Rugby union v rugby league. The two sports started the same and still share similarities, but they have spent more than a century as two separate codes.

With the Rugby League World Cup now underway in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, some rugby union fans may be confused about the absent lineouts, the scoring, the very different tackle laws and the total lack of flankers.

In this rugby union v rugby league guide, we’ll outline the differences and similarities between the two iterations of the game, as well as giving you a crash course in the history of the sport to explain how rugby became two codes in the first place.

Rugby Union v Rugby League: The basics

As both games have progressed over the years, there are now some key differences:

• In both sports you play for 80 minutes and must pass the ball backwards. Both are played on pitches with two try-lines, a halfway line, touchlines and dead ball line.
• In rugby union, there are 15 players on each team and in rugby league you have 13.
• The scrum is not utilised in the same way. The rugby union scrum is a full-blooded eight-player affair with two packs going at it, regular resets and the ability to drive your opposition back and win penalties. Conversely, in rugby league, competing in the scrum is only a surprise tactic. Six players make-up a rugby league scrum and teams tend to just fold their heads in the ball getting rolled in and out quickly as a way to restart the game. As in rugby union the scrum is used when there is a knock-on or forward pass, among other minor rule infringements.
• There are no lineouts in rugby league, and therefore also no mauls. After the ball goes out of play in rugby league, a tap-and-go kick is used to restart play.
• Instead of rugby union’s competitive ruck scenario that follows a tackle, rugby league has adopted the ‘play-the-ball’.  Once a tackle is completed, the tackled player gets back onto their feet, places the ball on the ground, steps over it and rolls it backwards using one of their feet. Confusingly, the term ‘ruck’ is still used – there is often space behind the ruck or play-the-ball in rugby league.

Lineouts are only a feature of rugby union. (Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)

• Rugby union pitches can have a maximum size of 144×70 metres and rugby league pitches can have a maximum side of 122.68 metres.
• In rugby union there are also ten-metre lines either side of the halfway line, a 22-metre line and five-metre line on the way to the try line.
• Rugby league pitches are marked out in ten-metre intervals. This helps referees with offsides as in rugby league the defending team must get back ten metres after every tackle, not just after a penalty is awarded as in rugby union. An unbroken red line marks the 40-metre point on either side of halfway – that helps with 40:20 kicks, which inspired the 50:22 idea in rugby union.

Many of these changes have seen rugby league maintain a longer ball-in-play time than rugby union and develop a reputation as what many see as a more exciting sport.

Rugby Union v Rugby League: The rules/laws

A try in rugby union is worth five points. (Elianton/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

There are also differences in the laws.

Points scoring

Rugby union and rugby league have exactly the same method of scoring a try (you have to ground the ball over the line) but there is a difference in the value of those scores:

Six tackles

Since 1972 rugby league has implemented the ‘set of six’ rule.

This rule means that the attacking team have six chances to make their way downfield and score a try. If the attacking team does not score within that set of six tackles, the attacking team must hand over possession to their opposition which is why you regularly see teams choosing to kick on the fifth tackle in a similar way to NFL teams punting on the fourth down.

Sin bin

Yellow cards in both sports result in a player spending ten minutes in the sin bin. Players receive a yellow card for foul play or indiscipline.  The use of the sin bin in rugby was inspired by rugby league, which introduced the concept in the 1980s. In 2000, the sin bin was used as an experiment in the Six Nations and written into the law book a year later.

That tendency for rugby union to learn from and adapt laws from rugby league has developed into a trend.

50:22/40:20

World Rugby introduced the 50:22 kick as a law trial in 2021 before it was fully adopted 12 months later.  This law allows the kicking team to retain possession when the ball exits play in the 22-metre of their opponents if they have kicked the ball from inside their own half (without carrying the ball back in themselves). This is derived from rugby league’s 40:20 kick, which occurs when an attacking player kicks the ball out of play in their opponent’s 20-metre line from behind their 40-metre line.

In both instances, the law is designed to reward teams for good kicking and allows them to regain possession with good field position.

Rugby Union v Rugby League: Substitutes, shirt numbers and positions

Elite rugby union squads are now made up of 23 players with 15 starters and eight replacements. All eight are allowed to be used and replacements can come on and off for Head Injury Assessments (HIA) and blood replacements, as they are not necessarily permanent substitutions.

In rugby league squads are made up of 17 players with 13 starters and four interchange players on the bench. It is most common for sides to be allowed eight interchanges per game, although in recent times there have been situations where more are permitted, for example in the case of a concussion. 

Sam Burgess played centre for England, six for Bath and anywhere in the pack in his rugby league career (Getty Images)

Positions/shirt numbers

In rugby union, the positions from shirts No 1 to No 15 are most commonly as follows: 1. Loosehead prop, 2. Hooker, 3. Tighthead prop, 4. Lock/second-row, 5. Lock/second-row, 6. Blindside flanker, 7. Openside flanker, 8. Number eight; 9. Scrum-half, 10. Fly-half, 11, Left wing, 12. Inside centre, 13. Outside centre, 14. Right wing, 15. Full-back.

