Teams pull opposite ends of a rope in the contest (3,2,3)
I believe the answer is:
tug of war
'teams pull opposite ends of a rope in the contest' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
This is all the clue.
(Other definitions for tug of war that I've seen before include "Battle-ship" , "Traditional field contest" , "Event involving two teams and a rope" , "Pulling contest" , "Rope-pulling team sport" .)