Rugby League is considered by many to be the most physically demanding and toughest of the football codes.
Played by two teams of thirteen players using an oval shaped ball, the game has been developed over the years to provide the fastest and most attractive game possible for audiences.
As a result, the game has also become arguably the hardest hitting in terms of tackling and the fastest in terms of ball movement.
Modern players display not only strength and endurance over the 80 minutes of a game, but also a degree of athletecism and even acrobatics in their attmpts to score points.
Played professionaly in only a few coutries around the world, it has more than 40 coutries that play it at various ameteur levels. There is a World Cup of Rugby League which is played every four years, with New Zealand being the current holders. Prior to 2008, Australia had won every World Cup since 1975.
Professional competitions are played in Australia, England and New Zealand, and it is also the national sport of Papua New Guinea. Rugby League was founded in 1895 when the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) decided to break away from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) who wanted to remain strictly ameteur, being from a predominantly working class region of England, the NRFU needed to be able to compensate their players for taking time off work to play.
Over the ensuing years the rules were changed many times resulting in the game we see played today.
Rugby League is a game played by a small number of coutries around the world. Often known as the poor cousin to Rugby, in recent years it...
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