In simple terms, rugby league effectively has no flankers – it’s their absence that accounts for the two-player discrepancy between the two codes. The positions are as follows: 8. Prop, 9. hooker/dummy-half, 10. Prop, 11. Second-row, 12 Second-row, 13. Loose forward/lock; 7. Scrum-half/half-back, 6. Stand-off/five-eighth, 5. Left wing, 4. Left centre, 3. Right centre, 2. Right wing, 1. Full-back.

Because the dummy-half acts more like a union nine, by passing the ball out from the play-the-ball, the scrum-half and stand-off operate more like two union fly-halves or ball-players, and often combine together. They may also play more with one on the left and one on the right.

Rugby Union v Rugby League: The history

After William Webb Ellis is said to have picked up a football at Rugby School in 1823, the game he invented became quite popular.

Rugby football clubs popped up around the world, but it was in England that the game began to become more codified when the Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871. In the north, rugby developed a reputation as a working-class sport, while in the south east, where the game was governed, it was for the middle classes.

As the game continued to grow it became apparent that people would pay to watch the best players in the country battle it out.

In 1892 a number of clubs in Bradford and Leeds were charged with professionalism after compensating their players for missing work. This was in some ways hypocritical as the RFU had compensated players who took part in the 1888 British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand and Australia. What followed is now known as “the schism”.

A thrilling scene in the Wigan goal during the Rugby League Cup Final, between Wigan and Dewsbury, at Wembley. (Puttnam /Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

For the next three years there were countless arguments and attempts of compromise, until 1895 when prominent clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire banded together (which is rare) to form the Northern Rugby Football Union. This was, effectively, the birth of rugby league as its own entity.

There were 22 clubs that initially broke away from the RFU and just nine years later the Northern Union had more affiliate clubs. In the years that followed the codes developed into their own sports, with union opting to have 15 players per team and league landing on 13.

As wages gradually increased in rugby league it began to pull across rugby union’s best players. With rugby union dragging its heels it was inevitable that the game at one point was going to become professional.

The real turning point came in 1995. Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer funded the World Rugby Corporation and signed the majority of All Blacks and Wallabies players to play in this breakaway from the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby). After the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the herculean efforts of Jonah Lomu in South Africa the IRB finally declared itself as an “open game” and opened the floodgates to professionalism.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Have rugby union and rugby league sides played each other?

Bath and Wigan face off in the clash of the codes, Rugby Union and League. (Mike Hewitt/Allsport)

Over the years there have been a number of occasions where rugby union has taken on rugby league. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Clash of the Codes which took place between union’s Bath Rugby and league’s Wigan RLFC in May 1996.

The two titans of English rugby went toe-to-toe over a pair of games, firstly playing rugby league at Maine Road and then rugby union at Twickenham a fortnight later. Rugby league was the overwhelming winner thanks to an aggregate score of 101-50.

Winning the rugby league match 82-6, Martin “Chariots” Offiah scored six tries in Manchester, as Jason Robinson dotted down twice and Scott Quinnell also crossed the try line. Wigan were captained by Shaun Edwards in the first game in the north west and Andy Farrell at Twickenham. Whatever happened to them?

Gallagher PREM side Sale Sharks have tried their hand at crossing codes too. In 2003, the Cheshire club took on St Helens at Knowsley Road, playing rugby union for the first half and rugby league in the second – quite literally a game of two halves.

While playing rugby union, the Sharks built up a 41-0 lead at the break, with tries from Mark Cueto, Steven Hanley, Ross Davies, Stuart Turner and Dean Schofield, along with the place-kicking of now England men’s senior assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth, helping propel the side ahead. In the second half, Sale did not fire a shot as St Helens scored 39 unanswered points, but they were unable to get the win.

More recently, Leeds Rhinos’ Headingley Rugby Stadium hosted the 745 Game in honour of the late Rob Burrow and all proceeds were donated to a number of different charities researching and supporting those affected by Motor Neurone Disease.

Developed by rugby league legend Burrow, former Gloucester captain Ed Slater and in recognition of Scotland and Lions legend Doddie Weir’s own battle with MND, it was a hybrid of rugby league and rugby union rules.

Former rugby union players Danny Cipriani, Billy Twelvetrees, Matt Banahan, Tom Youngs and Tom Wood pulled on their boots again alongside rugby league greats Danny McGuire, Gareth Ellis, Paul McShane, Luke Gale and Keith Senior.

At full-time, Rugby League Legends won 33-21 as Team Burrow edged Team Slater on an emotional day in West Yorkshire.

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