Lelo or lelo burti is a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 folk sport, which is a full contact ball game, and very similar to rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

. In fact, even within Georgian rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 terminology, the word lelo is used to mean a try, and the popularity of rugby union in Georgia

Rugby union in Georgia

Rugby union is a popular team sport played in Georgia. Rugby union is considered the most popular sport in Georgia, after football.- Governing body :The governing body for rugby union in Georgia is the Georgia Rugby Union...

 has also been attributed to it.

Traditional varieties

Lelo was played in Georgia from ancient times and is still played on occasions in rural areas. A field ("Lelo") would be selected and

"In earlier times, the lelo teams would consist of a few dozen players each, and the field would sometimes have to be crossed by a stream, which the players would have to ford in pursuit of the ball."

Sometimes the playing field was between two water courses. The two teams, usually consisting of the male population of neighbouring villages, would face each other. The number of players from each side was not set traditionally, but included any able men each village could summon. A large, heavy ball was placed in the middle of the field and the goal of the game was to carry it over the river to the "half" of the opposing side.

"The game took place over a wide area sometimes stretching for several kilometres on very rough ground. The contestants would have to contend with spurs, hills, valleys, woods. cascading streams and marshes. Their task was to get a ball into a certain place, say, over the settlement boundary or to the foot of the mountain. Any means necessary could be employed to drive the ball forward — feet or hands. Sometimes they would play the game on horseback."

Standardised version

During the Soviet Period

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, lelo became standardised:

"Nowadays lelo is played according to strictly defined rules on a proper pitch of 90-135 m in length and 60-90m in width. The match ball is round and made of leather, filled with grass, horsehair or sheep's wool. It weighs 2.5 kg and is 85-90 cm long."

This standardised version features fifteen-a-side teams (as per rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

), and forward passing (in contrast to rugby football). Players are allowed to knock the ball out of opponents' hands, but unlike American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 the blocking of opponents without the ball is not allowed. The pushing and tripping (or hacking) of opponents is also disallowed, and players are not allowed to jump on them. The object is to get the ball into the goal mouth, which is known as a mak.

Players are also only allowed to carry the ball for five seconds before passing. The game consists of two halves of thirty minutes, with a ten minute interval.

Georgia: the "Lelos"

The Lelos (as they are nicknamed) are the national rugby union team of Georgia

Georgia national rugby union team

The Georgia national rugby union team represents Georgia in rugby union. The team's nickname, The Lelos, comes from lelo burti, a traditional Georgian sport with strong similarities to rugby. Lelo has been adopted as the Georgian word for "try"...

. One standard cheer of Georgian rugby union fans is Lelo, Lelo, Sakartvelo (Try, Try, Georgia).

See also

• Folk football
• Aimtskachara, a similar game, played in Abkhazia
  Abkhazia
  Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
  
  .
• Marn grook
  Marn Grook
  Marn Grook , literally meaning "Game ball", is a collective name given to a number of traditional Indigenous Australian recreational pastimes believed to have been played at gatherings and celebrations of up to 50 players. It is often confused with a separate indigenous game resembling Association...
  
  
• Yubi lakpi
  Yubi lakpi
  Yubi lakpi is a seven-a-side traditional football game played in Manipur, India, using a coconut, which has some notable similarities to rugby. Despite these similarities, the name is not related to the game of rugby or Rugby School in England, it is in fact of Manipuri origin, and means literally...