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The Skanska Amateur Four Nations was a rugby league competition contested annually by Wales A, Ireland A, Scotland A and the England Lionhearts. While the teams from the Celtic nations are officially the countries' second string sides, the Lionhearts are England's representatives from the Rugby League Conference and the student and armed forces' sides. The competition, sometimes referred to as the Home Nations Championship, had previously been sponsored by Cheltenham Regency and Parkhouse Recruitment. ==History== Friendly matches between A sides were played between 1998 and 2001 with Scotland facing Wales twice and Ireland three times and Wales taking on the forerunner to the England Lionhearts once. The success of these one-off friendly internationals saw the advent of the first Home Nations Championship in 2002. Until the final match between Wales and England at Cheltenham, the tournament was low-key and had little publicity, even in Wales where the Ireland match was played on a park pitch in Penarth on a Sunday morning. But the England v Wales match received unprecedented national coverage with highlights on Sky Sports and resulted in a shock Wales win. Wales would continue to "shock" for the next four years as they continued to win the title, only losing two matches in this period. It took the introduction of the Crusaders to weaken the Wales side and allow England to win the title for the first time in 2006. Even then Wales only lost by two penalties and travelled with a weakened injury-laden side. The tournament has been successful in introducing new players to international rugby league with at least three players from the Celtic nations each year are invited to play for their full international sides. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Skanska Amateur Four Nations」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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