Rugby League will once again pay its respects to the servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in armed conflict by laying commemorative wreaths during a ceremony at the Cenotaph in London on Friday August 24 (11.00am). The ceremony will be attended by representatives from the 2018 Ladbrokes Challenge Cup finalists Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves including Steve McNamara, Remi Casty, Steve Price and Chris Hill, as well as representatives from the Rugby Football League, UK Armed Forces and the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group.
Rugby Football League Chief Executive, Ralph Rimmer said: “It is a privilege that Rugby League can honour the servicemen and women who have given so much, especially as this year marks 100 years since the end of the First World War.
The annual Cenotaph event is the perfect way to pay our respects; and it is fitting that it takes place on the eve of the sport’s most traditional showpiece occasion, the Challenge Cup final. We encourage all Rugby League fans who are in London on Friday to wear their club shirts and come and join us at the Cenotaph.”
The ceremony will see a long-established Rugby League tradition continue ahead of the showpiece final. From the 1920s until the outbreak of the Second World War, Rugby League would honour its fallen from the First War in a ceremony at the Whitehall Cenotaph.
At 11.00am on Cup Final morning, the Captains of the two Finalists would each lay a wreath and a bugler would play the Last Post before a minute’s silence was held. In 2013, the Rugby Football League and the UK Armed Forces rekindled the ceremony and it is now seen as an important part of Challenge Cup 2018.
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