Lat's take Football for example. It is the most popular team game in Britain. It is played in most of the schools, and there are thousands of amateur teams for young men in all parts of the country. But for most of the public football is a professional game which is watched on saturday afternoons at the stadium.
Professional football is a big business. Every large town has one or more professional clubs.
Rugby football is played with an oval ball which may be carried in hands. The players of the other team try to stop the man running with the ball by throwing him on the ground. There are fifteen players in each team.
Sport competitions gather big crowds in Great Britan All people in Great Britan are ond of sport and Englishmen know that if they train hard Sport will make them strong and healthy.
. The team is administered by the
".
the Great Britain team would no longer compete on a regular basis, and that players would be able to represent
at Test level. It is planned that the Great Britain team will come together in future only for occasional tours.
Competitions
Great Britain were one of the strongest teams in rugby league, though usually playing second fiddle to
Australia. They 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 continued to compete as a test playing nation both home and away (unlike the
British and Irish Lions rugby union team, who are a touring team that play every four years). They competed against Australia for
the Ashes, and
New Zealand for the
Baskerville Shield, as well the
Tri-Nations series with both Australia and New Zealand. Great Britain also played in series and tours against other nations such as
France,
Papua New Guinea and
Fiji.
Titles, selection and identity
The team was originally 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 Northern Ireland, and the jersey bore the name
British Isles XIII. In 2004 the words "
...and Northern Ireland" were dropped from the title, though the Irish shamrock continued to form part of the RFL's
crest and
British Isles XIII remained on the jersey. At matches, the team was 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, though the formal name of the Olympic team includes "and Northern Ireland". The team continued to compete until the
2007 All Golds Tour: henceforth, the Great Britain team will now be reserved for Lions tours of the
Southern Hemisphere. According to Richard Lewis, chairman of the Rugby Football League:
- "It will bring consistency. What I am passionate about is the international game being consistent. To me, it has always been illogical that we play as Great Britain for three or four years, and when the World Cup comes along, suddenly we become England. In the major competitions, which will be most years, we will play as England. That will also allow Scotland and Wales to develop. We have then floated the concept of Great Britain to tour in 2010. It would be a tour as opposed to playing a formal competition, and I wouldn't restrict that to just Australia and New Zealand." [2]
- "Next year (2007) will be the last time Great Britain will play. They will be England after that."[1]
History
Initially Great Britain were represented by a team made up of players from the
Northern Rugby Football Union, known simply as the "Northern Union" side. Their first ever match was a win against a touring
New Zealand side in January, 1908. The following season Great Bitain played host to the
Australian side. The Northern Union's first match against the Kangaroos was a 22-all draw.
In June, 1910 the Northern Union embarked on its successful
first tour of Australasia.
Great Britain defeated a touring Australian side 2-1 in the
1921–22 Rugby league Ashes series.
The team travelled to Australia again on the
HMS Indomitable in 1946 for the first post-war tour.
In 1954 the first ever
Rugby League World Cup was held in France and Great Britain were the winners. They came second in the 1957 World Cup in Australia and history was made when the returning French and British squads visited South Africa and played a series of exhibition matches in
Benoni,
Durban and East
London, all of which were won by the British.
The Lions won the next World Cup in 1960.
In 2002 Great Britain suffered their wost ever defeat at the hands of the Australians when they went down 64-10 in Sydney.
More recently, Great Britain enjoyed a three nil series whitewash of the touring New Zealand side in the
2007 All Golds tour
References
