Rugby League
April 23rd 2007 04:59
Category: Guides
Australians love their sports, and Sydney is no different. The city comes to a near halt when playoff rugby games are being held, or Test crickets is being shown in pubs across the city. The favorable weather means that Aussies have the luxury of seeing live sporting events all through the year.
Australian Rules Football is arguably the most popular sport in Australia, but in Sydney, rugby league has a commanding presence, and, in fact, has grown to record levels in the last few years. Crowd attendance has rocketed, sponsorship is rampant, and fans are buying more merchandise than ever.
Rugby league differs from rugby union in several aspects. The rules of the game are completely different, with the shape of the ball and the level of violence being two of the only common characteristics. In league, there are 13 players as opposed to 15, and there are no real scrums or lineouts, reducing the complexity of the game substantially. Instead of the potentially endless flow broken by set plays of rugby union, a team in rugby league has only five attempts to score a try before turning the ball over.
Critics of rugby league often comment on the reduced complexity of the game, claiming that the game lacks strategy and the finer point of rugby union. Certainly, rugby league may not share the military planning of rugby union, but the reduction of rules has resulted in players evolving into near-lethal physical specimens, able to withstand the non-stop violence of the game, and still be able to handle the ball and run.
Rugby League originated in Northern England, where the northern clubs were getting tired of living by the rules of the southern clubs. In Northern England, rugby was a working class sport, and the players were often not at liberty to take time off work for practices and games; additionally, northern teams had to travel quite far to play in games in the south, and the league committee meetings were often dominated by representatives from the south.
In response to this, the teams from the north split off and formed their own league, the Northern Union in 1895, changing the name in 1901 to the Rugby Football League, the first usage of the term rugby league. The reaction from the union clubs was severe they issued sanctions against the players, officials and administrators, beginning the rivalry between League and Union.
In Australia, particularly Sydney, rugby was experiencing the same class divisions, and, influenced by the league movement growing in England, Albert Henry Baskerville and James J. Giltinan, a New Zealander and an Australian, decided to tour in England with an Australasian rugby league team. Rugby league was doing huge business in England, and Baskerville and Giltinan wanted a piece of that pie.
Returning to England, the Australasian team found rugby league exploding in popularity in Queensland and New South Wales, with teams being hastily thrown together and instructed in the new rules of the sport. For Australians, the game was more exciting to watch, with the constant punishment of tackles, and the simple rules. Like in England, the dividing lines in rugby were drawn between the working and upper middle class: the working class identified with rugby league, while the middle class gave attention to union.
Soon enough, professional leagues opened in New South Wales and Queensland, with the game gaining popularity in rural and urban areas throughout Australia. In 1998, two premier level competitions merged to form the National Rugby League.
The National Rugby League is one of the most prolific competitions of rugby league on the planet, a hotly contested game of barbarism that inspires and excites. The 15-team league has competing teams in Sydney, Canberra, New Zealand, Newcastle, Melbourne and Queensland, with 9 of the 15 teams in the greater Sydney area.
As the game grows in popularity, it remains to be seen if the National Rugby League can handle expansion; already, a third team from Queensland will be added to the league in 2007. Attendance at games is at record levels, with Sydneysiders showing an insatiable appetite for the game, especially after the Wests Tigers, a western suburb team from Sydney, managed to steal the championship from under the North Queensland Cowboys.
Rugby league has a fanatical group of fans, and its not hard to see why: the game is fast paced and savage, appealing to our deeper instincts. Even casual viewers of the game usually end up spitting rage and venomous threats by halftime, and the sport looks ready to expand into the international arena.
Australian Rules Football is arguably the most popular sport in Australia, but in Sydney, rugby league has a commanding presence, and, in fact, has grown to record levels in the last few years. Crowd attendance has rocketed, sponsorship is rampant, and fans are buying more merchandise than ever.
Rugby League
Critics of rugby league often comment on the reduced complexity of the game, claiming that the game lacks strategy and the finer point of rugby union. Certainly, rugby league may not share the military planning of rugby union, but the reduction of rules has resulted in players evolving into near-lethal physical specimens, able to withstand the non-stop violence of the game, and still be able to handle the ball and run.
Rugby League originated in Northern England, where the northern clubs were getting tired of living by the rules of the southern clubs. In Northern England, rugby was a working class sport, and the players were often not at liberty to take time off work for practices and games; additionally, northern teams had to travel quite far to play in games in the south, and the league committee meetings were often dominated by representatives from the south.
In response to this, the teams from the north split off and formed their own league, the Northern Union in 1895, changing the name in 1901 to the Rugby Football League, the first usage of the term rugby league. The reaction from the union clubs was severe they issued sanctions against the players, officials and administrators, beginning the rivalry between League and Union.
In Australia, particularly Sydney, rugby was experiencing the same class divisions, and, influenced by the league movement growing in England, Albert Henry Baskerville and James J. Giltinan, a New Zealander and an Australian, decided to tour in England with an Australasian rugby league team. Rugby league was doing huge business in England, and Baskerville and Giltinan wanted a piece of that pie.
Passing the ball
Soon enough, professional leagues opened in New South Wales and Queensland, with the game gaining popularity in rural and urban areas throughout Australia. In 1998, two premier level competitions merged to form the National Rugby League.
The National Rugby League is one of the most prolific competitions of rugby league on the planet, a hotly contested game of barbarism that inspires and excites. The 15-team league has competing teams in Sydney, Canberra, New Zealand, Newcastle, Melbourne and Queensland, with 9 of the 15 teams in the greater Sydney area.
As the game grows in popularity, it remains to be seen if the National Rugby League can handle expansion; already, a third team from Queensland will be added to the league in 2007. Attendance at games is at record levels, with Sydneysiders showing an insatiable appetite for the game, especially after the Wests Tigers, a western suburb team from Sydney, managed to steal the championship from under the North Queensland Cowboys.
Rugby league has a fanatical group of fans, and its not hard to see why: the game is fast paced and savage, appealing to our deeper instincts. Even casual viewers of the game usually end up spitting rage and venomous threats by halftime, and the sport looks ready to expand into the international arena.
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