Rugby and Australian rules Football players make NFL players look like a bunch of sissies. Don't understand the rules of either.
There are four codes of football played in Australia. They are Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Rules football and Soccer (Now officially known here as just plain "Football".)
Rugby Union, also known by those who play or follow it, as the "
game played in Heaven". Was the original form of the type of football played with an oval ball. More players on the field and when a player is tackled with the ball he must release it whilst on the ground for one of his team mates to pick up and continue advancing the ball up the field to score a "try" (like a touchdown but the ball must be placed on the ground in the in-goal area with a downward pressure of the hand). There is no tackle count and the team in possession controls the ball until they score or unless they fumble the ball (knock-on) or the ball or the player carrying the ball goes out over the sideline. The "scrum" in Rugby Union is a means by which certain members of the opposing team pack down in a pushing contest to get possession of the ball when it is fed into the middle of the scrum by one member of one of the teams. In Rugby Union and Rugby League the ball is always passed in a backward direction, never forward. RU is very popular in New Zealand and the NZ All Blacks are arguably the best team in the world in this form of the game.
Rugby League is a hybrid form of Rugby Union with the main difference being when a player is tackled in possession of the ball, he must be released by the tackler, get to his feet and "play the ball" to a member of his team who stands behind him, by raking the ball backwards with his foot. That player picks up the ball and attempts to advance it towards their try-line. A try in RL is scored in the same method as in RU. A RL team has only 5 tackles when they are in possession of the ball to attempt to score a try. After the 5th tackle, they must kick the ball down the field or kick it over the side-line
but not on the full. It must bounce inside the field of play first before going over the line. Metres are gained by this method.
RL is played in Great Britain and New Zealand, particularly in the north of England and Auckland in NZ.
To play State of Origin RL for Queensland or NSW, you must have commenced your football career in that state. You may have been born in Fiji, Samoa or Tonga but if you started your football in Brisbane, you can play for Qld. In Rugby League, Australia excells.
Australian Rules or Aussie Rules is played with an oval ball but is very similar to Gaelic Football which is played with a round ball. In Aussie Rules, the ball can be passed forward or back but must be punched with a closed fist or kicked. Scoring is by kicking the ball between 4 posts at each end of the field. 4 points if you kick it between the middle two posts and 1 point between the outer two. Don't know too much more about the rules of this game but I have always known it by it's derogatory name of "aerial pingpong". Aussie Rules is played mostly within Australia.
Soccer is soccer. The "World Game". Nuff said.
In Australia, the code of football one follows is dictated by where one lives.
If you live in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth or Hobart, you play and/or follow Aussie Rules, you just do!
If you live in Sydney or Brisbane, you play and/or follow Rugby League and to a lesser extent, Rugby Union. Typically, if you ever attended a University and hold a Uni. degree in something or another, you've played Rugby Union whilst you were studying. R.L. is looked down on by those guys who have letters after their name.
That's an abreviated explanation of the football codes popular in Australia. It's a shame the State of Origin game was not promoted more in the U.S. but then again, Russell Crowe is a bit of a wanker!
Go the Maroons
