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The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league football. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed "The Lions" or "Great Britain Lions". For most of the 20th century the Great Britain team was assembled to go on tours overseas, and to play against foreign touring teams, as well as competing in Rugby League World Cup tournaments. They were one of the strongest teams in rugby league, though usually playing second fiddle to Australia. They won the Rugby League World Cup on three occasions: 1954, 1960 and 1972. Since 1995 the RFL have preferred to send the home nations as separate teams for World Cup purposes. Great Britain continued to compete as a test playing nation both home and away. They competed against Australia for the Ashes, and New Zealand for the Baskerville Shield, as well the Tri-Nations series with both Australia and New Zealand. Great Britain also played in series and tours against other nations such as France, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. In 2006, the RFL announced that after the 2007 All Golds Tour〔(Sporting Life )〕 the Great Britain team would no longer compete on a regular basis, and that players would be able to represent England, Wales and Scotland at Test level. It is planned that the Great Britain team will come together in future only for occasional tours, similar to the British and Irish Lions in rugby union. == Titles, selection and identity == The team was originally known as the ''Northern Union XIII'' in reference to the name of the sport's governing body. After 1922 the name ''the Lions'' was first used. In 1948 the team became known as ''Great Britain'' for the Ashes Series. During the 1990s the Rugby Football League expanded this to ''Great Britain and Northern Ireland'', and the jersey bore the name ''British Isles XIII''. In 2004 the words "''...and Northern Ireland''" were dropped from the title, though the Irish shamrock continued to form part of the RFL's crest and ''British Isles XIII'' remained on the jersey. At matches, the team was represented by the Union Flag and the singing of God Save the Queen, both symbols of the United Kingdom. The practice of a UK-wide team being called ''Great Britain'' has a precedent with the Great British Olympic team, though the formal name of the Olympic team includes "and Northern Ireland". The team continued to compete until the 2007 All Golds Tour: henceforth, the Great Britain team will now be reserved for Lions tours of the Southern Hemisphere. According to Richard Lewis, chairman of the Rugby Football League: :"It will bring consistency. What I am passionate about is the international game being consistent. To me, it has always been illogical that we play as Great Britain for three or four years, and when the World Cup comes along, suddenly we become England. In the major competitions, which will be most years, we will play as England. That will also allow Scotland and Wales to develop. We have then floated the concept of Great Britain to tour in 2010. It would be a tour as opposed to playing a formal competition, and I wouldn't restrict that to just Australia and New Zealand."〔(England to take pride of place over Britain ) The Guardian, 3 December 2005〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Britain national rugby league team」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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