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.

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North Queensland Cowboys vs The Dolphins

Kick-off: Sunday, February 12, 6pm (AEDT)
Venue: Barlow Park, Cairns
Referee: Ziggy Prseklasa-Adamski

North Queensland Cowboys

1. Tom Chester 2. Laitia Moceidreke 3. Gehamat Shibasaki 4. Brendan Elliot 5. Robert Derby 6. Ben Hampton 7. Tom Duffy 8. Taniela Sadrugu 9. Kyle Schneider 10. James Tamou 11. Jack Gosiewski 15. Sylvester Namo 13. Riley Price
Interchange: 14. D'jazirhae Pua'avase  16. Emarly Bitugane 17. Julian Christian 18. Jordan Lipp 19. Zac Laybutt 20. Adam Cook 21. Jake Bourke 22. Jai Hansen 23. Ewan Moore

The Dolphins

1. Jamayne Isaako 2. Jack Bostock 4. Euan Aitken 5. Oliver Gildart 14. Brayden McGrady 6. Anthony Milford 7. Isaiya Katoa 8. Jarrod Wallace 9. Harrison Graham 10. Herman Ese'ese 11. Jeremiah Simbiken 12. Connelly Lemuelu 13. Ray Stone
Interchange:  15. Valynce Te Whare 16. Tyler Szepanowski 17. Lachlan Hubner 18. Judah Rimbu 19. Rodrick Tai 20. Sherwin Tanabi 21. Kurt Donoghoe 22. Brenton Baira 23. Mason Teague 24. Poasa Faamausili 

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