History of rugby league: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

This article covers the history of the sport of rugby league from the schism with rugby union in 1895. For information on the history and evolution of rugby football see also football and the history of rugby union.

The Schism

The game developed from rugby union, originating with rugby clubs in Northern England. Players in these clubs were largely working-class, unlike in Southern England where players were middle or upper class. Rugby union competition at the time did not allow players to be paid; the working-class players felt they could not afford time off to train and play, nor could they afford to miss work through injury sustained whilst playing.

In 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against clubs in Bradford and Leeds, both in Yorkshire, after they compensated players for missing work. This was despite the fact that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was allowing other players to be paid, such as the 1888 England team that toured Australia, or the account of Harry Hamill of his payments to represent New South Wales (NSW) against England in 1904.

In 1893, Yorkshire clubs complained that southern clubs were over-represented on the RFU Committee and that committee meeting were held in London at times which made it difficult for northern members to attend. By implication they were arguing that this effected the RFU's decisions on the issue of "broken time" payments to the detriment of northern clubs who at the time made up the majority of English rugby clubs. "Broken time" payments was a proposal put forward by Yorkshire clubs that players could be paid six shillings when they missed work due to match commitments. When "broken time" payments was voted down by the RFU, widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players began.

On August 29, 1895 representatives of the northern clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the "Northern Rugby Football Union" (usually termed Northern Union or NU), a professional body. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name rugby league was used officially. The NRFU became the Rugby Football League in 1922.

The rugby union authorities took drastic action, issuing sanctions against clubs and players and officials involved in the new organisation. This extended even to amateurs who played with or against NU sides. Consequentially, northern clubs that existed purely for social and recreational rugby began to affiliate to the NU, whilst retaining amateur status. By 1904 the new body had more clubs affiliated to it than the RFU.

The sport took on a new dimension in 1907, when Albert Henry Baskerville, a New Zealander, persuaded a group of New Zealand rugby union players to tour Great Britain. Baskervilles motives appear to have been mainly financial; a recent rugby union tour of Great Britain had netted handsome profits, and he hoped to do likewise. It is generally believed that Baskerville first became aware of the profits to be made from such a venture as a result of a colleague's coughing fit; the unfortunate man in question happened to be reading a British newspaper, which he dropped. Baskerville picked it up and chanced upon a report about a Northern Union match that had over 40,000 people in attendance.

The team was dubbed the "All Golds" in the New Zealand press, a derogatory pun on the New Zealand rugby union team's nickname of All Blacks.

Similar issues were causing friction in Australia, and a similar schism was soon inevitable. The news that a New Zealand team was planning to tour Great Britain playing the new code reached the country, and a meeting was arranged at Bateman's Crystal Hotel in Sydney. The famous test cricket player Victor Trumper, and entrepreneur James Giltinan were key figures, and Giltinan was able to announce that Baskerville's team had been invited to play three matches in Sydney before heading for Britian. The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) was thus formed on the 8 August 1907. Players were immediately recruited for the new game, and despite the threat of immediate and lifetime expulsion from the rugby union, the NSWRL managed to recruit Herbert "Dally" Messenger, the most famous rugby player in Sydney at that time. In 1908 when the Australian Rugby Union team returned from a tour of the British Isles, for which the team had received three shillings a day for "out-of-pocket" expenses, 13 of the players immediately joined rugby league teams.

As arranged, the All Golds party first stopped off in Australia, where games where played against the newly formed NSWRL team. These games were played under rugby union rules, as no copies of the rugby leagues rules were available to the teams. One Australian player, the great Dally Messenger, was persuaded to join the touring party and for this reason the All Golds are sometimes termed Australasia, rather than New Zealand.

The All Golds arrived in Great Britain late in 1907 having never even seen a match played under the new Northern Union rules. They undertook a weeks intensive coaching in Leeds to bring them up to speed, and after playing a number of touring matches the first true rugby league test was played, with the team went down 8-9 to Wales in Aberdare on 1st January 1908. The All Golds gained revenge however, defeating the full Great Britain side in two of the three test matches, which were played at Leeds, Chelsea and Cheltenham; a surprising choice of venues given rugby league's northern base.

