A test match in rugby league football is a representative match between teams representing members of the Rugby League International Federation. [1]
The definition of a test match differs from that of an international match. [1] An international match can be played "between senior/open age or restricted age-level teams from different countries". [1]
Members of the international governing body can make their own recognition of a match as having test status. It is possible for a match to be considered a test by one side but not the other. Matches may also be given test status retrospectively by their governing bodies. [2]
A notable instance of a different in opinions of the status of past matches is a consequence of the Super League war. The Australian Rugby League does not recognise the games played in 1997 by the Australian Super League side against Great Britain and New Zealand. [3] The three sides were representing members of the Super League International Board, the ARL's rival. The five matches, two against New Zealand (the inaugural Anzac Test and an end of season match) and a three test tour of England against Great Britain (Super League Test series) are recognised by the Rugby League International Federation, Rugby Football League and New Zealand Rugby League as tests. [4] There have been calls for the Super League Tests to be included in the ARL's records but ARL Chief Executive Geoff Carr said in 2010, "All historians, and the NRL, agree this is the way it should be treated". [3] ARL historian David Middleton has stated that those players who joined Super League did so in the knowledge that they were forfeiting their chance of representing the established national team. [3]
The first official rugby league international took place on 1 January 1908 when Wales defeated New Zealand 9–8 at the Aberdare Athletic Ground in Aberdare, Wales in front of approximately 15,000 fans. The match was the 29th game of the 1907–08 All Golds tour. [5]
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 Ashes series, similar to the cricket series of the same name, is a best-of-three series of test matches between the English and Australian national rugby league football teams. It has been contested 39 times from 1908 until 2003 largely with hosting rights alternating between the two countries. From 1973 Australia won thirteen consecutive Ashes series. The series was set to be revived in 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Rugby Football League is the 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 Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the 'Northern Union game' in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League Commission, the Kangaroos are ranked second in the RLIF World Rankings. The team is the most successful in Rugby League World Cup history, having contested all 15 and won 11 of them, failing to reach the final only once, in the inaugural tournament in 1954. Only five nations have beaten Australia in test matches, and Australia has an overall win percentage of 69%.
Albert (Bert) Henry Baskerville was a Wellington postal clerk, a rugby union forward, author of the book "Modern Rugby Football: New Zealand Methods; Points for the Beginner, the Player, the Spectator" and a pioneer of rugby league.
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.
Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played for New South Wales in the first match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
Rugby league is a sport played in Wales. The governing body of the game in Wales is the Wales Rugby League.
This article contains information on rugby league played in 2007. The season commenced with the World Club Challenge and concluded with the New Zealand All Golds Tour in November.
Ernest Arthur "George" Anlezark, also known as Alec, was an Australian rugby league and rugby union player – a dual-code rugby international.
Women's Rugby League is the female-only version of the game rugby league football. There are currently clubs for female-only participation running in Australia, Great Britain, and New Zealand which are overseen by the various individual organisations of those separate countries and internationally by the Women & Girls Rugby League.
Dan Dempsey was an Australian rugby league national and Queensland state representative player. He played his career at hooker and is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Eric Weissel (;) (1903–1972) was an Australian rugby league footballer, a state and national representative goal-kicking five-eighth. He played his club career in country New South Wales and is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Frank Cheadle was an Australian pioneering rugby league footballer and AIF soldier who fell in World War I. A New South Wales interstate and Australian international representative centre, he was reputedly the first Sydney rugby union player to sign with the new breakaway league in its earliest formative days in late 1907. He played for New South Wales in the very first rugby match run by the newly created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.
The 1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the second ever Kangaroo tour and was actually a tour by an "Australasian" squad including four New Zealand players in addition to twenty-four Australian representatives. It took place over the British winter of 1911–12 and this time, to help promote the game of Rugby league in New Zealand, the Northern Rugby Football Union invited a combined Australian and New Zealand team. They became the first tourists to win the Ashes. and the last to do so on British soil for over half a century. The tour was a success in performance and organisation. Matches were well attended, the squad's touring payments were maintained throughout and the players all shared in a bonus at the tour's end.
The Super League International Board was the international governing body for Super League-aligned rugby league football nations between 1995 and 1998.
In rugby league football, the Laws of the Game are the rules governing how the sport is played. The Laws are the responsibility of the Rugby League International Federation, and cover the play, officiating, equipment and procedures of the game.
The 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the third ever Kangaroo tour. Again an Australasian side rather than an Australian team alone travelled to Great Britain to contest the Ashes. Coached by Arthur Hennessy and captained by Les Cubitt, the Kangaroos travelled on the RMS Tahiti to England for best-of-three series of Test matches against Great Britain for the Ashes. The tour took place during the 1921–22 Northern Rugby Football Union season and also featured matches against several of the clubs in that competition as well as other representative teams. The tour also involved some degree of player misbehaviour, with one young footballer almost sent home from San Francisco because of all the broken glasses following a drinking session on board the team's ship.
The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first international tour of the Great Britain national rugby league team, "The Lions". They played the second ever Ashes series against Australia, and their first as the visiting team, before travelling to Auckland to take on New Zealand. The tour was a huge promotional and financial success for what was then known as the "Northern Union" game and helped set the pattern for regular, alternating test match series between Britain and Australia. It is regarded as one of the most important events in the history of rugby league.
The Australasian rugby league team represented Australia and New Zealand in rugby league sporadically between 1910 and 1922. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, appearances for the team were counted towards the Australian team's records and playing register but not the New Zealand team's. The team toured Great Britain twice, participating in two Ashes series, and also played Great Britain twice in Sydney.
