Rugby league in Russia
Rugby League is a popular team sport played in Russia.
 | This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by POds (talk | contribs) 19 years ago. (Update timer) |
 | This rugby league football article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Popularity
The code endured a poor image in its humble beginnings, due to the shortage of expert coaching and development, which resulted in a lacked finesse of the early pioneering rugby league players. However, the game is considered to suit Russia's sporting culture, and has a good chance of surpassing rugby union in popularity.
In most recent years, the Russian Rugby Football League (RRFL) has found its self with out a major financier and the RRFL is finding it hard to find some one to fill this spot. The international rugby board is also perusing Russian Rugby interests, along with China, Japan and the USA, in an attempt to turn these nations into Rugby super powers. This will undoubtedly have a large effect on Russian rugby league.
The National Team
Main Article: Russia national rugby league team
The national Russian rugby league team is known as the Bears and represents russia at international rugby league tournaments.
History
Rugby league was first introduced to the Soviet Union prior to WWI. The exact date of it's inclusion is not known and perhaps because the game seized to be played until the 1980s. In those times, A Mr. Taturyan used Moscow's rugby schools to form rugby league teams whilst also supervising the expansion of the game out side of the capital. The work by Mr. Taturyan allowed the game to become established before the on set of the end of communism, which if it had not, would have made it nearly impossible to start a new sport in Russia after 1991.
Despite the lack of funds, rugby league grew steadily throughout the 1980s and the Russian Rugby Football League was established in 1990. The new league was further helped when several clubs switched from rugby union, allegedly after watching a single match of rugby league on BBC television. The 1990s and early 21st Century has seen Russia play several internationals including the 2000 Rugby league world cup and the Victory Cup.