The History of Rugby League

During the period 1400 – 1800, many variations of football were being played at schools across England, collectively being the ancestors of Association Football (Soccer), Rugby Union Football & Rugby League Football. Most of these early types of football all included handling and kicking of the ball, proving that the RFUs theory of William Web Ellis picking up the ball and running with it during a soccer match in 1823 as the birth of Rugby Football are merely of fantasy, as all schools played football by rules that included running with the ball in hand.

Around the 1820’s, things began to change, and as rule changes were made by certain schools, several English schools decided that handling of the ball was not appropriate. Schools would agree on the rules of play before matches, but schools allowing handling of the ball would only play schools playing similar rules. From here Association Football was born, being marked officially with the creation of the FA (Football Association) in 1863.

Of the schools still left playing football with ball handling, Rugby School was one of the most prominent and famous schools, and its rules became very popular forms of football in other schools, and so Rugby Football was born. Around this time clubs began to form out with schools, and were known as rugby clubs since playing to the rugby schools set of rules. The formation of the RFU (Rugby Football Union) in 1871 made the naming of the sport official.

During the years leading up to and following the formation of the RFU, thousands of rugby clubs had sprung up across England, but with them a class divide had already began to appear. In the south all the clubs stayed strictly gentleman’s clubs of high school former pupils. In contrast most of the clubs in the north became open clubs allowing working class men to play rugby.

The gentleman’s clubs of the south had no problem in fielding their strongest sides, as such was the position of the men who played for them, they had no need to work on a Saturday. In contrast, the clubs in the north’s best players had to take time off to play rugby, as working class men like miners had to work on a Saturday to survive. In light of this, clubs in the north began paying their players for ‘broken time’ to compensate for time missed at work. This ‘professionalism’ was met with outrage by the clubs in the south (who ran the RFU), who wanted to keep the game strictly amateur, to keep the games status as a gentleman’s game, as they had seen Association Football become a working class game due to the advent of professionalism.

Although the northern clubs were the strongest in England at the time, the RFU demanded that all players were strictly amateur, and for a time the clubs in the north agreed. But due to unavailability of players, many games in the north were cancelled due to lack of players, and as a result the number of clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire dropped substantially, as did the quality of the rugby getting played. So the clubs in the north decided something had to be done, and on the 29th of August 1895, at The George Hotel in Huddersfield, 21 northern teams voted unanimously to break away from the RFU and form the Northern Rugby Union.

These 21 clubs were Batley, Bradford, Brighouse Rangers, Broughton Rangers, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Hunslet, Leeds, Leigh, Liversedge, Manningham, Oldham, Rochdale Hornets, St Helens, Tyldesley, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington, Widnes, and Wigan. Stockport were also accepted via a phone call to the meeting that day at The George. Dewsbury dropped out a few days later, and were replaced by Runcorn.

The Northern Rugby Union (later to become the Rugby Football League in 1922) clubs played in The Northern Rugby Football League, and in so the sport of Rugby League was born as over the coming years the rules were changed from that played by clubs affiliated to the RFU. The rules were mainly changed to speed the game up, turning it into a more exciting spectacle, in turn attracting more spectators to increase gate receipts.

The main law changes were firstly in 1897, where a try was made worth more points than any type of kick at goal, and lineouts were also abolished at this point. In 1906 teams were reduced to 13-a-side to make for a more open exciting game, and the slow rucks and mauls after the tackle used in rugby union were abolished and replaced by the quick play-the-ball.

In 1906, the 13-a-side code also spread to Australia and New Zealand, with the break away of clubs populated by working class men from the RFU governed Australian and NZ rugby unions. This was for much the same reason as that of the break away in England, as working class men wanted to play professionally to cover broken time from missing work to play rugby.

In 1966, rugby leagues four tackle rule was introduced, which was later increased to six in 1972. And so modern rugby league developed into the game we know today.