1.
Auckland
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Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the most populous area in the country. Auckland has a population of 1,495,000, which constitutes 32 percent of New Zealands population, a diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. It has also been called Ākarana, the Māori pronunciation of Auckland, the Auckland urban area ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the northwest, and Runciman in the south. It is not contiguous, the section from Waiwera to Whangaparāoa Peninsula is separate from its nearest neighbouring suburb of Long Bay, the surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with dozens of dormant volcanic cones. The central part of the area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the few cities in the world to have harbours on two major bodies of water. The isthmus on which Auckland resides was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich, Māori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in 1840, the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson and he named the area Auckland for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, British First Lord of the Admiralty. It was replaced as the capital in 1865, but immigration to the new city stayed strong, today, Aucklands Central Business District is the major financial centre of New Zealand. Auckland is classified as a Beta World City because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, education and tourism. Aucklands landmarks such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, the isthmus was settled by Māori around 1350, and was valued for its rich and fertile land. Many pā were created, mainly on the volcanic peaks, Māori population in the area is estimated to have been about 20,000 people before the arrival of Europeans. As a result, the region had relatively low numbers of Māori when European settlement of New Zealand began, there is, however, nothing to suggest that this was the result of a deliberate European policy. Auckland was officially declared New Zealands capital in 1841 and the transfer of the administration from Russell in the Bay of Islands was completed in 1842. However, even in 1840 Port Nicholson was seen as a choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island. After losing its status as capital, Auckland remained the city of the Auckland Province until the provincial system was abolished in 1876. Each of the four settlements had about 800 settlers, the men being fully armed in case of emergency but spent nearly all their time breaking in the land and establishing roads
2.
Fullback (rugby league)
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Fullback is one of the positions in a rugby league football team. Typically wearing jersey number 1, the fullback is a member of the teams back-line, the positions name comes from their duty of standing the furthest back in defence, behind the forwards, half backs and the three-quarter backs. Fullbacks are therefore the last line of defence, having to tackle any opposition players and it is for this reason that the fullback is also referred to as the sweeper or custodian. Being able to secure high bomb kicks is a sought after quality in fullbacks, fullback is also one of the most important positions in attack, handling the ball nearly every set of six and often running into open space on the field. Therefore, together with the two half backs and hooker, fullback is one of the four key positions that make up what is referred to as a teams spine. Because the fullback makes the most support runs, players in the role complete more very high-intensity running than any other position, the Rugby League International Federations Laws of the Game state that the fullback is to be numbered 1. However, traditionally players jersey numbers have varied, and in the modern Super League, fullbacks who feature in their respective nations rugby league halls of fame are Frances Puig Aubert, Australias Clive Churchill and Charles Fraser, Wales Jim Sullivan and New Zealands Des White. Churchills attacking flair as a player in the 1950s is credited with having changed the role of the fullback, Rugby league positions Rugby league gameplay
3.
Rugby league positions
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A rugby league football team consists of thirteen players on the field, with four substitutes on the bench. Each of the thirteen players is assigned a position based on both the role they are expected to fill within the team and the area they occupy on the field. In practice, the positions simply serve as a guideline as to the expected role in both attack and defence. Players are divided into two categories, forwards and backs. Forwards are generally chosen for their size and strength and they are expected to run with the ball, to attack, and to make tackles. Forwards are required to improve the field position thus creating space. Backs are usually smaller and faster, though a big, fast player can be of advantage in the backs and their roles require speed and ball-playing skills, rather than just strength, to take advantage of the field position gained by the forwards. Typically forwards tend to operate in the centre to the field, while backs operate nearer to the touch-lines, the laws of the game recognise standardised numbering of positions. The starting side normally wear the corresponding to their positions, only changing in the case of substitutions. In some competitions, such as Super League, players receive a number to use all season. For these positions, the emphasis is on speed and ball-handling skills, generally, the back line consists of smaller, more agile players. Numbered 1, the primary role is the last line of defence. Defensively, fullbacks must be able to chase and tackle any player who breaks the first line of defence and their role in attack is usually as a support player, and they are often used to come into the line to create an overlap in attack. There are four threequarters, two wingers and two centres, right wing, right centre, left centre and left wing. Typically these players work in pairs, with one winger and one centre occupying each side of the field, there are two wingers in a rugby league team, numbered 2 and 5. The wingers are the players positioned closest to the touch-line on each side of the field and they are generally among the fastest players in a team, with the speed to exploit space that is created for them and finish an attacking move. They are usually positioned just inside the wingers and are typically the second-closest players to the touch-line on each side of the field, in defence, they are expected to mark their opposite centre. Numbered 6, the stand off or five-eighth is usually responsible for directing the ball to the rest of the team in attack and is often a strong passer and runner
4.
