History of rugby league: Encyclopedia II - History of rugby league - Before the schism

History of rugby league - Before the schism

Although many forms of football had been played across the world, it was only during the second half of the nineteenth century that these games began to be codified. It was in 1871 that English clubs playing the version of football associated with Rugby School (which involved much more handling of the ball than Association Football), met to form the Rugby Football Union. Many new clubs were formed, and it was in the northern English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire that the game really took hold. Here rugby was largely a working man’s game, whilst the southern clubs were largely middle-class.

Rugby also spread to Australia and New Zealand, especially the cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland. Here too there was a clear divide between the working- and middle-class players.

The strength of support for the rugby grew over the following years, and large paying crowds were attracted to major matches, particular in Yorkshire, where matches in the Yorkshire Cup (T’owd Tin Pot) soon became major events. England teams of the era were dominated by Yorkshire and Lancashire 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 player recreational time was limited by the need to earn a wage. Even if they could take time off to play regularly, training time was often curtailed. A further limit on the playing ability of working class-teams was the fact that rugby is a contact sport, hence 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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Before the schism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki