Rugby league: Difference between revisions

In England, rugby league has traditionally been associated with the northern counties of [[Yorkshire]], [[Lancashire]] and [[Cumbria]] where the game originated, especially in towns along the [[M62 motorway|M62 corridor]].<ref name="heartlands"/> Its popularity has also increased elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite news|publisher=''BBC Sport''|title=Interest growing in Conference |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/2266867.stm |accessdate=14 December 2008|date=14 December 2008 | first=Dave | last=Woods}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|publisher=''Active Surrey''|title=Rugby League Activity |url=http://www.activesurrey.com/content-1973 |accessdate=14 December 2008|date=14 December 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|publisher=''Rugby Football League''|title=Engage Super League Attracts Strong Viewing in 2008 |url=http://therfl.co.uk/~therflc/home/news_item.php?id=10137 |accessdate=14 December 2008|date=14 December 2008}}</ref> Currently, one of the twelve [[Super League]] teams are based outside of these traditional counties: [[Catalans Dragons]]. Figures published by the [[Rugby Football League]] showed an 81% increase in women playing the sport in the twelve months prior to October 2008, as well as an increase in juniors of both genders nationwide.<ref name="EnglandRLfigures">{{Cite news|publisher=''England Rugby League''|title=National Campaign Launched |url=http://www.englandrl.co.uk/~englandr/video.php?id=11934 |accessdate=14 December 2008|date=14 December 2008}}</ref> Over 40,000 players were registered by the RFL as of October 2008 with an overall participation rate in the game doubling in the last four years to well over 285,000 by late 2009.<ref name="EnglandRLfigures" /> Rugby league has traditionally been the second largest spectator sport in England, after football, for the entire twentieth century (with a highest attendance of 6.8 million spectators in the 1948-1949 season).

 

France first played rugby league as late as 1934, where in the five years prior to the [[Second World War]], the sport's popularity increased as Frenchmen became disenchanted with the state of French rugby union in the 1930s.<ref name="BBCFranceHistory">{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2307043.stm|title=French rugby league fights for rights|publisher=news.bbc.co.uk (BBC News)|accessdate=18 July 2009|last=Schofield|first= Hugh| date=8 October 2002}}</ref> However, after the Allied Forces were defeated by Germany in June 1940, the [[Vichy regime]] in the south seized assets belonging to rugby league authorities and clubs and banned the sport for its association with the left-wing [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] government that had governed France before the war.<ref name="BBCFranceHistory" /> The sport was unbanned after the [[Liberation of Paris]] in August 1944 and the collapse of the Vichy regime, although it was still actively marginalised by the French authorities until the 1990s.<ref name="BBCFranceHistory" /> Despite this, the national side appeared in the finals of the 1954 and 1968 World Cups, and the country hosted the 1954 event.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rugbyleagueplanet.com/RLP/Worldcup/1954worldcup.htm|title=Rugby League Planet – 1954 Rugby League World Cup|publisher=www.rugbyleagueplanet.com|accessdate=18 July 2009|last=|first=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rugbyleagueplanet.com/RLP/Worldcup/1968worldcup.htm|title=Rugby League Planet – 1968 Rugby League World Cup|publisher=www.rugbyleagueplanet.com|accessdate=18 July 2009|last=|first=}}</ref> In 1996, a French team, [[Paris Saint-Germain Rugby League|Paris Saint-Germain]] was one of eleven teams which formed the new European Super League, although the club was dissolved in 1997.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/print.php?type=N&item_id=718|title=Step Back in Time: Catalans (H)

|publisher=wigan.rlfans.com (cherryandwhite.co.uk)|accessdate=18 July 2009|last=|first=}}</ref> In 2006, the Super League admitted the [[Catalans Dragons]], a team from [[Perpignan]] in the southern [[Languedoc-Roussillon]] region.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/3748507.stm|title=French join Super League|publisher=news.bbc.co.uk (BBC Sport)|accessdate=18 July 2009|last=|first= | date=26 May 2004}}</ref> They have subsequently reached the [[2007 Challenge Cup Final]] and made the play-offs of the 2008 [[Super League XIII]] season. The success of the Dragons in Super League has initiated a renaissance in French rugby league, with new-found enthusiasm for the sport in the south of the country where most of the [[Elite One Championship]] teams are based. In other parts of Europe the game is played at semi professional and amateur level.