Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league or simply league, rugby, football, or footy, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres wide and 112–122 metres long.
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, the Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from 3 countries: Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. At its peak the tournament featured the top players from nations representing 16 of the 24 top-three finishes in the history of the Rugby World Cup. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 and beyond will only include Australian and New Zealand clubs.
Canberra Stadium, known also as Bruce Stadium is a facility primarily used for rugby league, soccer and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The GIO Stadium Canberra is the largest sports venue by capacity in Canberra.
Super League was an Australian rugby league football administrative body that conducted professional competition in Australia and New Zealand for one season in 1997. Along with Super League of Europe, it was created by News Corporation during the Super League war which arose following an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the pay television rights to rugby league in Australia. After two years of legal battles the competition was played for a single season in 1997 alongside the rival Australian Rugby League (ARL) competition before the two merged in 1998 to form the National Rugby League (NRL).
The Rugby Football League is the national governing body for professional rugby league in England. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisation. This has since been supplanted by Super League, the Championship and League 1.
The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super League competition in 1997 and the second in the first season of the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. The Rams were not a successful club, winning only 13 out of 42 games. However crowd numbers in the first season were the fifth highest of any first-grade club that year, but dwindled to sixteenth in the second season. The Adelaide club was shut down at the end of the 1998 season as a result of poor on-field performances, dwindling crowd numbers, financial losses and a reduction in the number of teams in the NRL. They remain the only team from the state of South Australia to have participated in top-level rugby league in Australia.
The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. Previously known as the Rugby League Imperial Board, the International Rugby League Board and latterly the Rugby League International Federation, the IRL is responsible for the Laws of the Game, the development, organisation and governance of rugby leagues internationally, and for the sport's major international tournaments; most notably the Rugby League World Cup.
The Fiji national rugby league team, nicknamed the Bati, has been participating in international rugby league football since 1992. The team is controlled by the governing body for rugby league in Fiji, Fiji National Rugby League (FNRL), which is currently a member of the Asia-Pacific Rugby League Confederation (APRLC). Fiji have thrice reached the semi-finals of the Rugby League World Cup, in 2008, 2013 and 2017, and are currently ranked 5th in the International Rugby League's World Rankings. They are coached by Fijian Joe Dakuitoga, who was appointed in August 2020, and their captain is Kevin Naiqama.
Bradley Carnegie Thorn is a rugby union coach and former rugby league and rugby union player. Born in New Zealand, he represented Australia in rugby league and New Zealand in rugby union in a 22-season career as a player. He is currently the head coach of the Queensland Reds.
The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve grade competition, and is now the premier open age competition in the state. The NSW Cup was the Reserve Grade/Presidents Cup/First Division from 1908 until 2002, and the NSWRL Premier League from 2003 to 2007, the New South Wales Cup from 2008 to 2015, the Intrust Super Premiership NSW from 2016 to 2018, the Canterbury Cup NSW from 2019 to 2020. The New South Wales Cup, along with the Queensland Cup, acts as a feeder competition to the National Rugby League premiership.
Paris Saint-Germain Rugby League, commonly known as Paris Saint-Germain and familiarly as PSG Rugby League or PSG RL, was a French professional rugby league club founded in 1995, and based in the city of Paris in France. The club was the rugby league department of Paris Saint-Germain until 1997.
The 1997 Super League season was a breakaway professional rugby league football competition in Australia and the only one to be run by the News Limited-controlled Super League organisation. Eight teams which had broken away from the existing Australian Rugby League, in addition to the newly created Hunter Mariners and Adelaide Rams, competed over eighteen weekly rounds of the regular season. The top five teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
The "Barassi Line" is an imaginary line in Australia which divides areas where Australian rules football is the most popular football code from those where rugby league and rugby union dominate. It was first used by historian Ian Turner in his "1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture". Crowd figures, media coverage, and participation rates are heavily skewed in favour of the dominant code on both sides of the line.
For a listof premiers and grand finals of the NRL and its predecessors, see List of National Rugby League Premiers. For a list of Brisbane Rugby League premiers during its time as a top tier competition, see Brisbane Rugby League premiership.
A test match in rugby league football is a representative match between teams representing members of the Rugby League International Federation.
Rugby league in South Australia describes the sport of Rugby league, which is played at amateur level in the state of South Australia.
The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s.
The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Football League Limited and succeeded the Australian Rugby Football League Board of Control which had been formed in 1924. Since its inception, the ARL has administered the Australian national team and represented Australia in international rugby league matters. Prior to 1998, the code in Australia had been principally administered by individual state leagues on a domestic basis, and the ARL on a national and international basis.
The Hunter Mariners were an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Hunter Region's largest city, Newcastle. Hunter was formed in mid-1995 and was later disbanded at the end of 1997. The club was formed because of the Super League war, which was the rivalry between the traditional Australian Rugby League competition and the new media driven Super League competition. The team competed in the inaugural and only Super League season in 1997, as well as that year's World Club Challenge.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the sport of rugby league in both the northern and southern hemispheres with the two major league competitions suspended for periods and numerous other leagues and cup competitions cancelled or abandoned.
