Thirdly, a number of representative fixtures have been announced. Locally, Brazil will host the Santa Rosa Dead Pelicans from the US and Oxford & Lancaster Universities from the UK. The Carcarás will also play Cambridge University, Germany Exiles & Poland in the UK.

Second, a new regional league has been announced - Liga Mantiqueira. The new league, which will kick off in March, will feature teams from Sao Lourenco, Itamonte, and Carmo de Minas.

Some encouraging news coming out of Brazil this week. First, the BRL has announced that the Brazil National Championship will return for the first time in 3 years. The tournament will feature 3 regional teams and play Men's, Women's & U17s.

Surprised not to see more noise about this partnership between the NRL and National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) heading into Vegas 26'. Looking forward to seeing some College Rugby players & teams in the Vegas 9s as a result. https://t.co/l0lodAoggz

Great signs for Rugby League in the Philippines with two new clubs set to join the PNRL Shield in 2026. The Subic Dolphins & Capital Warriors are set to join this year's 5 teams (Manila Storm, Mataki City Gorillas, Pampanga Panthers, Cavite Braves & Pacific Kumuls)

A late try in the 78th minute has seen Japan defeat Hong Kong 34-30 in the Asian Championship 3rd place play-off match. It's Japan's 4th win over the HK-China Thunder and is the 3rd time the winning margin has been 4pts or less.

Results from the opening round of the Asian Championship Singapore 🇸🇬 48-4 Japan 🇯🇵 Philippines 🇵🇭 42-10 Hong Kong 🇭🇰 Singapore will play hosts, Philippines, in Saturday's Championship Final. Hong Kong & Japan will play-off for third.

The Singapore Memerang 🇸🇬 have defeated the Japan Samurai 🇯🇵 48-4 in the first Asian Championship Play-Off. The Memerang will now progress to Saturday's Final, where they'll play the winner of Hong Kong 🇭🇰 v Philippines 🇵🇭 #RugbyLeague #SingaporevJapan #AsianChampionship

Halves combination of Tylan Berryman & Tieran O’Rourke showing a lot of promise in their first international together.

The Singapore Memerang squad for the inaugural Asian Championship in Manila, Philippines. The Memerang's kick off their campaign on Thursday, playing the Japan Samuari at 3:00pm SGT at the International School Manila. #RugbyLeague #Singapore

Exciting news to see the first clubs formed in Singapore on the eve of the inaugural Asian Championship.

Pre-sales for Sunday's #PacificChampionship match between Tonga & Samoa have already exceeded 40K, putting the match on track to be the largest RL Test crowd in Australia since 47,813 attended the 2014 Four Nations Double Header at the same venue.

The Memerang have named a really strong squad for the Asian Championship. Quite a number of players who have previously represented Singapore in 15s & 7s

Solid crowd of 21,251 at Mt Smart to kick off the Pacific Championship today between NZ & Samoa. With next week's Tonga v Samoa game on track for 40K+ & NZ v Tonga for 30K+ at Eden Park, the tournament is well on track to set a new crowd record despite no Australian team.

This would have to be one of my favourite international team names. Looking forward to seeing how they go in the Asian Championships!

The @NZWarriors @NRLWomens experiment at FMG Stadium has been nothing short of a huge success with the venue now holding the top 3 standalone #NRLW crowds of all time, including a massive 7,195 against the Broncos today. 18,875 fans have attended the 3x games at the venue.

Hamilton backed up last week's @NRLWomens record crowd of 5,968 with a crowd 5,968. Top 5 standalone NRLW crowds this season: Rnd 7 - 5,968 @ Hamilton Rnd 8 - 5,968 @ Hamilton Rnd 8 - 2,535 @ Belmore Rnd 7 - 2,294 @ Central Coast Rnd 3 - 1,924 @ Brisbane

The @NRL_Bulldogs are hoping to set a new standalone @NRLWomens crowd record today at Belmore after running an active campaign, including partnering with the CBJRL, to promote the match. The current record is 5,968 which was set only last Saturday by the @NZWarriors in Waikato.

Crowd was announced as 5,968. Incredible result, despite the conditions. It's also a new record for a standalone NRLW match (previous record was 3,921 set for Knights v Roosters Rnd 1 2024)

Based upon pre-sales, FMG Stadium in Waikato is well on track to set a new record for a standalone #NRLW crowd in NZ & set the highest standalone crowd for the season so far. Previous record was 2,527 (Mt Smart 2019), current today's game is looking like it will be 3,000+