eSports readers can be excused for being confused about the game of rugby over the coming weeks as the media in the USA gets interested in an event on December 1st in Pennsylvania, when the Australian Kangaroos rugby league team comes up against the USA Tomahawks ? the so called National American team in rugby league.

This game is the first professional version of rugby that broke away from the traditional rugby in 1908. The players at the time were upset at not receiving payment especially if they were injured and so started to get paid.

A few rule changes reduced the number of players to 13 a side and the lineout to restart the game after the ball went out was replaced by a scrum. Also the "play the ball" replaced the scramble for possession after a player was tackled with the ball.

RL ? rugby league ? is only played in any great form in Australia where it is strong in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. It is there the dominant football code ahead of the longer standing rugby union, soccer or Australian Rules football. The southern states of Australia are a different story where Aussie Rules is trumps.

The rugby game that extols the title of "the game they play in heaven" is the big international and four yearly World Cup event that is the third biggest International sporting event behind the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup.

So try not to be confused. The game in Pennsylvania in December is the minority form of rugby world wide and a hybrid of the game keenly contested across the USA, with the National team competing well in the Rugby World Cup in Australia in November 2003.

The RL game also is played in a small part of England, the North Island of New Zealand and in Papua New Guinea.