History of Rugby League

The beginnings of rugby

The sport of Rugby League was officially born on 28 August 1895. The game of rugby, both codes, League and Union, developed from football (also known as soccer in some places).

In England, in the early part of the nineteenth century, football was played with various sets of rules allowing for scrimmaging, kicking, and mauling, and the objective was to get the ball across the opposing line.

At Rugby School the boys played a non-handling version of the game, and the most famous and first break with this was in 1823 when a pupil named William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it.

This is how rugby started. The sport branched away from football, which was played with a round ball, which was kicked, and became rugby, which was played with an oval ball which was carried as well as kicked.

The divide

The English Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871, and by 1893, there were around 400 member clubs. Because of the economic situation in England, with a North-South divide between the more prosperous south and a less prosperous north, there was another change.

The Rugby Football Union was an amateur organisation, but the clubs in the north found that it was becoming difficult to earn money and play rugby. This is because in the industrial north, men would work in mills, mines, and factories to earn a living, and they would work Saturdays aswell.

If they took Saturday afternoon off to play rugby, they lost money, and so did their families. To try and ease this situation, some clubs wanted to pay 'broken time'.

What this meant was not wages as such, as that would have contravened the strictly amateur principle of rugby, but rather compensation for missed wages.

The Union felt that this would be giving the green light to professionalism, and they refused. However, pressure for change increased in the North, and on 20 September 1893, there was a meeting of the two factions at the Rugby Union's annual meeting in London.

Two Yorkshire club representatives, J.A. Millar and Mr. M. Newsome proposed that 'Players are to be allowed compensation for bona-fide loss of time.'

This motion was lost by 418 votes to 136, but there was enough support to warrant the creation of a group of clubs who met regularly to discuss the problem. On 29 August 1895, there was a meeting at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, to discuss the situation.

A Mr. H.H. Waller presided over the meeting. He was from the West Yorkshire town of Brighouse. The meeting was made up of representatives from Batley, Bradford, Brighouse, Broughton Rangers (Salford), Dewbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Hunslet, Leeds, Leigh, Liversedge (Huddersfield), Manningham (Bradford), Oldham, Rochdale Hornets, St. Helens, Tyldesley (Leigh), Warrington, Wakefield, Widnes, and Wigan.

Only one representative, from Dewbury voted against the proposition that the clubs resign from the Rugby Union and form their own Northern Rugby Union, and therefore would be able to pay their players broken-time expenses.

Once the split was official, two more clubs, Runcorn and Stockport, joined the new organisation. By Saturday 7 September 1895, the new code was ready with first set of fixtures.

The new Union

The Rugby Union banned any of its clubs from playing any clubs in the Northern Union, and tightened its own rules on payments to players. The Northern Union had begun to develop their game, and some clubs were paying more money than the basic rate.

The first annual meeting took place in 1896, and by then there were 59 member teams. The new teams in were Bramley, Castleford, Salford and Swinton. The next major event was the Northern Union Cup, which later became the Challenge Cup.

It was a knock-out competition and in the first final, played at Headingly, Batley beat St. Helens 10-3. There were almost 14,000 spectators. At this time, the rules (Laws) were the same as Rugby Union, but in the following season, there were changes.

To separate the game from Rugby Union, and to make it more appealing to spectators, the rules were changed. The points values were changed so that every goal counted as two points, and the line-out was done away with. In 1906, the number of players per side was reduced from 15 to 13. This had the effect of less forwards, so a more open game.

The reduction in players worked well, so the play-the-ball (two man scrum) was introduced as a method of re-starting play.

In 1898, Batley retained the Challenge Cup at Headingly, before an attendance of 27,941, beating Bradford. The game led to a request for the scrapping of broken-time expenses, and the introduction of full professionalism.

The motion was proposed, and accepted, at the 1898 annual meeting. Until 1900 the Northern Rugby Union ran two county leagues, one each in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and also the Challenge Cup.

In 1901, the first combined league of the game's top clubs was set up with 12 clubs. Batley, Bradford, Broughton Rangers, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Hunslet, Oldham, Runcorn, Salford, Swinton, and Warrington.

The competition was called the Northern Rugby League. Later, the winners of a play-off between the winners of the county leagues was taken into the new league, with the bottom club in the new league going down. Promotion and relegation had arrived.

The new league was so popular that county rugby suffered. For the 1902-03 season, it was decided to introduce a system of two divisions with 18 clubs in each. However, in 1905 a large league was created.

New Zealand

During the 1905 New Zealand All Black tour to Great Britain, a member of the group, winger George W. Smith met Northern Union officials and players. He agreed to recruit a group of New Zealand players to come back to Britain to play as professionals, under League Laws.

In 1907-08 Smith and Albert Henry Baskerville got together enough players to do a tour of Great Britain. While arranging the trip, they were cabled by a group of Australians, who were interested in the new game. They agreed to play three exhibition matches under Union Laws in Australia. In doing so, they recruited top Australian player Herbert Henry 'Dally' Messenger.

They got a nickname, the 'All Golds', given to them by fellow New Zealanders who did not like the idea of players accepting money for playing rugby. The New Zealand side played their first League game at Bramley and won, then they beat Huddersfield.

