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Posted on 11/08/2013 2:19:52 AM PST by the scotsman

'There’s a World Cup on, America! And you’re a part of it!

The 2013 Rugby League World Cup is currently being played in England & Wales, and the United States Tomahawks are in Group D, along with Wales and the Cook Islands. But before we get into that, I need to clear up a few things.

Chiefly, Rugby League is not the sport that comes to mind when Americans think of “rugby.” The sport you’re thinking of is Rugby Union; Rugby League is its faster, looser cousin. There are only 13 players on a side, as opposed to Union’s 15, and instead of the famous “ruck and maul” that occurs in Union when a player is tackled, in League the tackled player tries his best to stand and “play the ball”* as the defense gets back and forms a line ten meters from the play-the-ball.

*It involves standing, placing the ball on the ground, and then using one foot to roll the ball to the guy standing directly behind you, called the “dummy-half,” and hoo boy I had no idea how ridiculous any of that was until I wrote it.

If the offense manages to get up and play the ball before all the defenders are back ten meters, it’s an off-side and the offense is awarded a penalty, and that’s just one of the constant running battles happening throughout the game.

But it’s how the offense can utilize those ten meters that makes League different to Union, where players have to make their own space by running incredibly large men into groups of other incredibly large men until someone collapses and makes room.'

(Excerpt) Read more at mancave.cbslocal.com ...

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