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Rugby football, as a catch-all term, may refer to two related but separate team sports: Rugby League and Rugby Union.
Rugby League has become a popular professional and amateur sport in some regions of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Semi-professional rugby league tournaments take place in France, Russia and many Pacific Island nations. Papua New Guinea regards rugby league as its national sport.
Nine "major" unions dominate rugby union: Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, ScotlandScotland or in Scottish Gaelic, Alba is a country and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom. Scotland occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland took part in a p, South AfricaSouth Africa is a republic at the southern tip of Africa. It is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the north-east by Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is contained entirely inside the borders of South Africa. South Africa is one o and WalesFor alternate meanings, see Wales (disambiguation Wales ( Welsh: Cymru pronounced /"k@mrI/ SAMPA, km IPA, 'Kumree' approximate pronunciation) is one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom (the other three being England, Scotland and Northern Ir. The "minor" union-playing nations include ArgentinaArgentina is a Spanish-speaking country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast and Chile in th, Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Namibia, Romania, Samoa, Spain, Tonga, United States and Uruguay. For further details see the List of international rugby union teams. Rugby Union ranks as the national sport of Wales, of New Zealand and of Pacific countries such as Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.
An old saying goes "Soccer is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen." Rugby union has a quite common image as a gentleman's sport: most private schools in rugby-playing regions play the union version of the game (often along with sports such as fencing and boxing). Rugby league, traditionally, has a reputation as a more "working class" pursuit.
Because of the nature of the games (full bodily contact with little or no padding), the rugby world frowns on unsporting behaviour, since even a slight infringement of the rules may lead to serious injury or even death. Because of this, governing bodies enforce the rules strictly.
Distinctive features common to both rugby games include the ovoid ball and the ban on passing the ball forwards, so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it.
Set-pieces of the Union game include the scrum, where packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the lineout, where lines of players attempt to catch the ball thrown from touch the area behind the touch-line (the sidelines).
In the League game, the scrum still exists, but with greatly reduced importance, and line-outs do not occur.
The main difference between the two games, besides League having teams of thirteen players and Union of fifteen, comes after tackles. Union players contest possession following the tackle, depending on the situation either a ruck or a maul occurs. League players do not contest possession: play continues after a tackle with a play-the-ball.
Scoring in both games occurs by achieving either a try or a goal. A try (at goal) involves grounding the ball over the goal line at the opponents' end of the field. A goal results from kicking the ball over the crossbar between the upright goalposts. Three different types of kick at goal can score points: the goal kick after a "try" has been awarded (which if successful becomes a conversion (of a try into a goal)); the drop kick; and the penalty kick.
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