Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

is a comparatively minor sport in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, dwarfed by the popularity of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

, and to a lesser extent

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

and

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, and ...

. With the introduction of rugby league into a small number schools and the formation of youth rugby league in Scotland it has seen juniors being signed to

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

clubs.

History

In 1895, there was a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

within the game of rugby in neighbouring

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

which saw the sport of rugby divided. Rugby union remained amateur and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

permitted payments to players. However, no such split took place in Scotland where the clubs continued to play rugby union. 14 Scottish players would cross over and play rugby league in England before amateurism was abandoned. The history of rugby league in Scotland goes back to 1909 when the touring Australian team drew 17–17 with a Northern Rugby Football Union representative side at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

. A further match against the Australians followed at Tynecastle,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1911, again an 11–11 tie. After this the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

largely gave up on expansion north of the border. Nonetheless, a number of Scottish rugby union players, particularly from the

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political bo ...

region, moved south to play for English clubs. The numbers were not nearly so great as with Welsh players (see Rugby league in Wales), and a Scottish national team was never seriously considered, though Scots did feature for '' Other Nationalities'' and were eligible for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. Probably the most famous figure in Scottish rugby league during this period was

Dave Valentine David Donald Valentine (12 September 1926 – 14 August 1976) was a Scottish representative rugby union and World Cup winning rugby league footballer, a dual-code rugby international who played in the 1940s and 1950s, and coached in the 1960s ...

, who captained Great Britain to

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

victory in 1954. In 1989, a Scotland students side was formed at the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

, and this proved to be the catalyst for the formation of a number of other clubs. The national team first played in 1995, and a domestic league followed in 1997. In 2000 and 2002 the Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves a ...

Final was held at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often con ...

in Edinburgh, the home of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league ...

. In 2000

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is pre ...

defeated

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Head ...

24–18, and in 2002

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

beat St. Helens 21–12. Both ties were played in front of over 60,000 spectators, by far the biggest rugby league events ever held in Scotland.

Governing body

Scotland Rugby League is the governing body for rugby league in Scotland overseeing development and participation at all levels of the sport.

Competitions

Senior

The Scottish National League is the highest tier exclusively Scottish rugby league competition and comprises four teams: Aberdeen Warriors,

Ayrshire Storm Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshi ...

, Easterhouse Panthers, and Edinburgh Eagles. The league is governed by Scotland Rugby League, despite this it listed as a BARLA fifth tier regional league in the

British rugby league system The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League. There is no system of automatic promotion and relegation between all five tiers although teams have moved between them in the past. Since ...

. This allows for promotion and relegation between the different levels however there is no direct transfer and any promotion to higher levels of the pyramid is done by application to the

who operate the top three professional levels of the British system. Currently, no Scottish sides have played in the higher tiers of the pyramid.

Junior

The Saltire Schools Cup is a nationwide Scottish schools competition for boys and girls from S1–S4 school age groups. The National Youth League is competed for at under-17 and under-15 level.

Popularity

Rugby league is a contracting sport in Scotland largely caused by the reduction in funding from the RFL, attracting stagnating interest. In addition to the four clubs in the Scottish National League, there are a small number of other clubs. The majority of the clubs are based in and around Glasgow, and

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

provide funding for junior teams.

Media

There are two weekly rugby league newspapers, '' Rugby Leaguer & League Express'' and
League Weekly
', and two monthly magazines, '' Rugby League World'' and ''Thirteen Magazine''. These cover the sport worldwide and across the UK. These publications are usually only available by subscription in Scotland.

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside ...

own the rights to broadcast a highlights package called the '' Super League Show'' which was first broadcast in Scotland in 2008. Prior to this it had only been broadcast in the North of England. '' Rugby League Raw'' is not broadcast in Scotland despite the BBC owning the rights to do so. The BBC covers the Rugby League

from the rounds in which the top clubs enter.

BBC Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...

and

BBC Five Live Sports Extra BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live an ...

carry commentary from a selection of Super League matches each week,. Live

and

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

games are shown on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

Arena with highlights also being shown on the channel. From the 2022 season, 10 live

games per season will be shown on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, the first time the league will be shown on terrestrial television.

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

games are shown on Premier Sports, with one game a week being aird.

The national team

There are two Scottish teams selected: ''Scotland'' and ''Scotland A''. The Scotland team is predominantly second-generation

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

players, born and bred in

, whereas the Scotland A team (nicknamed "the Bravehearts") is selected from the domestic Scottish competition. Scotland has participated in the Emerging Nations Cup (1995), in every

since 2000, and European Nations Cup (since 2003) competitions. Since 2002, Scotland A has participated in the Amateur Four Nations competition and toured

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

References

External links

* {{Sport in Scotland