Popularity
Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea and is commonly referred to as the national sport. In a nation where communities are far apart and many people live at a minimal subsistence level, rugby league has been described as a replacement for tribal warfare as a way of explaining the local enthusiasm for the game (a matter of life and death).
The annual Australian State of Origin matches are the most watched sporting event of the year. Australian rugby league players who have played in the annual (Australian) State of Origin clash, which is celebrated feverishly every year in Papua New Guinea, are among the most well known identities throughout the nation.
During the 2000 Rugby League World Cup an estimated audience of 2 million watched the Kumuls lose to the Welsh Dragons in the quarter finals in the early hours of the morning local time. Despite this loss over 50,000 fans welcomed the team at Port Moresby Airport later that week.
Read more about this topic: Rugby League In Papua New Guinea
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
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—David Mamet (b. 1947)
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—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“Here also was made the novelty ‘Chestnut Bell’ which enjoyed unusual popularity during the gay nineties when every dandy jauntily wore one of the tiny bells on the lapel of his coat, and rang it whenever a story-teller offered a ‘chestnut.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)