Rugby League or Rugby Union

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Stemming from the 19th century, rugby was born at a boarding school in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire. Yet since around the same time a split was made in allegiances between what is now called rugby league and rugby union. While both games share the same origin they are vastly different in how they are played.


The rules of rugby league encourage a faster, more spectator-friendly kind of game. One of the main differences is that league has disallowed several opportunities for possession to be contested that union has retained such as contesting a ball after the tackle and on the ground in rucks and in mauls. Therefore in rugby league there are much fewer stoppages in play and the action and flow is kept pretty constant.

As a comparison league has the ball, on average, around 50 minutes out of 80 minutes compared to rugby union which typically has the ball in play for only 35. Also rugby league has thirteen men on the field while rugby union has fifteen. It is because of this that rugby league is most commonly thought of as a more physically demanding sport.

Even the field is different between the two sports. The union field is 144 metres long by 70 meters wide while the league field is 112 metres long by 68 metres wide. Both fields have a goal post though in the shape of a letter 'H' used for field goals, penalty goals and conversions.

Rugby league is also a much simpler game for the spectator to understand. The rules of league are fewer linguistically as well. The number of words in the rules for rugby league ranks up to 21,000 while in rugby union is gets to a staggering 35,000.

Although the rules and field of play are different, the popularity of both variations of the sport demonstrate that the sport is popular enough to sustain both varieties. While currently the rugby world cup and the six nations cup is rugby union, making those sporting events the dominant rugby tournaments in the world, league has a large following as well. Whether it is rugby league or rugby union though, both show an incredible amount of athleticism for the rugby player and fun for the rugby enthusiast.