Rugby Questions?

Main differences betwen rugby league and rugby union are:
1. In league they have 13 on a side while in union they have 15.
2. When you get tackled in rugby league your tacklers have to let you stand up and then the person with the ball puts the ball through their legs to a team mate standing behind him. If the team get tackled six times in a row the ball is handed over to the other team, this is why usually when a team is on 5 tacklers they will kick the ball.

Rugby union is the most popular by quite a bit. I dont really actually know much about rugby league.

European rugby union club season has just finished today so you wont be seeing any of it on TV.

Super 12's - is rugby union for clubs from Austrialia, New Zealand and S.Africa. Called super 12's because there are 12 teams in the league.

NRL - dont no what that is.

The best rugby union leagues are - English permiership and the Super 12's. After that it would be the French league and the Celtic League (which is teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales).
Dont know about rugby league leagues (but would probally be the same).

The recent Rugby World Cup which England won was rugby union. Dont know if there is a rugby league world cup.

For a site go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/ and click on either rugby union or rugby league at the side.

 

Couple of points on this one:

Super 12 teams are not "clubs" as such. They represent various states and provinces in Aus, NZ & SAfrica. At the end of the competition the players go back to playing for their clubs. The teams are Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales & Queensland (Aus), Canterbury, Waikato, Otago, Wellington & Auckland (NZ) and Cats, Bulls, Stormers & Sharks (SAfrica).

The NRL is the Australian National Rugby League. The English Rugby League is called the English Super League. The Super 12 is rugby union, as are the Tri-Nations, the Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup. There is a sort of RL World Cup, but given that it is only played in Australia, New Zealand, England, Papua New Guinea and parts of France it is not much of a competition.

 

National Rugby League. A league of Rugby League teams in Australia.

Yes there is (has been). It had been defunct for many years. There have been talks of reviving it back. The last one (held in the UK) was nowhere in comparison to the glamor/popularity/attendance/media exposure of RWC 2003.

Simple summary of rule differences: League sucks. Union rules.

 

Ah, its sorta like Ireland then. Players play for their clubs then also play for one of the four provinces.
Question: Can some who is playing for Crusaders swap team to the Bulls (for e.g.) like they can do in Ireland?

 

Yes they can - depending on the rules of the national union. I believe that the ARU has rules that only players eligible for Wallaby selection can play for the Australian Super12 teams. Therefore NZ or SAfrican players would not be signed.

As ACT is only a tiny little enclave (similar to the District of Columbia in the US), all - or at least the vast majority - of their players come from NSW or Queensland.

 

You need to remember that league and union are completely different games, played by completely different groups of players - in many cases with different body types. Some players change codes, but usually without a lot of success.

After Super 12 the Australian union players go back and play for their rugby union clubs in the NSW or Queensland premierships. The main clubs are ones like Randwick, Eastwood, Manly, Sydney University (NSW), and Brothers, University of Queensland, Sunnybank, Souths (Qld). The best then get dragged away from their clubs again to play for Australia in the Tri-Nations.

The 2 main Rugby League comps are the NRL and the English Super League. There are of course a lot of smaller leagues - such as in New Zealand and France - and throughout New South Wales & Queensland there are heaps of semi-pro leagues.

Two of the biggest RL matches of the year are the English Challenge Cup Final (similar to the soccer FA Cup) which was on a week or so ago, and in Australia the Grand Final in September. But by far the showpiece of the game is the State of Origin series between New South Wales and Queensland which starts this Wednesday night. It is a representative series where regardless of what club you play for, if picked you go back and play for the state where you were raised. They are usually very high standard and very violent games.

The Heineken is Rugby Union and yes, is like the Champions League. Unfortunately it, like the English RU premiership, does not get much coverage here in Australia.

League is by far the more dominant of the rugby codes here - the only country where this is the case.

 

This might sound ridiculous to some people, but it seems as though it hurts the game of Rugby in general if you have 2 branches of the sport (Union and League) that are competing against each other for the popularity throne. Wouldn't it be wise for every rugby-loving fan and player to stick with one code for the sake of Rugby and world development?? And from the sound of things, I think Rugby Union is more popular on the international level and thus perhaps should be the only code played. But I don't know what are the main differences..

What are some key differences in the rules of Union and League besides the 13 and 15 men a side? Is one of them more violent than the other? And correct me if I'm wrong... but wasn't one of the codes started because their players were paid professionals and the other code players were not?

 

There are some major rule differences between Union and League, most notably Play The Ball, and the Six Tackle Rule.

Play The Ball:
In Union, when a player goes down, he must release the ball, and usually a ruck or a maul occurs.
In League, when a player goes down, the defending team retreats 10 meters behind the ball and it is put back into pllay.

Six Tackle Rule:
In League, you can be tackled 6 times before you have to give up the ball. If the defending team commits a penalty or a knock on, then the tackle count is refreshed.
If the attacking team knocks on, knocks the ball out of bounds, or commits a penalty, then it gives up the ball
It's not unlike American football, as tackle is like a down, and attacking team often kicks on the last tackle.

And yes, League originally split from the Union because teams wanted to pay players (not coincidentally, the teams that split were from Northern England, where players often came from the working class, while southern teams tended to field "sportsmen"). Of course, this distinction is moot now that Union has gone professional.
(Soccer had a similar amateur vs professional debate early in its development, but it managed to deal with it without splitting)

There are other differences, but you can check out this page: www.wordiq.com/definition/Rugby_League

Also, I don't think a merge would help the sport that much, as union is clearly the more international game, and the League/Union split tends to be regional and the two codes do not compete with each other as much as you might think.

 

As I said before, the two games are extremely different, and in general appeal to completely different groups of supporters. Here in Australia Union tends to be followed by the wealthier, ex-private school types, and has a lot of financial support from the corporate set. League is more of the working mans game.

League is a more violent sport - in as far as direct physical collisions go. It tends to be played more one out - ie. charging forward by yourself to get smashed by the defence. It is more similar to American Football in many ways than it is to Union.

Union is very physically demanding, especially in the forwards, because of the pushing and heaving against one another, but is more of a pack game. It is much less physical in the backs.

As Skipshady said, the break was originally due to amateurism - not so much being paid to play, but what was called "broken time payment". That is, compensation for time missed from work due to travelling, playing and injury.

The rules were basically the same at first, but League soon made a huge number of changes. Up until a few years ago Union was amateur, and if a player switched to League he could be banned for life from Union. Of course, many Union players were actually being secretly paid to play - especially in France and South Africa.

This working class roots of League in the north of England explain the location of most English Rugby League clubs. They are almost all in the north - Wigan, Widnes, Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, St Helens, Hull, Wakefield etc

In Australia World War I was the big turning point. Union suspended play during the war, while League carried on. Union never really managed to catch up again. However, both Rugbies are really only followed in 2 states in Australia.