London Broncos
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London Broncos R. L. F. C. are a professional rugby league club in Ealing, London, who compete in the Kingstone Press Championship, the second tier of professional rugby league football. They competed in the Super League from its introduction in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, the current head coach is Andrew Henderson, assisted by England and Great Britain internationals Jamie Langley and Danny Ward. The Broncos are captained by Daniel Harrison and play at the Trailfinders Sports Ground in Ealing, sharing with the union side Ealing Trailfinders. The club was formed as Fulham in 1981, entering the Rugby Football League Championships second division for the 1980–81 Rugby Football League season. The club has also known as London Crusaders, London Broncos. Whilst the club has never won a trophy, they were finalists in the 1999 Challenge Cup. The only trophy the club has won since its formation in 1980 is the Rugby Football League Championship Second Division in 1982–83, professional rugby league was briefly represented in London in the 1930s by London Highfield, Acton and Willesden and Streatham and Mitcham. All were speculative clubs set up by local businessmen purely as money making exercises, thereafter, the sport of rugby league in England remained exclusively a Northern game for over forty years until the formation of new club in London, Fulham. In 1980, Fulham Football Club chairman Ernie Clay, set up a league team at Craven Cottage. The Rugby Football League, keen to encourage the expansion of the sport beyond its traditional Northern heartland, one of the games leading players, Reg Bowden, was recruited by Genders to act as player-coach and the clubs first signing was Roy Lester on a free transfer from Warrington. Within nine weeks, Genders and Bowden had assembled a team of experienced players approaching retirement, nearly 10,000 Londoners turned up for the opening game at Craven Cottage to see the newly formed side convincingly beat highly regarded Wigan 24–5. The new Fulham RL team quickly proved to be very competitive, after their initial season, immediate relegation from the first division in 1981–82 was something of a reality check. However, with the backing of supporters Roy and Barbara Close and with a new coach, former player Roy Lester, most of the players had moved on as free agents and a new team began life at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. The club moved to Chiswick Polytechnic Sports Ground in 1985 and they also played several one-off games at football grounds around London such as Wealdstone, Hendon, Brentford and Chelseas ground Stamford Bridge in 1983. Bill Goodwin replaced Lester as coach between 1986 and 1987, in August 1986, Fulham hit a cash crisis and withdrew from RFL11 days before the start of the season but re-launched in September. Bev Risman was asked to be coach at Fulham in 1987, the team was in the bottom half of the second division. The team struggled for success and Risman left after a couple of seasons, phil Sullivan was coach for just two months between January and February 1989, Goodwin came in for his third spell and held the reins until May 1989 when Ross Strudwick was appointed. The club returned to Crystal Palace in 1990, a 1991 name change to London Crusaders coincided with a slightly more successful period on the pitch
5.
Doncaster R.L.F.C.
