History of rugby league


The history of rugby league as a separate form of rugby football goes back to 1895 in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire when the Northern Rugby Football Union broke away from England's established Rugby Football Union to administer its own separate competition. Similar schisms occurred later in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Gradually the rugby played in these breakaway competitions evolved into a distinctly separate sport that took its name from the professional leagues that administered it. Rugby league in England went on to set attendance and player payment records and rugby league in Australia became the most watched sport on television. The game also developed a significant place in the culture of France, New Zealand and several other Pacific Island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, where it has become the national sport.

Rugby before the schisms

Although many forms of football had been played across the world, it was only during the second half of the 19th century that these games began to be codified. In 1871, English clubs playing the version of football played at Rugby School, which involved much more handling of the ball than in association football, met to form the Rugby Football Union. Many new rugby clubs were formed, and it was in the Northern English counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire that the game really took hold. Here rugby was largely a working class game, whilst the south eastern clubs were largely middle class.
Rugby spread to Australasia, especially the cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch and Auckland. Here too there was a clear divide between the working and more affluent upper-class players.
The strength of support for rugby grew over the following years, and large paying crowds were attracted to major matches, in particular in Yorkshire, where matches in the Yorkshire Cup soon became major events. England teams of the era were dominated by Lancashire and Yorkshire players. However these players were forbidden to earn any of the spoils of this newly-rich game. Predominantly working class teams found it difficult to play to their full potential because in many cases their time to play and to train was limited by the need to earn a wage. A further limit on the playing ability of working class teams was that working class players had to be careful how hard they played. If injured, they had to pay their own medical bills and possibly take time off work, which for a man earning a weekly wage could easily lead to financial hardship.

The schism and the birth of rugby league

In 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against rugby football clubs in Bradford and Leeds, both in Yorkshire, after they compensated players for missing work. This was despite the fact that the English Rugby Football Union was allowing other players to be paid, such as the 1888 British Isles team that toured Australia, or the account of Harry Hamill of his payments to represent New South Wales against in 1904.
In 1893 Yorkshire clubs complained that southern clubs were over-represented on the RFU committee and that committee meetings were held in London at times that made it difficult for northern members to attend. By implication they were arguing that this affected the RFU's decisions on the issue of "broken time" payments to the detriment of northern clubs, who made up the majority of English rugby clubs. Payment for broken time was a proposal put forward by Yorkshire clubs that would allow players to receive up to six shillings when they missed work because of match commitments. The idea was voted down by the RFU.
In August 1893, Huddersfield signed star players George Boak and John 'Jock' Forsyth from Carlisle-based club, Cummersdale Hornets. The transfer was sudden and both men were summoned to appear before Carlisle Magistrates' Court for leaving their jobs without giving proper notice. Huddersfield was also accused of offering cash inducements for the players to move clubs contrary to the strict rules of the RFU. After an investigation, Huddersfield eventually received a long suspension from playing matches.
The severity of the punishments for "broken time" payments and their widespread application to northern clubs and players contributed to a growing sense of frustration and absence of fair play. Meanwhile, there was an obvious comparison with the professional Football League which had been formed in 1888, comprising 12 association football clubs, six of whom were from Northern England. In this environment, the next logical step was for the northern rugby clubs to form their own professional league.
On 27 August 1895, as a result of an emergency meeting in Manchester, prominent Lancashire clubs Broughton Rangers, Leigh, Oldham, Rochdale Hornets, St. Helens, Tyldesley, Warrington, Widnes and Wigan declared that they would support their Yorkshire colleagues in their proposal to form a Northern Union.

Two days later, on 29 August 1895, representatives of twenty-two clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, to form the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union. This was effectively the birth of rugby league, the name adopted by the sport in 1922. Twenty clubs had agreed to resign from the Rugby Union, but Dewsbury felt unable to comply with the decision. The Cheshire club, Stockport, had telegraphed the meeting requesting admission to the new organisation and was duly accepted with a second Cheshire club, Runcorn, admitted at the next meeting.
The twenty-two clubs and their years of foundation were Batley 1880; Bradford 1863; Brighouse Rangers 1878; Broughton Rangers 1877; Halifax 1873; Huddersfield FC 1864; Hull F.C. 1865; Hunslet 1883; Leeds 1870; Leigh 1878; Liversedge 1877; Manningham 1876; Oldham 1876; Rochdale Hornets 1871; Runcorn 1895; Stockport 1895; St Helens 1873; Tyldesley 1879; Wakefield Trinity 1873; Warrington 1876; Widnes 1875; and Wigan 1872.
The rugby union authorities took drastic action, issuing sanctions against clubs, players and officials involved in the new organisation. This extended even to amateurs who played with or against Northern Union sides. Consequently, northern clubs that existed purely for social and recreational rugby began to affiliate to the Northern Union, whilst retaining amateur status. By 1904 the new body had more clubs affiliated to it than the RFU.
The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby Football League. Also in 1901, James Lomas became the first £100 transfer, from Bramley to Salford. The NRFU became the Northern Rugby Football League in the summer of 1922.
Similar schisms in football were threatened by the formations of the British Football Association in 1884 and the Amateur Football Association in 1907, but were averted.
The historic events that led to the 1895 rugby split were the subject of Mick Martin's play Broken Time, the first dramatic treatment of rugby league.

