19 Rugby League / Betfair Education / 08 August 2008 / Leave a comment

Rugby league is a collision sport that fans consider to be the toughest, most physically demanding sport in the world. The sport is a mix of brutal physicality mixed with lithe skill where strength, speed, skill and smarts are displayed in each and every game.

Rugby league came into being in 1895 at the George Hotel in Huddersfield in the north of England when twenty-two rugby union clubs defected from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of professionalism. Since then, the game has been in a constant state of evolution and expansion with the game now played by thirteen players a side who maintain possession for six tackles.

Today, rugby league is played in over thirty countries though its strongholds remain the north of England and the North-Eastern states of Australia. The two major rugby league competitions in the world are the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand and the Super League in England and France. The National Rugby League consists primarily of teams in New South Wales and Queensland, where the sport is the most supported football code, though clubs are also located in Canberra (ACT), Melbourne (Victoria) and Auckland (New Zealand). The Super League consists of teams primarily of teams based in Lancashire and Yorkshire though clubs exist in London, the Catalan region of France and from next year, Wales. Rugby league is also considered the national sport of Papua New Guinea.

Rugby league is considered by many to be the perfect television sport as its two-dimensional nature makes it naturally suited to the box.

Competitions

The National Rugby League has no system of promotion or relegation with all teams governed by strict salary cap rules that ensures teams rarely dominate for any extended period. The last team to win back-to-back premierships was Brisbane, in 1992-93. The most dominant team of recent times has been Melbourne, who lost the 2006 grand final before winning the competition in 2007. The salary cap also ensures clubs rarely languish at the bottom of the table for too many seasons though South Sydney, who made their first finals series in eighteen years in 2007, have been perennial cellar dwellers for nearly two decades.

The Super League has less stringent rules concerning talent equalisation and as such, the competition tends to be dominated by the four powerhouses: St.Helens, Wigan, Leeds and Bradford. The Super League had a promotion/relegation system until this season, where the competition moved to a licensing format similar to the National Rugby League.

Teams are more likely to go from pretender to contender in the NRL than they are in the Super League.

Season Format

National Rugby League (Australia)

The NRL season has two official parts, the regular season and the finals series.

• The Regular Season: Each of the sixteen team's plays twenty-four games over twenty-six rounds with each team granted two byes. Teams play twelve home games and twelve away games, playing nine teams twice and six teams once. The team who wins the regular season is known as the minor premier. The regular season usually runs from mid-March until the first weekend in September.

• The Finals Series: The top eight teams from the regular season play in a finals system to determine the premier. Teams play under a format known as the "McIntyre System" where the top ranked team plays the eighth ranked team, the second ranked team plays the seventh ranked team and so on. In week one of the finals, the two highest ranked winners progress to week three while the two lowest ranked losers are eliminated. From week two onwards, each game is elimination. The finals series runs throughout September, culminating in the Grand Final, one of the biggest day's in Australian sport, on the first Sunday in October.

Super League (Great Britain and France)

The British rugby league season has three official aspects, the Super League regular season and playoffs and the Challenge Cup.

• The Super League Regular Season: Each of the twelve teams plays twenty-seven games. Each team plays each other on a home and away basis with each team playing a further two home and two away matches. There is one additional round where all teams play a match at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in what is known as the Magic Weekend. The season runs from early February to the middle of September.

• The Super League Playoffs: The top six teams from the regular season play in a playoff series to determine the champion and winner of the Super League trophy. The playoffs are staged over four weeks from mid-September to mid-October, culminating in the Grand Final played on the last weekend of the season.

• The Challenge Cup: The Challenge Cup is a knockout competition for teams not only in the Super League but amateur, semi-professional and professional teams across Britain and Europe. The tournament is played throughout the Super League season with the tournament culminating in the final, which is played at Wembley.