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Doncaster Rugby League Club is a professional rugby league football club, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. They play in the third tier League 1 and they have previously been known as Doncaster Dragons and Doncaster Lakers. They were also informally known as The Dons but it is now their official nickname. Professional rugby league first began in Doncaster during the buildup to the 1951–52 season, Doncaster played their first game on Saturday 18 August 1951 and began on a winning note, defeating Wakefield Trinity 10–3 at York Road Greyhound Stadium in front of a crowd of 7,600. Doncaster finished their season in eleventh position, they won 21, drew one. The club originally nicknamed The Dons played at the Doncaster Greyhound Stadium and this ground became the spiritual home of Doncaster Rugby League Club and was later renamed Tatters Field or Tattersfield as a mark of respect for the former chairman Len Tattersfield. From 1956–1961, Doncaster finished every season as the side in the Northern Rugby Football Union. The 1970s, and early 1980s proved to be no easier, bill Kenny was coach of the Dons between June 1980 – May 1981. In 1980, Yorkshire Television made a one-off documentary Another Bloody Sunday, John Sheridan became head coach of the Dons in 1984. The club had no money but Sheridan still managed to put one of the Dons best squads. He was replaced by his number-two Graham Hepptinstall after a few years and he was voted the most influential person in the clubs history by the Dons fans. On Sunday 1 September 1991, Third Division rugby was introduced into British rugby league, Doncaster entertained Nottingham City that day with the home side winning by a club record 88–6. Doncaster won 10–5 in their game away at Batleys Mount Pleasant. In 1994–95 Tattersfield was the venue for a game against Widnes, broadcast live on Sky Television, at that time, The Dons were at the top of Division 1. On 15 December 1994, Doncaster were already in trouble with debts of £1. 4m and were put into administration, the RFL took over the costs of running the club after an aborted attempt to merge the club with Sheffield Eagles. The Dons played their last game at Tattersfield on 23 April 1995, when a Rupert Murdoch funded Super League competition was proposed, part of the deal was that some traditional clubs would merge. Doncaster was to merge with Sheffield to form a South Yorkshire club that would compete in Super League. The following a year, a new club called Doncaster Dragons raised from the ashes of the previous club, with Tattersfield gone they temporarily shared Belle Vue Stadium with association football club Doncaster Rovers while Meadow Court Stadium was being prepared for rugby league
6.
Barrow Raiders
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Barrow Raiders R. L. F. C. is an English professional rugby league team from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, which is coached by Paul Crarey. The club was formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club, for the 1995-96 and 1996 seasons the club was known as Barrow Braves, adopting its current name for the 1997 season following a merger with Carlisle Border Raiders. Barrow Raiders compete in Kingstone Press League 1, the tier of European rugby league. It is thought that Tom H. Baynes, a clerk, was the driving force behind the clubs foundation. As well as being a player, he was also the first Barrow team coach. Early practice matches games were played in a field loaned by a farmer as well as the Parade Ground. At the 1883 annual general meeting, Cavendish Park got the vote over the Parade Ground as a permanent home on account of its playing surface. The first grandstand there was erected in 1893, and another one in 1893, in April 1897, the team switched from rugby union to rugby league following a unanimous vote at the club. Barrow joined the Second Division of the Lancashire Senior Competition and became champions in their first season and they lost a test match against Morecambe, the bottom club in the First Division, however, and failed to gain promotion. They were eventually promoted at the end of the 1899–1900 season, in 1908, the club nearly doubled their attendance record to 12,000 in a third round Challenge Cup match against Hunslet. In 1914, Cavendish Park was requisitioned by the authorities for the war effort, Barrow moved to Little Park, Roose, three miles from the centre of town. The first match there was a 31–2 victory over Bramley, the league at this time was suspended and clubs were forced to arrange their own fixtures in an unofficial war league. After World War I, Barrow had mixed fortunes and when the league resumed in 1919–20, however, over the next decade, despite having several county and national players, Barrows form suffered and its league position was poor. In 1929, it had been realised that rugby league in Barrow was approaching a precarious period and this was in part due to industrial depression but also Little Parks location. The directors made an appeal to the town, and approached the mayor, commander G. W. Craven, a local war hero, started an appeal fund with a donation of £500. In a short time the club bought a site, where the Jute Works stood for £2,500. Craven Park was built in 1931, largely as a result of the efforts of supporters,500 of whom volunteered to construct the ground, the total cost of the building project came to £7,500 which was an unbelievable figure in those days. 1937–38 saw Barrow reach the finals of the Lancashire County Cup for the first time and that season was a time of great opportunity for the Barrow team but was to end in disappointment
7.
Rugby league
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Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field. One of the two codes of football, it originated in England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players. Its rules gradually changed with the aim of producing a faster, in rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing teams goal line, this is called a try, and is the primary method of scoring. The opposing team attempts to stop the side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals, after each try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points. Kicks at goal may also be awarded for penalties, and field goals can be attempted at any time. Rugby league is a sport in Northern England, the states of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, New Zealand. The European Super League and Australasian National Rugby League are the club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian and Pacific Island countries, the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954, the current holders are Australia. The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a faction of Englands Rugby Football Union. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves rugby football leagues, in 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as rugby league football. In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union, within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution. In 1897, the line-out was abolished and in 1898 professionalism introduced, in 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball. A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Batemans Hotel in George Street. Rugby league then went on to rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales. On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover,1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played
8.