The English teams were able to raise their game, and Wigan became the first English side to beat the visitors. The mood in the New Zealand camp was not good. They were defeated several times in a row by English clubs, and they were suspended for life by the New Zealand Union, and in the first Northern Union Test at Headingly, they were beaten 14-6.

An audience of 15,000 watched the All Golds level the series with an 18-6 win at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea, London, and in the third Test at Cheltenham, the tourists won the series with an 8-5 victory.

Some of the All Golds signed for English clubs. The returning players played three more matches in Australia, this time with Northern Union Laws. As a result of this, the New South Wales Rugby Union separated from the rest of Australian rugby, and formed their own Rugby League. After a vote, they decided to use the Northern Union Laws.

The game in New Zealand is played mainly on an amateur basis, and takes second place to their national game, Rugby Union.

Australia

In 1908, after the New Zealand games, the first Australian team went on a tour to Britain. The first game was held the Queen's Park Rangers ground in London. The result was 22-22, although the attendance was only 2,000.

For the second match, the Northern Union again got a big venue in an attempt to show off the game. There were 22,000 spectators, who saw the Northern Union win 15-5. The Third Test was played at Villa Park in Birmingham, and the British team won the Test and the series, although attendance was again disappointing.

Again, a number of players were drafted into British clubs at the end of the Test. In 1908, four Welsh clubs, Barry, Aberdare, mid-Rhondda, and Treherbert joined the two other Welsh clubs, Ebbw Vale and Merthyr Tydfil in the League.

In 1910, the Northern Union did their first tour outside Great Britain. The tour was to Australia and New Zealand. For the first Test at Sydney, a crowd of 42,000 saw Britain defeat Australia 27-20. The venue moved to Brisbane, and Britain won again, this time 22-17.

Australia does not recognise these games as official Test matches, although two matches against New Zealand which they were won and drawn are recognised. I wonder why...

The game in Australia is played mainly in New South Wales and Queensland, and to a lesser degree in other states, where Australian Rules football is bigger. The Sydney Premiership finishes in a Grand Final at the end of the season, and the top five clubs from the League play each other in semi-finals and finals, with the two survivors contesting the Grand Final.

Back to Britain

In the period 1915-19 playing of the game on a major basis was suspended due to the war. After the war, there was an increase in popularity of the game. By this time, the connections to the Union game were less than before.

At the 1922 annual meeting, the name Northern Union was replaced with the Rugby Football League. In 1927 the Challenge Cup final between Oldham and Swinton was played at Wigan. It was broadcast for the first time on the radio.

Two years later, in 1929, there was a controversial decision to move the Cup venue to Wembley in London. The first Cup final at Wembley was Wigan 13, Dewbury 2. The attendance was 41,500. It looked as if the right decision had been made.

France

Rugby Union was already an established game in France, particularly in the south-west. In 1933, France was suspended from international Rugby Union on charges of professionalism. They sent a delegation to meet English League officials.

As a direct result of those talks, the 1933-34 Australian tourists played an exhibition game against Great Britain at Stade Pershing in Paris. The attendance was 20,000, and Australia won 63-13 on a frozen pitch.

Jean Galia, a former French Union international led a tour to Great Britain and persuaded enough player to switch codes to make the tour viable. France won only one match, but left determined to develop the game in their country.

In April 1934 the Fédération Francaise de Jeu à Trieze (game for 13) was launched. In 1935 a triangular competition was set up, for France, England, and Wales.

Since France became a Rugby League-playing country, they were one of the main instigators of the World Cup. The first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954. Great Britain won.

Games against the French became Test matches in 1957, as a result of their contribution to the sport.

Britain again

In Britain, Rugby League was still trying to extend itself beyond the North of England. In 1952, the Challenge Cup was televised for the first time. In 1964, substitutes were allowed, but only for injured players until half time. A two-division League was set up, with Swinton winning it both times, but the two-division League lasted only two seasons.

In 1965, players could be replaced for any reason up to and including the interval. In 1966, in an effort to speed the game up and make it more entertaining for spectators, a limit of four successive tackles was introduced. In 1972 it was expanded to six.

In 1967, matches were moved to Sundays. This has become the normal day for Rugby League matches to be played. In 1969, substitutes were allowed at any stage in the match. In 1971, the John Player competition was launched, and in 1972, timekeeping was not done by the referee any longer, but by two club officials with hooters who signalled the end of half time and of the match.

In 1973, another attempt was made to have two divisions, and this has so far worked. The amateur game almost died out, and an organisation was set up, the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA).

In 1975, a new end-of-season knock-out competition was started, the Premiership. The top eight clubs face each other at the end of the League competition. The top four play at home, the other four play them. In 1987, this was also applied to the second division. There are 16 clubs in each of the two League divisions.

Developments in the game

In 1978 the game was expanded internationally for the first time since France was admitted in the 1930's, when Papua New Guinea were granted full international board status. They had been given the game by Australian servicemen during the Second World War and it is now their national sport.

In 1983, the sin bin was introduced, suggested by Australia and New Zealand. Also in 1983, the try was increased in value from three to four points, and the law to make players give the ball away after six successive tackles.

In 1988, an Australian change was introduced, to make players in possession after five tackles keep the ball in play rather than end the action. This sped the game up further.

Rugby League

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