In certain sports, such as
football,
field hockey,
ice hockey,
handball,
rugby union,
lacrosse and
rugby league,
winger is a position. It refers to positions on the extreme left and right sides of the pitch (the "wings"). In
American football and
Canadian football, the analogous position is the
wide receiver. Wingers often try to use pace to exploit extra space available on the flanks that can be made available by their team-mates dominating the centre ground. They must be wary however of not crossing the touchline and going out of play. In sports where the main method of scoring involves attacking a small goal (by whatever name) in the centre of the field, a common tactic is to cross the ball to a central team-mate.