Geography of rugby league
Open-knowledge reference entry
Rugby league is a full contact football code and spectator sport played in various countries around the world. It is govererned globally by the International Rugby League (IRL; previously referred to as the Rugby League International Federation).
The IRL divides governance of the sport across two confederations governing Asia-Pacific (APRL) and Europe (ERL). The ERL further contains two sub-branches governing The Americas and Middle East and Africa.
Although one of the later football codes to be developed, the game has expanded outside of its traditionals heartlands in Australia, Northern England, Southern France, and New Zealand. As a result, many players of European, and Pacific Islander background have risen to the top professional level in the two major domestic leagues, the National Rugby League and Super League.
Whilst individual international test matches between nations have been staged regularly since 1907, the first world cup of the sport was held in France in 1954, making it the first world cup of either rugby code and the first to be officially known as the "Rugby World Cup".
Full and affiliate members are eligible for the Rugby League World Cup. However, due to the late rescheduling of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, only full members will be allowed to compete in the next edition.
Americas
Rugby league is a growing sport in the Americas, having first started with All Star exhibition matches in the 1950s.
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This entry incorporates text from “Geography of rugby league” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.