Otahuhu Leopards
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The Otahuhu Leopards are a rugby league club based in Otahuhu, Auckland. Founded in 1911, the club has produced 49 New Zealand Kiwis, the club competes in the Fox Memorial competition run by Auckland Rugby League. Otahuhu has won the Fox Memorial Shield 12 times, the Rukatai Shield 16 times, Roope Rooster 12 times, the Otahuhu Leopards were founded in 1911. In 1943, playing in blue and white, Otahuhu produced their first Fox side at Carlaw Park and by 1945 had won their first Fox, in 1946 their first Kiwi’s were selected, Toff Johnson and Claude Hancox. Otahuhu Leopards is where the famous Graham Lowe first made a name for himself coaching U18s in 1974 and becoming a first grade coach in 1977 and winning the Fox Memorial in his first year. With the creation of the Bartercard Cup in 2000 by the New Zealand Rugby League the Leopards were one of the seven Auckland sides invited to join. They dominated the competition in the season, finishing up Minor Premiers before going down to the Canterbury Bulls in the Grand Final. More heartbreak was to follow for the club, losing in the Elimination Play-Off, in 2004 the Counties Manukau Jetz replaced the Manurewa Marlins in the competition. As a result, the number of clubs involved with the Eastern Tornadoes increased, the Ellerslie Eagles left this franchise and joined with Otahuhu to form the Otahuhu Ellerslie Leopards. The club made the finals again, again losing in the Preliminary Final, in 2005 the club missed the finals for the second time in three seasons. In 2006 the number of Auckland Bartercard Cup sides was reduced from eight to five and this resulted in the Otahuhu-Ellerslie Leopards and the Eastern Tornadoes merging to form the Tamaki Leopards franchise. In 2007 the side was renamed the Tamaki Titans and finished fifth, the club competes in the Fox Memorial competition run by Auckland Rugby League. Otahuhu has won the Fox Memorial Shield 12 times, the Rukatai Shield 16 times, Roope Rooster 12 times, the Otahuhu Club has had a long and proud history of producing top quality rugby league players
9.
New Zealand national rugby league team
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The New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are known as the Kiwis. The teams colours are majority black with white and the players perform a haka before every match they play as a challenge to their opponents. The New Zealand Kiwis won the most recent Four Nations competition in 2014 and, since the 2015 Anzac Test, since the 1980s, most New Zealand representatives have been based overseas, in the professional National Rugby League and Super League competitions. Before that players were selected entirely from clubs in domestic New Zealand leagues, since then the Kiwis have regularly competed in international competition, touring Europe and Australia throughout the 20th century. New Zealand have competed in every Rugby League World Cup since the first in 1954, in 2008 New Zealand won the World Cup for the first time. They also contest the Baskerville Shield against England, and play an annual Anzac Test against Australia, Rugby football was introduced into New Zealand by Charles John Monro, son of the then speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, Sir David Monro. He had been sent to Christs College, East Finchley in north London and he brought the game back to his native Nelson, and arranged the first rugby match between Nelson College and Nelson Football Club, played on 14 May 1870. When New Zealands national rugby team toured Britain in 1905 they witnessed the growing popularity of the breakaway non-amateur Northern Unions games, on his return in 1906, All Black George William Smith met the Australian entrepreneur J J Giltinan to discuss the potential of professional rugby in Australasia. The first New Zealand team to play rugby was known as the All Blacks. To avoid confusion, the terms professional All Blacks or All Golds are used, in the meantime, a lesser known New Zealand rugby player, Albert Henry Baskerville was ready to recruit a group of players for a Great Britain pro tour. It is believed that Baskerville became aware of the profits to be made such a venture while he was working at the Wellington Post Office in 1906. A colleague had a fit and dropped a British newspaper. Baskerville picked it up and noticed a report about a Northern Union match that over 40,000 people had attended, Baskerville wrote to the NRFU asking if they would host a New Zealand touring party. The 1905 All Blacks tour was still fresh in English minds, thus the NU saw the upcoming competitive New Zealand tour as exceptional opportunity to raise the profile, the NU agreed to the tour provided that some of those original All Blacks were included in the New Zealand team. George Smith arrived back in New Zealand and after learning of Baskervilles plans, the New Zealand Rugby Union became aware of the tour and promptly applied pressure to any All Black or New Zealand representative player it suspected of involvement. They had the New Zealand Governments Agent General in London deliver a statement to the British press in an effort to undermine the tours credibility. This had little effect and by time the professional All Blacks were already sailing across the Tasman to give Australia its first taste of professional rugby
10.
