American Football (Gridiron) and Rugby League

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Rugby League and American football

In comparing American football (gridiron) and rugby league, legendary coach Jack Gibson summed it up as: "Same game, different rules".

Both codes were born from amateur rugby union in the last quarter of the 1800s, forging themselves into the 20th century's ball-carrying professional football codes.

Modern "football", in all its forms, has its roots in the Public Schools of 1800s England - each school and town had their own unique variations in rules.

Most allowed handling of the ball to varying amounts, but all shared the common objective of kicking the ball through the posts to score a goal.

Like-minded clubs formed alliances to codify their preferred football laws - soccer in 1863 and rugby union in 1871. American football began with the laws of rugby union in the 1870s, before quickly evolving under the mentoring of Yale's Water Camp, into a distinctly different form of ball-possession based football.

Rugby league was first played in England in 1895, then in Australia and New Zealand in 1908, after rugby union players, dissatisfied with the old English regime, struck out and formed the world's first professional rugby-based football code and club leagues (25 years before the NFL was founded in Canton, Ohio, in 1920).

While American football reduced its teams from rugby's 15 players a-side to 11, rugby league went with 13. Both games soon removed the rugby union rule which called for a scrum, maul or ruck after every tackle, replacing them with the "scrimmage" and "play-the-ball". Both codes evolved into becoming games based on maintaining possession and advancing territory.

Rugby league today has much in common with the rawness and spontaneity of "old school" American football - the footballers play both offence and defense, wear minimal protection, have six "downs" to advance the ball, and re-start play with a "play-the-ball" - a stream-lined version of the line of scrimmage.

The primary objective in rugby league is to carry the ball across the opponent's goal line to score a try (the equivalent of a "touchdown").

In simple terms, rugby league is American football devoid of the forward pass, while having much more frequent lateral ball-passing between team mates.

American football and rugby league – footballing brothers.

Original version of this article written for the South Sydney Rabbitohs RLFC for North American pre-publicity of "South Side Story" (2007)