Rugby League.. a guide to a newbie

[Fa'atau82]

Hi guys,



I follow Rugby Union but recently have bcome interested in RL and would like to know more about the Super League, who's who and what's what.



I haven't really followed RL since the days of Wigan and Martin Offiah as we don't really, have any teams down south here apart from Quins, who i follow in RU.



I see there is a World Cup on next year and am interested in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa (if they qualify) in particular. I saw Northern Union play All Golds (sounds weird not to be All Blacks) and really enjoyed the game.



I used to play RL at school until the age of 14, when for some reason our school only played RU.



Looks like the season's nearly finished (i don't follow RL at all to know) and would like to know more about RL.



Who can oblige?

 

[melon]

ESL starts at the beginning of February and finishes in mid October.

NRL starts mid March and concludes at the start of October.

Internationals between Australia and New Zealand Occur in April and October (1 for each match), then most years a tri-nations between Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain is played starting mid October though to late November.

Australia (#1 ranked team) beat New Zealand (#2 ranked team) 58-0 the other day. Half of Australia's team were on debut.


The game between the Northern Union and All Golds was a commemorative match of yesteryear.

In Britain in 1895 22 clubs decided to leave the Rugby Football Union and set up their own competition, the Northern Union. Its a long story but basically the Northern Union thought they should be payed for the time the players missed off work. This left 2 Unions in England and Wales, the Rugby Football Union and the Northern Rugby Football Union.

In 1907 the All Blacks were to tour England and Wales but instead of choosing to play against the RFU they decided that they'd play against the NRFU and be payed for it. As they were playing professionally (not allowed under RFU rules) they were nicknamed the all-golds. They then took this New, professional version of Rugby back to Australia and New Zealand.

The Northern Union (later to become Rugby League) played its first ever international against the All-Blacks (All Golds) in 1907 (100 years ago) so a special commemerative match between a team representing Great Britain (the Northern Union) and a team representing New Zealand (the All Golds), they even have an Australian playing to commemorate Dally Messenger playing for the 1907 All Golds. This was played on Saturday before the full GB vs New Zealand test series which will be happening over the next few weeks starts.
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[Fa'atau82]

Thanks mate.

I would have thought that a team like Fiji or Samoa would be very good at RL, as it is similar in some ways to Sevens, at which Fiji and more recently, Samoa have been very good at.

I keep hearing about this Maurie Faa'vasalu fella, who i know played for Manu Samoa in RWC 2003.

Wasn't there a team called London Broncos.. what happened to them?

 

[wigan_rlfc]

Wasn't there a team called London Broncos.. what happened to them?
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They came to some agreement with Harlequins and changed their name to Harlequins RL.