Great Britain national rugby league team
From Freepedia
Great Britain is one of the major national teams playing rugby league. The team is administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), and is commonly nicknamed the 'Lions' or 'Great Britain Lions'. The team has also been known as 'Great Britain and Ireland'. The RFL has announced that as of 2008, the Great Britain team will be retired, and that players will be able to represent England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland at the Test level.
There is some confusion as to whether the Lions represent Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), the United Kingdom (which includes Northern Ireland) or the British Isles (Great Britain and Ireland); see below for more on this.
Great Britain's most recent match was against Australia on 27 November, 2004. Their next scheduled match is against New Zealand in London on 29 October, 2005.
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Competitions
Great Britain have traditionally been one of the strongest teams in rugby league, though usually playing second fiddle to Australia. They have won the Rugby League World Cup on three occasions: 1954, 1960 and 1972. Since 1995 the RFL have preferred to send the home nations as separate teams for world cup purposes.
Great Britain continue to compete as test playing nation both home and away (unlike the British and Irish Lions rugby union team, who are a touring only team playing sporadically). They compete against Australia for The Ashes, and New Zealand for the Baskerville Shield, as well as playing series and tours against other nations such as France and Papua New Guinea. Great Britain also play in the Tri-Nations.
Titles, selection and identity
As stated above, there is some confusion as to which “nation” the Lions represent.
The team was orginally known as the Northern Union XIII in reference to the name of the sport's governing body. After 1922 the name "The Lions" was first used. In 1948 the team became known as Great Britain for the Ashes Series. During the 1990s the Rugby Football League expanded this to Great Britain and Ireland, and the jersey bore the name British Isles XIII. In 2004 the "...and Ireland" was dropped from the title, and Great Britain was used on the jersey, however, the Irish shamrock continues to form part of the RFL's crest. Players from the Republic of Ireland have been selected to play for Great Britain, one recent example being Cork-born Brian Carney.
At matches, the team is represented by the Union Flag and the singing of God Save the Queen, both symbols of the United Kingdom. The practice of a UK-wide team being called Great Britain has a precedent with the Great British Olympic team.
In Australia, the Great Britain team is often erroneously referred to as England, most notably by television commentator Phil Gould.
History
Great Britain have won the World Cup three times; on each occasion the largely English team enlisted significant help from Scots or Welshmen.
Results
See:
- Results from 1900-1940
- Results from 1940-1959
- Results from 1960-1979
- Results from 1980-1990
- Results from 1991 and beyond
See also
- Rugby League Ashes
- Baskerville Shield
- Rugby League World Cup
- Tri-Nations
- England national rugby league team
- Wales national rugby league team
- Scotland national rugby league team
- Ireland national rugby league team
External link
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