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Some problems occurred recently in Europe regarding the name of the game of rugby league, and it’s a subject not often mentioned, and when it is it is usually in an oblique manner. I think it’s time league had its own name.
As league continues to modify its laws to speed up the play and open the game to spectators, while rugby seems to find more ways to collapse scrums and find more ways to award penalties to bog down and slow up the game, the two codes are splitting further apart. They are now legitimately two different sports.
Looking into the background, the 13-man game has not always been called rugby league. When the English teams broke away from the rugby union in 1895 it was called Northern Union.
The name only changed in the 1920s to come into line with Australia. In France it was banned from using the name rugby and was called jeu de treize (game for thirteen) until a French court ruled that rugby could be used.
Why should league change and not union? Firstly, because league was the one that broke away from the parent union. Let us look at the law books.
The IRB lawbook says “Rugby is a game for 15 or 7 players” while the IRLB only refers to “the game” and does not mention it by name.
In England the premier league competition is called ‘Super League’ and the southern hemisphere rugby competition is named the ‘Rugby Championship’ re-enforcing the difference.
So then look at the controlling bodies. Rugby clubs are grouped together, depending on the country, into a union, federation or association and then internationally into the International Rugby Board where the word ‘union’ is not mentioned at all.
Rugby league is exactly the same except that the word ‘league’ is always included after the word ‘Rugby;. In Russia, league has been contracted to one word, translated as ‘Regbileg’.
Several years ago, the then controlling body in the USA, the AMNRL hired a marketing company to advise how to promote league there.
Their first recommendation was to change the name. This was because the bad publicity rugby players and clubs were getting with their antisocial behaviour after matches and tournaments and the league should not be associated in any way with rugby. The AMNRL did not act on this.
Confusion still exists here in Australia. In Victoria, rugby is referred to as union and league is called rugby.
The matter came to a head recently in Europe and Africa. As league has started to spread through these areas, the leagues need to register as a sport with their respective governments.
In several countries, such as Morocco, Italy and Czech Republic, they have been told to register through their national rugby unions because the governments consider the games to be the same.
In Italy, league has now been recognised, calling themselves rugby XIII, but the problem is still occurring. To blur the picture even more Italian rugby clubs are fielding league teams and Russian league clubs are fielding rugby teams.
My ideal is for the two codes to re-unite, just as cricket did. However, too much time has elapsed and the laws have ensured that they are now two separate games for this to happen and will remain a pipe dream.
The next question is if league did want to change, what would be the name? Should they revert to Northern Rules, or a new one such as tackle ball, thirteens, passball, Giltenham or Messenger? Maybe just plain league would do?
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