The game of Rugby League owes its origin to Northern Union, a section of the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) from which it broke away. Initially, it had the rules of rugby applied to it. When it was joined by its Australian and New Zealand counterparts, together they formed the association known as the Rugby League.
They modified the Northern Union rules and applied them to the new games. Later, when the name Northern Union was changed to Rugby Football League, the game came to be known as rugby league, the other version being known as rugby union. With time, the rules of rugby league saw significant changes and now both Rugby League and Rugby Union are completely different games.
Rugby League is a game played between two teams of thirteen players each. There is a referee who is assisted by two Touch-judges and a video referee. The main object of the game is to score more points than the opponents. The playground should preferably be a rectangular grassy field and the length of the field is usually double that of its width. At each end of the field are the in-goal areas which are used to score a try. The H-shaped goal-posts are situated at the intersection between the field of play and each in-goal area. These goal-posts are used for scoring points through a conversion or a field goal or a penalty goal. Usually the tries carry four points, conversions and penalty goals two points and a field goal, which is also known as a drop goal, is worth one point.
The two opposing teams are the attacking team and the defending team. The attacking team is the one which has the ball and the territorial advantage. They move up-field using a combination of kicking and running head-on into the defensive line to force the defending team back. The attacking team also tries to break the defensive line while the main objective of the defensive team is to stop the attackers from scoring points.
The attacking team is given six chances to score while the defending team tackles. When the tackle is made, the entire defending team, save the two markers, moves 10 metres back towards their own in-goal area leaving the tackled player to play the ball. With each tackle, the attacking team moves closer to the opposition's in-goal area and goal-posts. The change over or the hand over takes place with the sixth tackle on the attacking team. With this, the attacking team becomes the defending team and the defending team the attacking.
The Rugby League has become one of the most popular games of the world. This out-door game is played in over thirty countries across the world and is extremely popular in countries like England, Australia and New Zealand. It also has the honor of being the national sport in Papua New Guinea. In spite of alleged lack of media coverage, the game is attempting a world-wide expansion and is expected to become one of the most played games in near future.
