Rugby league is back! On Thursday evening, the newly-named pre-season challenge will kick-off with the New Zealand Warriors set to take on the Wests Tigers in Auckland.
The 17 NRL clubs - including new entrant the Dolphins - will be joined by St Helens over the next two weeks for the pre-season challenge, with $100,000 in prize money available per team.
All squads are allowed to name up to 28 players this weekend, and 26 players next weekend with the name of the game still to get ready for the season proper, which kicks off in the first week of March.
Set to the backdrop of looming strike action over the non-negotiation collective bargaining agreement, this weekend will also feature the men's and women's All Stars, meaning we will have 11 games to be played between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon.
The pre-season challenge games will feature rules designed to favour attacking rugby league, with teams able to accumulate competition points through the following methods:
12 points for a win
6 points for a draw
1 bonus point for 5 or more tries
1 bonus point for 5 or more line breaks
1 bonus point for 10 or more offloads
Here are the teams and officials for all of the Week 1 fixtures.
Canberra Raiders vs Canterbury Bulldogs
Kick-off: Sunday, February 11, 3:55pm (AEDT)
Venue: Ack Weyman Oval, Moruya
Referee: Peter Gough
Canberra Raiders
1. Xavier Savage 17. James Schiller 2. Albert Hopoate 3. Jarrod Croker 5. Elijah Anderson 6. Matt Frawley 7. Brad Schneider 8. Ata Mariota 9. Danny Levi 10. Emre Guler 11. Clay Webb 12. Trey Mooney 13. Corey Horsburgh
Interchange: 4. Brad Morkos 14. Zac Woolford 15. Pasami Saulo 16. Jordan Martin  18. Hohepa Puru 19. Jed Stuart 20. Joshua Allen 21. Michael Asomua 22. Peter Hola 23. Ethan Strange 24. Loghan Lewis, 25. Mitchell Spencer, 26. Josh James, 27. Lachlan Lewis, 28. Ray Burns
Canterbury Bulldogs
1. Braidon Burns 2. Jacob Kiraz 3. Jake Averillo 4. Paul Alamoti 21. Jayden Okunbor 6. Josh Reynolds 7. Kyle Flanagan 8. Luke Thompson 9. Reed Mahoney 10. Max King 11. Jacob Preston 12. Raymond Faitala-Mariner 13. Ryan Sutton
Interchange: 16. Andrew Davey 17. Corey Waddell 19. Jeral Skelton 20. Jackson Topine 22. Bailey Hayward 23. Harrison Edwards 24. Khaled Rajab 25. Jayden Tanner 26. Kurtis Morrin 27. Blake Wilson 28. Joash Papalii 29. Ryan Gray 30. Franklin Pele 31. Brandon Clarke 32. Eli Clark






