Rugby League in Australia

Rugby League In Australia

Rugby league football is one of the most popular sports in Australia. It is the dominant winter sport on the country's eastern seaboard, including the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory, which together comprise around half of the country's population. In 2009, it was the most watched sport on Australian television, with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers. The elite club competition is the National Rugby League (NRL), which features ten teams from New South Wales, three teams from Queensland, and one team each from Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand.

Australia has a rich history of rugby league, first taking up the sport in 1908 alongside people in Britain and New Zealand. The rule changes over the decades that have made it evolve into a different game to the existing rugby football have been partly instigated in Australia as well. The country has been dominant over the other rugby league-playing nations for many years, but enjoys a strong rivalry with New Zealand.

Commonly known "League" or simply "football", and sometimes referred to as "the greatest game of all", it is traditionally seen as a "working man's sport" with its roots in the working class communities of Northern England, compared to rugby union which has its roots in prestigious English public schools. The Australian Rugby League, the sport's governing body in Australia, is working on ways to expand rugby league's popularity across political and social boundaries.