page_title: Australia national rugby league team
section_title: War cry
hierarchical_section_title: Australia national rugby league team / Culture / War cry
caption_attribution_description: English: The scene just before kick off at Station Road, Swinton in the rugby league test match Great Britain v Australia on the 9th November 1963.
context_page_description: The Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the 'Northern Union game' in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League Commission, the Kangaroos are ranked second in the RLIF World Rankings. The team is the most successful in Rugby League World Cup history, having contested all 15 and won 11 of them, failing to reach the final only once, in the inaugural tournament in 1954. Only five nations have beaten Australia in test matches, and Australia have an overall win percentage of 67%.
  Dating back to 1908, Australia are the fourth oldest national side after England, New Zealand and Wales. The team was first assembled in 1908 for a tour of Great Britain. The majority of the Kangaroos' games since then have been played against Great Britain and New Zealand. In the first half of the 20th century, Australia's international competition came from alternating tours to Great Britain and New Zealand, with Australia playing host to these teams in non-tour years.
context_section_description: From 1908 to 1967, the Australian team performed a war cry before Tests played in Great Britain and France. The war cry was first performed when the Kangaroos arrived at Tilbury Docks near London. It was developed after war cries had been performed on tours of Britain by the New Zealand All Blacks in 1905, the South African Springboks in 1906 and the New Zealand All Golds in 1907. It is believed that the war cry is derived from an indigenous chant on Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia.
  The war cry was performed for the first time in over 40 years before the Rugby League World Cup exhibition game between the Indigenous Dreamtime Team vs. the New Zealand Maōris in 2008. The war cry had not been performed by the Kangaroos since December 1967 in France.
caption: The Kangaroos performing the war cry prior to the test against Great Britain in 1963  at Station Road.
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