Eastern Tornadoes
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The Eastern Tornadoes were a New Zealand rugby league franchise that competed in the New Zealand Rugby Leagues Bartercard Cup and Auckland Rugby Leagues Super 12 competitions. They were formed to represent the league clubs of East Auckland. The Eastern Tornadoes were formed in 1999 to compete in the Auckland Rugby Leagues Super 12 competition and they were a merger of the Mt Wellington, Otara and Pakuranga senior sides. In 2000 they joined the new national Bartercard Cup competition, the team originally included players from the Ellerslie Eagles but in 2004 they joined the Otahuhu Leopards to form the Otahuhu Ellerslie Leopards, being replaced by the Manurewa Marlins. In 2006 the competition was revamped and they were merged with the Otahuhu Ellerslie Leopards to form the Tamaki Leopards, notable players included, Jeremiah Pai, Gary Tupou, Herewini Rangi, Zebastian Lucky Luisi, David and Paul Fisiiahi and Hare Te Rangi. They were coached by James Leuluai, the team was always a force in the early years, losing the Grand Final in 2001. However, in 2004 and 2005 the club was a shadow of its former self, *Two points for a bye awarded as the Ngongotaha Chiefs left the competition
11.
Bartercard Cup
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The Bartercard Cup was the top level rugby league club competition in New Zealand from 2000 until 2007. For the entire life of the tournament it was sponsored by Bartercard, the cup was administered by the New Zealand Rugby League. The tournament was discontinued by the NZRL in 2007 and was replaced by the Bartercard Premiership in 2008, the format of the competition changed several times over the life of the competition and in total 24 clubs or franchises competed. In the first season half of the clubs were from Auckland, the Canterbury Bulls were the only franchise to compete in every season. New Zealand Rugby League Rugby league in New Zealand Past results from NZRL Longest Game in Living Memory
12.
Harlequin F.C.
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The Harlequin Football Club are an English rugby union team who play in the top level of English rugby, the English Premiership. Their ground in London is the Twickenham Stoop and they were one of the founder members of the RFU. Quins were crowned winners of the European Challenge Cup in 2011, the current club captain is Danny Care and the Director of Rugby is John Kingston. For sponsorship reasons they were known as NEC Harlequins, but principal sponsorship is currently held by DHL, Adidas. The Hampstead Football Club was founded in 1866 and the first recorded game took place in 1867, the club was renamed Harlequin Rugby Football Club in 1870, supposedly because the membership was no longer purely local but the HFC monogram had to be retained. The word Harlequin was found in a dictionary and all present agreed to the new name and this caused a split in the membership and the half that did not form the Harlequins went off and formed the club now known as the Wasps. During its first 40 years the club played at a total of 15 venues, since 1909, they have only played at three. In 1906, the club was invited by the Rugby Football Union to use the new stadium in Twickenham. In those early days, only one or two internationals were played there during the season, and before long Twickenham became the headquarters of the Harlequin Football Club. Despite this, the tour pales to insignificance when it is realised the Pretoria club spent four weeks in East Africa playing eight matches and another in Rhodesia on the way home. The London club arrived at Entebbe airport at dawn on 4 May and they played West Kenya Province at Kitale, and the Pretoria Harlequins on Saturday 13 May at the RFUEA ground, Nairobi. The next two matches were played at the location, beating the host club 16–0 the next day. The last match for the London club was against Kenya at Nakuru on Saturday 20 May and this last match was played under a typical long-rains shower that, though heavy, did not soften the hard ground enough to be a problem. The team was seen off by a crowd of the Kenya rugby fraternity. Touching down to refuel in Entebbe after midnight, they found that a contingent of the Ugandan rugby scene had turned up at the airport to wave them on their way. In 1963, Harlequin acquired a ground with 14 acres just over the road from the Twickenham ground. This subsequently become their home, the Stoop Memorial Ground which in 2005 was renamed The Twickenham Stoop and this is named after Adrian Dura Stoop, who won 15 caps for England and is said to have been the person who developed modern back play. With the introduction of leagues in 1987 bringing a more competitive environment, the club has won the Rugby Football Union clubs knockout competition on two occasions, the John Player Cup in 1988 and Pilkington Cup in 1991
13.
