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?
Ben smith
Guest
Who cares about a sport which copies the AFL finals system and tv show names.
James Carter
Guest
Crash-ball, that's the name we should give to RL, the name describe the sport perfectly and add excitement to it makes it more appealing to new comers especially USA. and remove the confusion with the Union forever, if things stays the same rugby league will remain under the shadow of the 15s side & will never sail on it's own. P.S. Now is the time to change the name while the sport still regional if we wait it going to be very hard to do so
Belinda
Guest
You realise when I first jumped into discovering this I didnt feel the situation was actually fairly likely that those things you provided at this website really existed.
Celtic Bandaid
Guest
In 1823 William Webb Ellis "with a fine disregard for the rules as played at the time picked up the ball and ran with it" (supposedly ) at Rugby School in the town of Rugby UK . This town also has a soccer team called Rugby Town FC. 72 years later in 1895, 22 disaffected football clubs met at the George Hotel in the town of Huddersfield UK to create the Northern Rugby Football Union. The Northern Rugby Football Union eventually became the Rugby Football League Huddersfield has a soccer club known as Huddersfield Town FC. Huddersfield FC ( ie Huddersfield Giants) is the name of the local (RU then) RL club. To differentiate why not call the game Huddersfield ( or ' oodursfilled.) You could then have Rugger, (A)soccer and Hudder. Now back to the asylum. They'll be missing me.
WQ
Guest
Your kidding me.........who would have known that? Your calling me dafty!
Davey
Guest
That is not an excuses CC, NRL tv ratings and crowds are down just excepted. Its been mention to death on here that rugby league has the x factor and yet fans pick and choose which games they watch depends on where their teams are on the table. You wont except the fact some Australian super rugby union crowds and tv ratings are down due to their loss of form which also include the Wallabies yet here you are making excuses yet again. NZ super rugby crowds are doing fine and tv ratings is on all time high as some games tv ratings passed the 300,000 mark numerous times which says alot. Pay TV live super rugby games in NZ with a population of 4.5 million rates better than NRL live games on pay TV in Australia which has a population of 22 million. The English and French clubs are all doing well because they have cash coming in from their domestic competitions as well the European Cup and Knock out cup which help them but their losses aren't the same as football clubs and no clubs have yet been relegated to history books. I don't want to see a merge between the two codes as rugby is now a global game and the money involves is massive and then there the Olympics and many more to come.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Harry at last what a realistic post,you should have been the first response and we would not have had some of the inane responses that have since ensued..
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
And the reason NRL crowds and Tv ratings are down,is mainly due to the poor form of Broncos,Eels,Dragons and Tigers all with a big support base.eg if the eels and dragons had been in the top 4 ,the game would have been on a Friday night and had big Tv ratings. Many of the faithful complaining!!,You sure get around Greg.Like any sport people complain at times about the style of play,their team is playing ordinarily. RL participation is at record levels in this country and the base is growing again in NZ. S15 crowds are dropping in NZ.Does that mean the masses feel the game is boring.Not all the English ru clubs are doing well financially and even a few French clubs are feeling the financial pinch. Why would rugby league want to merge with union.Union is still putting obstacles in the way of rl in some countries eg Morocco of late. The RLWC 2013 looks a certain financial success.Profits go to uinternational development,as they did from the 2008 proceeds. The code now gets stage 3 approval for entrée into the Commonwealth games a first step due to its expansionary and development work in the commonwealth.And the code is played in more countries than ever before.It gets financial grants from the Eurozone group. And out of left field,the South African RL is putting a bid in for the next RLWC. All this done without IRB involvement,so why the hell would rugby league want to merge with union.
Davey
Guest
As much as some hate the IRB, rugby union wouldn't be where it is now if it wasn't for their hard working and at times their hard nose and slow motion approach. Thanks to the IRB the game would have just been run by a few professional rugby clubs and probably confined in some parts of a few countries. I rather the IRB decide what laws changes would takes affect even if its take times if all members agreed instead of whats happening in league where Australia very much does what it likes with rugby league rules without approaching other RL playing nations. No, I don't want rugby union to have different countries playing different sets of rules to others or two referees in some countries and one in others. The IRB is what keep rugby together and its the IRB that got the sport back in the Olympics, commonwealth games and so on. Thanks to the IRB they waited till rugby was strong enough to have more than 10 strong nations that will participate in a true world cup and not have a four nations world cup taking four to five years to complete at times.
Davey
Guest
No, The idea is the work of former rugby league and rugby union players/coaches Bob Fulton, Paul Gibson, Mark Ella and Bob Dwyer and probably the packing of some television broadcasters who will only be the one benefit in such games.
Davey
Guest
There is no such trophy as the rugby world cup. You will be struggling to find any articles that links the word "rugby world cup" to rugby league as mention by a rugby league historian. The rugby league world cup was called rugby league world championship or just rugby league world cup and this evident in many newspapers articles from tournaments in the 60's and 70's. I think there's a reason why the RFL didn't use rugby world cup and rightly so. RLWC should do well given the price of tickets is fairly cheap compare to other major events.
Steve
Guest
Why not go the opposite direction and give it an even more easily confused name? You could call it 'Horse Racing'.
harry hopworthy
Guest
Rugby is Rugby Union, and League is Rugby League. RUGBY UNION and RUGBY LEAGUE .
The Pivotonian
Guest
Call it Tackleball. Or NRL.
Von Neumann
Roar Guru
Its rugby league. I suggest we all get used to that. The only way to change it would be to introduce a slang term and have it driven into the culture over a generation or two. It would need to be a super duper slang term. Not your average run of the mill........nah really, its rugby league - get used to it.
Steve
Guest
Now be fair. Adelaide and Perth may have small populations but what they *do* have is.... ........wait..... ....hang on........ .....I'm sure there was something........ .....oh yes, they're only a moderately long flight away from NSW.
Steve
Guest
Union and Soccer are also 'Pommy Rules', ya dafty!
Steve
Guest
I think there's a town in Warwickshire, and an even more famous school, that might have something to say about that!
Steve
Guest
I guess, to be charitable, we could assume he meant 'I never watch League, so I do, technically, see more running the ball in Rugby'. If he's saying there actually *is* more running the ball in Union than League, he's either a liar or a fool.
liquor box
Guest
during the ten or more phases the ball is actually in play and being contested, rugby is based on contesting for the ball. Whether it be a lineout, scrum, maul or ruck, the idea is to gain control of the opponents ball or at a minimum put them into a position of weakness where they elect to kick the ball to a safer part of the field in which they will try to get the ball back off you. Ever since league stopped the ability of a marker to strike at the play the ball League has essentially had a few hundred time outs between the time the referee call held and when the dummy half touches the ball. League might as well have a shot clock of sorts where you have to give the ball to your opponent for no reason just to give them a crack. It is a shame that people on forums cant like both games.