page_title: Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
section_title: Cross-code games
hierarchical_section_title: Comparison of rugby league and rugby union / Cross-code games
caption_attribution_description: English: Hybrid Rugby
context_page_description: The team sports rugby league and rugby union have shared origins and thus many similarities.
  Initially, following the 1895 split in rugby football, rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon, however, the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two distinctly different forms of rugby. After 100 years, in 1995 rugby union joined rugby league and most other forms of football as an openly professional sport.
  The inherent similarities between rugby league and rugby union have at times led to the possibility of a merger of the two variants and experimental hybrid games have been played that use a mix of the two sports' rules.
context_section_description: In 1909, when the new "Northern Union" code was still in its infancy, a match between the Kangaroos and the Wallabies was played before a crowd of around 20,000, with the rugby league side winning, 29–26. With the wartime Emergency League suspended, Leeds Rugby League reverted to rugby union during World War I to play a one-off challenge game against the Royal Navy Depot from Plymouth in 1917. This was precursor to the following Christmas when two Challenge games were organised between the two sides but this time with one of each code. The Navy won the union game, 9–3, on Christmas Eve but proved equally adept at league recording a 24–3 win on 28 December. During World War II, the RFU relaxed its restrictions on rugby league footballers playing rugby union. In 1943, a Northern Command army rugby league side defeated a Northern Command union side, 18–11, at Headingley under rugby union laws. The following year a Combined Services rugby league side beat a Combined Services union side, 15–10, at Bradford again at rugby union. These were the only league v union matches played until 1996.
  With both sports becoming professional matches between union and league teams have been played. In May 1996, Bath Rugby and Wigan RLFC, who were then England's top union and league sides respectively, made history by playing against each other at both codes of rugby. Wigan won, 82–6, in the first match, played under league rules, and lost the second, 44–19, under union rules. Since then other games have been played between union and league teams using the laws of one of the codes, or in some cases using a different set of laws for each half.
  Since the two match series in 1996, there has only been one similar endeavour to bring together union and league. In January 2003, St Helens rugby league took on Sale rugby union in a single game played at Knowsley Road, intended to have one half under league rules and the other under union rules. Unlike Bath, who were to all intents and purposes still the amateur side they had been, Sale had the benefit of almost a decade of professionalism to improve both strength and fitness that was necessary for them to adapt to the constant tackling required in rugby league. Sale prevailed against St Helens in front of a fierce St Helens home crowd at Knowsley Road, winning the match 41–39.
caption: Bronson Harrison of the Western Suburbs Magpies playing in a 2015 hybrid rugby match
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