Twickenham Stadium
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Twickenham Stadium is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, south west London, England. Owned by the body of rugby union in England, the Rugby Football Union. The RFU headquarters are based in the stadium and it is the second largest stadium in the UK, after Wembley Stadium, and the fourth largest in Europe. Twickenham is often referred to as the home of rugby union, the stadium, owned and operated by the RFU, hosts rugby union fixtures year round. It is the home of the English rugby union team, who nearly all their home games at the stadium. Twickenham hosts Englands home Six Nations matches, as well as inbound touring teams from the Southern Hemisphere, apart from its relationship with the national team, Twickenham is the venue for a number of other domestic and international rugby union matches. It is also the venue for the final of the Aviva Premiership as well as the season-opening London Double Header, Big Game, anglo-Welsh Cup, Heineken Cup and Champions Cup finals have also been held here in the past. Sold out Tests against New Zealand and South Africa at Crystal Palace saw the RFU realise the benefit of owning their own ground. Committee member William Williams and treasurer William Cail led the way to purchasing a 10.25 acre market garden in Twickenham in 1907 for £5,500 12s 6d, the first stands were constructed the following year. Before the ground was purchased, it was used to grow cabbages, after further expenditure on roads, the first game, between Harlequins v. Richmond, was played on 2 October 1909, and the first international, England v. Wales, on 15 January 1910. At the time of the English-Welsh game, the stadium had a capacity of 20,000 spectators. During World War I the ground was used for cattle, horse, king George V unveiled a war memorial in 1921. In 1926, the first Middlesex Sevens took place at the ground, in 1927 the first Varsity Match took place at Twickenham for the first time. On 19 March 1938, BBC Television broadcast the England – Scotland match from Twickenham, in 1959, to mark 50 years of the ground, a combined side of England and Wales beat Ireland and Scotland by 26 points to 17. Coming into the last match of the 1988 season, against the Irish, the Twickenham crowd had only seen one solitary England try in the previous two years, and at half-time against Ireland they were 0–3 down. During the second half a remarkable transformation took place and England started playing a game many had doubted they were capable of producing. A 0–3 deficit was turned into a 35–3 win, with England scoring six tries and this day also saw the origins of the adoption of the negro spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as a terrace song. In the 35–3 win against Ireland, three of Englands tries were scored by Chris Oti, a player who had made a reputation for himself that season as a speedster on the left wing
14.
League 1 (rugby league)
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League 1, formerly Championship 1 and currently known as Kingstone Press League 1 for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition based in England. The competition also features clubs from Canada and Wales and it is the RFLs third-tier competition, below the Championship, with which it has promotion and relegation. The league was inaugurated in 2003 when the Northern Ford Premiership was divided two separate leagues, initially named National League One and National League Two. In 2009, the names were changed to the Championship and Championship 1 respectively. Third-division rugby league competitions in the United Kingdom have existed periodically since 1991, the current incarnation was created in 2003 when the second-division competition below Super League, the Northern Ford Premiership, was split into National Leagues One and Two. At the end of the 2005 Super League season, a team was relegated to National League One in order to accommodate French side Catalans Dragons entry to the competition. In order to even up the numbers, the Welsh team Celtic Crusaders were admitted to the competition in 2005, first playing in the 2006 season, in 2009 Super League was expanded to 14 teams, with two additional teams being promoted from National League One. In turn, two teams were promoted from National League Two to National League One at the end of the 2008 season. National Leagues One and Two were then rebranded as Championship and Championship 1 respectively, south Wales Scorpions were admitted to Championship 1 for the 2010 season, increasing the number of teams in the league to 11. Blackpool Panthers left the league in 2011, once again reducing the number of teams to 10, in 2013, three new teams were admitted to the league, Hemel Stags, Gloucestershire All Golds and Oxford Rugby League. In 2014 expansion and restructure took place with 5 teams relegated from the Championship and Coventry Bears added to expand the league to 14 teams, a new playoff structure was also introduced with two teams being promoted to the Championship. In 2015 the League 1 Cup was introduced as a competition for League 1 clubs. In 2016 Toulouse Olympique joined the league, bringing the number of teams to 15. Toronto Wolfpack will join the league from 2017, taking the number of teams to 16. In 2016, the Super 8s format that had used in the Super League. Under the amended structure, the 16 League 1 clubs play a season of 15 rounds. They play each other once to determine which five clubs will compete in the playoffs, the remaining League 1 clubs compete for the League 1 Shield. The team finishing bottom collects the wooden spoon, *capacity for Rugby League games may differ from official stadium capacity
15.
