Rugby League

Rugby League, which is often referred to as just Rugby, is one of the oldest sports and widely followed sports of world. A sport fan with little interest in Rugby football league or rugby league is often confused by rugby, rugby league and Rugby union. Though, the fact is people often used the term rugby as a short form of rugby union and rugby league. However, rugby league and rugby union are two different sports that branched out of Football.

Various other forms of football that have developed into major sports are rugby union, rugby football league, American football, Canadian football, and Australian football etc.

Rugby football league or rugby league is played with a team of 13 players with an oval shape ball. The main aim of both the teams is to score maximum points by crossing the goal posts. A rugby football league match is played for 80 minutes with 10 minutes break.

In rugby football league, each team gets six tackles or chances to score points. If they fail to score points, then the ball is handed over to other team to score points.

Other strange thing about the rugby league is that the players are not allowed to pass the ball forward. The ball can only be pass backward.

The rugby league was formed in Huddersfield, Yorkshire (England) on 29 August 1895 when the Northern Rugby Football Union with 22 English northern clubs opposed the functioning of the Rugby Football Union. There were two main issues that led to the formation of the rugby league or the Northern Rugby Football Union.

The first issue was that northern clubs were given step-motherly treatment by the Rugby Football Union during the committee meetings that were held in London. And it was tough for the northern clubs representatives to attend those meetings in London.

The second issue that was the major cause that led to the bifurcation of Rugby league from the rugby football union was over the compensation in lieu of work skipped. In 1892, Rugby Football Union leveled charges of professionalism against two clubs of Yorkshire (Bradford and Leeds) for paying them for the loss of work.

The charge enraged the northern clubs more so because other players were paid when they toured Australia. This compensatory allowance was called broken time payments. The northern clubs had put a proposal that those players who miss their work due to matches should be paid six shelling. This demand was turned down by the Rugby Football Union that finally paved the way for the formation of Rugby league.

Nations Where Rugby League Rules The Roost

Following are the nations where rugby league matches are popular:

• Papua New Guinea
• Fiji
• England
• Australia
• South Africa
• Tonga
• Cook Islands
• France
• New Zealand
• Russia
• Samoa

• Rugby League World Cup
• World Club Challenge
• Challenge Cup
• Tri-Nations
• The Ashes
• ANZAC Test