Rugby
Rugby league football is a competitive full-contact team sport played with a prolate spheroid-shaped ball by two teams of thirteen on a rectangular grass field. Rugby league is one of the two major codes of Rugby football, the other being rugby union. The league code is most prominent in Australia, England, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, France and Wales where the sport is played professionally. New Zealand are the current reigning World Champions. Rugby league is considered the national sport of Papua New Guinea. The game is played at a semi-professional and amateur level in several other countries, such as; the United States, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, Lebanon, Argentina, Germany, Japan, Greece, Malta and Jamaica.
Rugby league takes its name from the Rugby Football League, known as the Northern Rugby Football Union when established in 1895 as a breakaway faction of the English Rugby Football Union (RFU). Both organisations played the game under similar rules at first, until similar breakaway factions occurred from RFU-affiliated rugby football unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, and formed associations known as rugby football leagues, introducing modified Northern Union rules to create a new form of rugby football. The Northern Union later changed its name to the Northern Rugby Football League in 1922 (later dropping the 'Northern') and thus, over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league". Over the following decades, the rules of both forms of rugby were gradually changed, and now rugby league and rugby union are distinctly different sports.
History
The roots of Rugby League can be traced to early football history, through the playing of ball games which bear little resemblance to modern sports. It is then important to acknowledge the development of the modern football codes and two separate schisms in football history.
In 19th century England, football was most prominently played in private schools. Each school had its own rules based on whatever playing field was available to them. The rules could be categorised as either handling or kicking forms of football. The kicking and handling forms were later codified by The Football Association and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) respectively. Rugby football had its origins at Rugby School, Warwickshire, England.
In 1895 Rugby football was beset with a schism that resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). Although many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams, the main division was caused by the RFU decision to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle. There were similar movements in other countries. In 1895 a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to the famous meeting on 29 August 1895. Twenty-two clubs (plus Stockport who negotiated by telephone) met at The George Hotel in Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and formed the "Northern Rugby Football Union". Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution.
Positions
Players on field are divided into forwards and backs. Each position has a designated number, 1 to 13. Numbers 14 to 17 are given to players starting on the bench, who will come into the game as substitutes for other players who are injured, in need of a rest, or less suited to the coach's strategy for that particular phase of the game. Typically the bench is comprised of three forward substitutes and a hooker/halves substitute. Each side is allowed 12 substitutions per game. (For 2008, in the National Rugby League, each side may use up to 10 substitutions.[1])
Rugby league worldwide
Rugby league is played in more than 30 countries, though it is most commonly played in the United Kingdom (predominantly northern England), Australia and New Zealand. Australia, where it is a winter sport, is the strongest of the three. Rugby League is most popular in England, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Wales and it is recognised as the national sport in Papua New Guinea.
Until New Zealand's victory in 2008, Australia had won every world cup since 1975. Until 25 November 2005, they had also not lost an international tournament or series of any kind for twenty-seven years until they lost to New Zealand in the final of the 2005 Tri-Nations Series at Elland Road in Leeds.
In the United Kingdom, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the "heartland" counties of northern England where the game originated (Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria). However, the game is growing in popularity nationwide, with television figures showing 50% of viewers come from the South of England and record participation numbers in the junior game. Despite this, the majority of teams remain in the North.
In Australia, it is the dominant sport in Queensland and New South Wales, as well as being popular in the Australian Capital Territory and having a minor foothold in the Northern Territory. The other four states have low participication and knowledge with many struggling to differentiate between rugby union and rugby league.
Despite having had many strong teams historically, rugby à treize in France has struggled to compete with rugby union since the Vichy government banned the sport and seized some assets during World War II. However, French rugby league remained reasonably strong after the war, and the French team reached the final of the 1954 and 1968 Rugby League World Cups. In 2006, the Super League admitted the Catalans Dragons, who on 29 July 2007, made it to the Challenge cup final, being the first non-English team to do so. The admittance of the Dragons to Super League has seen a renaissance of sorts in French rugby league, with newfound enthusiasm for the sport in traditional areas, predominantly in the South of the country where most of the Elite One Championship teams are based.
Early 21st century developments have seen countries such as Georgia, the Netherlands, Germany, Estonia, Malta, Serbia, Argentina, Jamaica, and others take up the game and compete in international rugby league tournaments or matches, with efforts being made by the Rugby League European Federation to expand the game to new areas.