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When Lebanon were admitted into the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, the proviso was that the country set up a legitimate domestic league.
Prior to that event, Lebanon did not exist in the rugby league world.
As many have come to realise, the country now has a viable domestic competition of its own, with sponsors, training and coaching clinics as well as an international presence based on achieving further World Cup representation.
The important assumption behind the Rugby League International Federation’s decision to allow a Lebanon-representative team to compete was that the legitimacy for the sport rested upon the existence of domestic leagues.
Without such a league, all a country could at best hope for would be exhibition matches catering to the temporarily curious.
Fast forward to 2013 and the current World Cup and oh, how times have changed.
Now, you will find that all of the 14 teams compete represent nations that have their own domestic leagues.
If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have been able to attempt World Cup qualification.
Similarly, nations such as Lebanon, Russia, Serbia and Jamaica, despite having their own domestic leagues, were unable to qualify.
This very fact highlights two very important points.
Number one, one doesn’t have to be a powerhouse in the league world to play the sport and number two, nobody would be talking about the legitimacy or not of these leagues if they didn’t in fact exist.
Unfortunately, many detractors of the sport seem to articulate the idea that unless the code is the number one sport in a country, then that country is not worthy of being called a rugby league playing nation.
To any sensible person, this argument is of course ridiculous.
In order to provide some direction to the go-nowhere-debates, I’ve complied some simple information regarding the domestic leagues of the nations competing in this year’s World Cup from the various league homepages.
Some of the information, as befits the resources of a number of these nations, is dated and incomplete.
Nonetheless, only a person who willingly pokes out his own eyes would fail to see the reality that rugby league has an international presence.
And as time goes by, hopefully the smaller nations will be able to increase, not only their sporting professionalism, but also their capacity to communicate that to the rest of the world.
1. Australia
The premier rugby league competition in the world, the National Rugby League (NRL) features 16 teams including one team based in New Zealand. The NRL attracts players from all over the rugby league playing world and has been, under various bodies, been in existence since 1908.
2. New Zealand
The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) have existed for almost as long Australia’s domestic league.
The NZRL oversees the NZRL National Competition which features teams from the nation’s various rugby league-playing ‘zones’. Despite the non-professional status of the country’s league, the nation still manages to be a league powerhouse, winning the World Cup in 2008.
3. England
A traditional powerhouse of league, the oldest league in the world is governed by the Rugby Football League (RFL).
The current Super League is a 14-team professional competition featuring one club based in France. It is the only other completely professional rugby league competition in the world besides Australia’s NRL.
4. France
Once a powerhouse of rugby league, France’s influence during its heyday helped to establish the World Cup.
It’s domestic competition, the French Rugby League Federation is not only a founding member of the Rugby League International Federation, as part of an overall French Rugby League Championship, it also runs the ten-team Elite One Championship.
France currently fields a professional team, the Catalan Dragons, in the English Super League.
5. Wales
Welsh rugby league, historically under the auspices of the Rugby Football League of England, became independent in 1995 with the formation of the Wales Rugby League.
Wales features two professional teams competing in the Kingstone Press Championship 1 competition in England while its own amateur competitions include six teams in the Conference Premier and five teams each in the South Wales Merit Table League and the North Wales Conference.
6. Scotland
Relatively new to rugby league, the Scotland rugby league began in 1994. Despite lacking a professional team, the league runs an amateur four team Scottish Conference North League and a Scottish Conference Central featuring five teams.
There is also a National Youth League for under 15s and 17s as well as the Saltire Schools Cup.
7. Ireland
Like Scotland, Rugby League Ireland (RLI) is a young governing body and currently features five amateur teams competing in each Ulster, Munster and Leinster Leagues.
8. Papua New Guinea
One of the oldest leagues in the world, the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League was established in 1949 and currently oversees a semi-professional domestic league known as the Digicel Cup.
The competition features ten teams. Papua New Guinea is the only country in the world where rugby league is considered to be the national sport.
9. Fiji
First played in 1992, the Fiji National Rugby League (FNRL) now organises an Eastern and Western Conference with each conference fielding six teams.
10. Samoa
A small rugby league playing nation, Samoa regularly hits above its weight despite the domestic competition of Rugby League Samoa (RLS) featuring 12 teams and only around 320 registered players.
Many Samoan players, however, have gone on to have successful professional playing careers in the NRL and the Super League.
11. Tonga
The Tonga National Rugby League (TNRL) began in 1988, boasts over 2,000 registered players and organises the Tongan National Rugby League Domestic Competition.
This competition has been running since the league’s inception and, at least until a few years ago featured two divisions with twelve teams competing in one and seven teams in the other.
12. Cook Islands
The smallest rugby league playing nation, the Cook Islands Rugby League Association (CIRLA) features a domestic competition with seven teams as well a host of junior leagues from Under-13s to Under-17s.
13. USA
Rugby league in the USA consists of two semi-professional domestic leagues.
The American National Rugby League (AMNRL) was formed in 1997 and currently features seven teams competing.
In 2011, the USA Rugby League (USARL) was established by six teams who broke away from the AMNRL to form their own competition. The breakaway competition currently features eight teams.
14. Italy
Despite a presence in the 1950s/60s, rugby league fell silent until the late 1990s when the game was reintroduced.
The Federazione Italiana Rugby League was established in 2006 and now runs a semi-professional competition featuring ten teams split over the North East, North West and Central Conferences. In 2010, a breakaway league known as the Italia Rugby Football League (iRFL) emerged and ran a semi-professional competition known as the iRFleague.
Rugby league is alive and well enough in the world today. Don’t let the detractors fool you into thinking otherwise.
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