County matches (and later regional matches) were played from 1920-21 until 2001-02. Details of these can be found on the                                           page.

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The first national inter-city/town competition was a knock-out competition played at Under 15, the final of which (Widnes v Wigan) took place as a curtain-raiser to the 1967 Championship Final. When the school leaving age was raised to 16, the competition followed suit in 1972-73, but an Under 15 competition was retained. Knock-out competitions were added at Under 13 and Under 11 in 1989-90.

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In 1974-75 a league championship, with two divisions, was introduced at Under 16. An Under 13 championship began the following season and in 1987-88 an Under 13 second division was was introduced, along with two divisions at Under 11. Formats varied with the league competitions: some years counties had their own leagues for the first stage of the competition; in other years leagues were inter-county from the start. All league competitions involved a play-off (sometimes four teams, sometimes two teams) to decide the eventual champions.