Auckland Rugby League
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The Auckland Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including club and school rugby league. The Auckland Rugby League was once recognised by Englands Northern Rugby Football Union as New Zealands governing body for the game of rugby league, in 2009, the ARL celebrated its centenary. For a full list of all past winners go to Auckland Rugby League club trophies, aucklands premier competition is the Fox Memorial Shield, competed for by Premier One teams. This has been contested since 1910, there is a division below the Fox Memorial named the Sharman Cup which is fought for by Premier Two teams. The winner of the Sharman Cup is promoted to the Fox Memorial for the following season, the winner of the round robin in the premier One division wins the Rukutai Shield. Other key trophies include the Roope Rooster, which has competed for since 1915. Since 2006 the Roope Rooster has been contested as a Challenge trophy, other clubs only run junior programmes. These include Kaipara Lancers, Rodney Rams, Pukekohe Pythons & Tuakau, Waiheke Rams, City and Newton merged in the early 1900s. City Newton later merged with Pt Chevalier to become City-Pt Chevalier, later the two clubs separated again, and since then City Newton folded in 2004, while Pt Chevalier have turned their fortunes around and won the Fox Memorial in 2014. Ponsonby and Maritime merged to become Ponsonby-Maritime, navy merged with North Shore to become Navy/North Shore. Other teams to cease include Grafton, Devonport, Western United, Eastern United, Southern Districts, the Fox Memorial is awarded to the grand final winner in Premier One. In 2015 it is a two-round,10 team Premiership culminating in a top 4 play-off series, the Sharman Cup is awarded to the winner of the second division. In 2015 it will be competed for by 15 teams and played over 18 weeks, for a list of the major trophies awarded for in Auckland club Rugby League go to Auckland Club Rugby League Trophies. In 2006 the Roope Rooster was successfully defended eleven times by the Mt Albert Lions, when the Lion Red Cup was started in 1994 Auckland was originally represented by four teams. The Auckland City Vulcans, The Waitakere City Raiders, The Counties Manukau Heroes, in 1995 the Vulcans were replaced by the Auckland Warriors Colts. In 1996 Auckland City did not compete, North Harbour won the competition in 1994 &1995. Counties-Manukau won the competition in 1996 and was runner up in 1994, Auckland was runner up in 1995 & Waitakere was runner up in 1996
16.
Player-coach
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A player-coach is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the squad and also play on the team, very few current major professional sports teams have head coaches who are also players, though it is extremely common for senior players to take a role in managing more junior athletes. Historically, when professional sports had much money to pay players and coaches or managers. Likewise, where player-coaches exist today, they are common at the lower levels where money is less available. The player-coach was, for decades, a long-time fixture in professional basketball. Many notable coaches in the NBA served as player-coaches, including Bill Russell and this was especially true up through the 1970s, when the league was not as financially successful as it is today, and player-coaches were often used to save money. The practice fell out of favor in the 1980s, therefore, if a player is to serve as a coach, he would have to receive commission from his contract as a player. The player, then, is not technically an official coach of his team, one example of a player in recent years who was groomed for eventual official coaching duties using this practice was Avery Johnson. In the early days of professional American football, player-coaches were common, jimmy Conzelman was player-coach for four different teams during the 1920s. As professional football became more respectable, and began to more money. In the mid-1950s Tom Landry played defensive back while serving as coordinator for the New York Giants. In the early 1970s, when Landry was coach of the Dallas Cowboys, in association football, this situation usually arises when a manager leaves a team suddenly, and the chairman has to make a quick decision to appoint someone new as a caretaker manager. The chairman will usually either ask a coach to take charge or turn to the one of clubs most senior players. If this particular player gains good results for the team during his time in charge, he may be appointed full-time manager, however, there are instances when a free agent is appointed by a new team as a manager and offers his playing abilities. He then succeeded Dalglish as Liverpool manager just before Rangers won another Scottish league title, but at the age of 38 he did not register himself as a player for Liverpool. In 1997, Ruud Gullit won the FA Cup with Chelsea in his first season as player-manager, also making history by being the first foreign and he was sacked nine months later, and Chelsea appointed another player-manager in his place. Within weeks of taking over, Vialli guided Chelsea to victory in the League Cup, a number of bigger clubs have appointed player-managers on a temporary basis but not given them permanent contracts
17.
