"We will again have a game against an Exiles squad which is selected from the best Australian and New Zealanders who are playing in the community game across our Leagues alongside hopefully two other fixtures that will have an international flavour that will round off the programme.

"None of this is possible without the involvement of dedicated volunteers. We are keen to involve a wider range of people and can offer a range of roles and opportunities. Whether you are currently involved in the community game, are looking for a new challenge or would like to return to the sport, I would encourage you to head online and fill in the form to express your interest.”
 

Written by Matt Anniss