Despite the Lancashire RFU being established in 1881 and having the most successful county team in the country, club rugby union took a long time to catch on in Lancashire. While bitter rivals
Yorkshire had an established county club competition (the
Yorkshire Cup) which had been running since 1878, Lancashire did not have a similar competition until 1971. This lack of competitive rugby meant that Lancashire had a smaller membership of clubs when compared to its counterpart. Some of the current clubs competing seem to be based outside of Lancashire, such as
Liverpool St Helens and
Waterloo, but when the Lancashire RFU was founded, places like
Merseyside and
Liverpool were part of the county, and these teams have retained their membership. ==Final results==