Development of rugby league in Great Britain

The first international rugby league match took place in 1904 between England and an Other nationalities team, mostly made up of Welsh players.
Initially the Northern Union continued to play under existing RFU laws. The first minor change was introduced during the first season of the game. Other new laws were gradually introduced until, by the arrival of the All Golds in 1907 the major differences between the games had been introduced. These major differences were:
  • 13 players per team as opposed to 15 in union
  • The "play the ball" rather than a ruck
  • The elimination of the line-out
  • A slightly different scoring structure, with all goals only being worth 2 points
See: Rugby league gameplay for more on the current game.
During this period the Northern Union began to develop the British game's major tournaments. The league championship, after initially being played as one competition, was split into two sections, the Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues, with only a limited number of inter-county games. This necessitated a play-off structure to determine the overall champions. A nationwide cup, the Challenge Cup was introduced, and soon became the biggest draw in the sport. Finally, in 1905, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Cups were introduced, thus completing a structure that was to last until the 1960s. There were therefore four trophies on offer to any one club, and the "Holy Grail" was to win "All Four Cups".
As it became obvious that two codes of rugby were going to co-exist for the foreseeable future, those interested in the game needed to be able to distinguish between them. It became customary to describe those teams affiliated to the NU as 'playing in the league' hence "rugby league" while those which remained affiliated to the RFU as playing "rugby union".

Introduction to New Zealand

In 1905, as New Zealand's rugby union team, the All Blacks, toured Britain, they witnessed first-hand the growing popularity of the Northern Union games. In 1906, All Black George William Smith, while on his way home, met an Australian entrepreneur, J. J. Giltinan to discuss the potential of professional rugby in Australasia.
In the meantime, a less-well known New Zealand rugby union player, Albert Henry Baskerville, was about to recruit a group of players for a professional tour of Great Britain. It is believed that Baskerville first became aware of the profits to be made from such a venture while he was working at the Wellington Post Office in 1906: a colleague had a coughing fit and dropped a British newspaper. Baskerville picked it up and noticed a report about a Northern Union match that over 40,000 people had attended. Baskerville wrote to the NRFU asking if they would host a New Zealand touring party. George Smith learned of Baskerville's activities and they joined forces to recruit a team.
All Golds tour
When the All Golds stopped off in Australia, three games were played at the Sydney Showground, against a professional NSW rugby team. These games were played under rugby union laws, as no copies of the Northern Union laws were available. Baskerville was greatly impressed by Dally Messenger, and persuaded him to join the touring party. For this reason, the All Golds are sometimes known as Australasia, rather than New Zealand, although Messenger was the only Australian in the touring team.
The arrived in Britain late in 1907 having never even seen a match played under the new Northern Union laws. They undertook a week's 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 going down 8–9 to Wales in Aberdare on 1 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 a great success, and gave a much needed boost to the game in Britain, which was struggling financially against the rise of association football.
Baskerville died from illness on the Australian leg of the tour, but the professional rugby movement lived on, pushing forward in New Zealand despite strong opposition from the rugby union establishment.
Early setbacks for the game in New Zealand
Apart from the blow presented by the sudden and premature death of Baskerville, other difficulties would soon trouble the game in New Zealand. In some ways, the All Golds were too successful for the good of New Zealand rugby league, as many team members soon accepted lucrative contracts with British clubs. Baskerville's game would soon establish a strong following, especially in Auckland, but rugby union's strong grassroots organisation and finances in New Zealand—its "veiled professionalism" in the eyes of many observers at the time—meant that rugby league was unable to become quite as dominant there as in some regions of Australia and England.