The tour was great success, and gave a much needed boost to the game in Britain, which was struggling financially against the rise of association football. It also served to kick start the game in Australia and New Zealand. Test series between Great Britain and New Zealand and now played for the Baskerville Shield, in honour of Albert Baskerville.

The following winter, an Australian touring party headed for Great Britain, and the test series was dubbed The Ashes by the press (in imitation of the cricket trophy between Australia and England).

Initially the Northern Union continued to play under rugby union rules. However gradually, new rules were introduced until, by the arrival of the All Golds in 1907, the major differences between the games had been introduced. Summarised, these major difference were (see Rugby league for more on the current rules):

• Thirteen players per team
• The "play the ball" (heeling the ball back after a tackle) rather than rucking and mauling
• The elimination of the line out
• A slightly different scoring

The rules of the sport continued to evolve, and until the fifties there was no world governing body to oversee this and ensure consistency. Negotiations between the respective governing bodies were required to fix rules to be used for tours, though generally Australia and New Zealand took their lead from the British authorities. This situation endured until 1948, when at the instigation of the French, the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed at a meeting Bordeaux.

For many years, the rugby union authorities had suspected that the French rugby union was abusing the idea of amateurism, and in the early thirties the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby teague, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country.

After the defeat of France in the Second World War, the French Rugby Union authorities worked with the collaborating Vichy regime to re-establish the dominance of their sport; rugby league was banned and many players and officials of the sport were punished. All of the assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the Union.

The consequences of this action reverberate to this day; the assets were never returned, and although the ban on rugby league was lifted, it was prevented from calling itself rugby until the mid-eighties, having to use the name Jeu de Treize (Game of Thirteen, in reference to the number of player in a rugby league side).

Main Article: Rugby League World Cup

Set up partially at least to provide income for the French game, the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954. It has been held intermittently since then, in a variety of formats. The next competition is due to be held in Australia in 2008.

All spectator sports in the United Kingdom experienced a surge in interest in the years following the end of World War II. Rugby league was no different, and large crowds came to be expected as the norm for a period of around 20 years. The surge in public interest in the game was demonstrated by the 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay between Halifax and Warrington, held at Odsal Stadium, Bradford on Wednesday May 5th 1954. The officially recorded attendance was at 102,575, a record for a single match of rugby league that still stands. It is estimated that a further 20,000 spectators were present, as many got in free after a section of fencing collapsed. For the record, Warrington beat Halifax 8-4.

The boom in interest had begun to subside by the early sixties, and the game's rulers looked to television to provide a new source of income. David Attenborough, then controller of BBC2, made the decision to screen rugby league games from a new competition specially designed for evening televising the BBC2 Television Floodlit Trophy. Although was widely seen as a gimmick, it proved a success, and rugby league has featured on television ever since, to the point where (like most sports) income from selling broadcasting rights is the single greatest source of revenue for the game.

During the 1980s the game made attempted to break out of its traditional boundaries. In Great Britain a new team from London was admitted to the professional ranks, whilst the sport began to develop in Russia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands.

In Australia, the increased ease of travel between states allowed the formation of a national competition for the first time, competitions having previously operated only in individual states. This competition was developed by admitting out of state sides to the NSWRL, which had long been the strongest league in Australia.

The 1990s saw the importance of television income to the sport continue to rise, and a battle for control of television rights led to the infamous Super League war in Australia in the middle of the decade. This event affected the sport across the world, and the damage done is only now being undone.

In 1995 rugby union went professional, and those who had long derided rugby league as merely a professional version of that game were soon predicting the demise of the sport. The Super League war, the financial problems of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup and the signing of several high-profile rugby league stars by the union game gave ammunition to this claim. In reality the game proved far more resilient most of the players who crossed the divide failed to live up to expectation in rugby union, emphasising the difference between the sports. Meanwhile the ending of the discrimination against rugby league led to an increase in numbers in the amateur game, with many union amateurs keen to try out the other code. In 2004 the Rugby Football League was able to report a return to profitability, a re-unified structure and a 94% increase in registered players in just two years [1].