Howick Hornets
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The Howick Hornets are a rugby league club based in Howick, New Zealand. The premier team competes in Auckland Rugby Leagues senior competitions, the club currently competes in the top division, the Fox Memorial Trophy. The club has a rivalry with neighbours, the Pakuranga Jaguars, the Howick Hornets are the current Fox Memorial champions and hold the Roope Rooster challenge trophy. The Howick Rugby League Football Club was founded in 1961 with the playing at the Howick Domain. Former New Zealand representative Cliff Johnson was the clubs first chairman, the club first entered a senior team into Auckland Rugby League competitions in 1964 under coach Tommy Baxter. In 1965 Paparoa Park, the current home ground, was created with the help of the Howick Borough Council. Between 1978 and 1985 the club competed in competitions as Eastern United. The team was coached by former Kiwi Murray Eade, the club won the Sharman Cup, the second division title, in 2005 and 2009. In 2005 they defeated the Bay Roskill Vikings 20-16, in 2009 the team won the Sharman Cup by defeating the Glenora Bears 19-12 in extra time. They also won the Auckland Rugby Leagues 2009 Club of the Year award for the first time ever, in 2010 the club won promotion to the Fox Memorial Trophy and finished third before losing to the Te Atatu Roosters in a semi final. This was the first time in the clubs 49-year history that they had competed in the top division of the Auckland Rugby League. During the season the Hornets defeated the Mt Albert Lions for the first time in three decades and defeated the Otahuhu Leopards for the first time in the clubs history and they also hosted a Māori Television broadcast from Paparoa Park for the first time. Six players from the Hornets were named in the Counties Manukau representative team to compete in the Albert Baskerville Trophy, in 2011 the Hornets won the Fox Memorial, defeating the Otahuhu Leopards 24-14 in the Grand Final. Players who have played for the club include Paul Atkins, Zeb Luisi, Anthony Gelling, Samuel Brunton, Luke Laban, Official Club site Official ARL Site Howick Hornets Open Age Restricted Blog
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Counties Manukau rugby league team
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The Counties Manukau rugby league team represents the Counties Manukau zone in the Albert Baskerville Trophy. Previously, teams representing Southern Auckland and the Franklin district of New Zealand have competed in the Lion Red Cup, the Counties Manukau Heroes competed in the Lion Red Cup from 1994 to 1996. Stan Martin coached them in 1994 and 1995 before accepting a contract with the Whitehaven and he was replaced by Cameron Bell for the 1996 season. The Counties Manukau Jetz were a franchise in the Bartercard Cup, New Zealand Warriors who were assigned to the club included, Sonny Fai, Nathan Fien & George Gatis The Jetz entered the competition in 2004 in the place of the Manurewa Marlins. They finished a seventh and missed out on the playoffs. 2005 however was a year with the team performing well. In 2006 they again made the playoffs but were eliminated by Tamaki in the first week, before the 2007 season long serving head coach Gary Kemble announced his retirement to concentrate on business interests so former Northern Storm coach Geoff Morton was appointed for the season. The teams final season was its worst with it coming second to last, following the Sparc review of the New Zealand Rugby League the new zonal competition was launched in 2010. Counties Manukau became a zone with a team that was separate from Auckland. Counties Manukau draws players from Mangere East, Howick, Pakuranga, Papakura, Franklin, Tuakau, Waiuku, Pukekohe, Papatoetoe, Otara, Manukau and Otahuhu. In the 2010 season, Counties Manukau won the Under 15 and Under 17 tournaments but lost the final of the senior competition, being defeated by Auckland 14 -6
19.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
