History of rugby league facts for kids
The history of rugby league is all about how this exciting sport became its own game. It started way back in 1895 in Huddersfield, England. That's when the Northern Rugby Football Union decided to break away from the main Rugby Football Union.
Similar things happened in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Over time, the game played by these new groups changed. It became a different sport, which we now call rugby league. In England, rugby league became super popular, setting records for how many people watched and how much players were paid. In Australia, it even became the most-watched sport on TV! The game also grew big in France, New Zealand, and places like Papua New Guinea, where it's now the national sport.
Contents
- How Rugby Union Started Before the Big Split
- The Big Split: How Rugby League Was Born
- How Rugby League Grew in Great Britain
- Rugby League Comes to New Zealand
- Rugby League Comes to Australia
- Before World War I: Game Developments
- Between the World Wars
- After World War II: New Growth
- The First World Cup and New Changes
- Switch to Summer Rugby and World Cup Growth
- See also
- Images for kids
How Rugby Union Started Before the Big Split
People have played many types of football for a long time. But in the late 1800s, rules for these games started to be written down. In 1871, English clubs playing a version of football from Rugby School (where players used their hands a lot) formed the Rugby Football Union.
Lots of new rugby clubs started up. The game became very popular in the northern parts of England, like Lancashire and Yorkshire. Here, rugby was mostly played by working-class people. In contrast, clubs in the southeast were mostly for middle-class people.
Rugby also spread to Australia and New Zealand, especially in cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch, and Auckland. There, too, you could see a difference between working-class and wealthier players.
The game grew stronger, and big crowds came to watch important matches, especially in Yorkshire. But players, especially working-class ones, weren't allowed to earn money from the game. This made it hard for them to play their best. If they got hurt, they had to pay their own medical bills. This could cause big money problems for someone who earned a weekly wage.
The Big Split: How Rugby League Was Born
In 1892, some rugby clubs in Bradford and Leeds got into trouble. They had paid players for missing work, which was against the rules. This was called "professionalism." But it was a bit unfair, because the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) had allowed other players to be paid, like a British team that toured Australia in 1888.
In 1893, clubs from Yorkshire complained. They felt that southern clubs had too much power on the RFU committee. They also said that meetings were held in London at times that made it hard for northern members to attend. This meant that decisions about "broken time" payments (money to make up for lost wages) were often against the northern clubs. These payments would have helped players get up to six shillings (about 30p) when they missed work for a match. But the RFU said no.
One club, Huddersfield, was even suspended for a long time for offering money to players to join their team. These strict punishments made northern clubs feel frustrated and unfairly treated. Meanwhile, professional soccer (called the Football League) had started in 1888. Many of its clubs were from northern England. So, the northern rugby clubs decided it was time to form their own professional league.
On August 27, 1895, clubs from Lancashire met in Manchester. They decided to support their Yorkshire friends in forming a "Northern Union."
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Two days later, on August 29, 1895, representatives from 22 clubs met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield. They formed the Northern Rugby Football Union, often called the Northern Union (NU). This was the real start of rugby league. The sport officially took the name "rugby league" in 1922.
The rugby union authorities were very angry. They punished clubs, players, and officials who joined the new group. Even amateur players who played with or against Northern Union teams were affected. But many northern clubs that played rugby just for fun also joined the Northern Union. By 1904, the new Northern Union had more clubs than the RFU!
The separate competitions in Lancashire and Yorkshire joined together in 1901. This formed the Northern Rugby Football League. In 1901, James Lomas became the first player to be transferred for £100, moving from Bramley to Salford. The Northern Rugby Football Union officially became the Northern Rugby Football League in 1922.
How Rugby League Grew in Great Britain
The first international rugby league match was played in 1904. It was between England and a team of "Other Nationalities," mostly Welsh players.
At first, the Northern Union used the same rules as rugby union. But they soon started making changes. The first small change was in the very first season (1895-96). Other new rules were slowly added. By 1907, when the New Zealand "All Golds" team arrived, the main differences between the two games were clear:
- Rugby league had 13 players per team, while rugby union had 15.
- After a tackle, rugby league used the "play the ball" (heeling the ball back). Rugby union used a ruck.
- Rugby league removed the line-out (where players lift each other to catch the ball from the sideline).
- The scoring was a bit different, with all goals being worth 2 points.
During this time, the Northern Union created major tournaments. The league championship was first one big competition. Then it split into two parts: the Lancashire and Yorkshire leagues. This meant they needed a play-off system to find the overall champions. A nationwide cup, the Challenge Cup, was also started and quickly became very popular. In 1905, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Cups were added. This created a structure that lasted until the 1960s. Clubs could win four trophies, and winning "All Four Cups" was a huge achievement.
As it became clear that there would be two types of rugby, people needed a way to tell them apart. Teams in the Northern Union were described as "playing in the league," which led to the name "rugby league." Teams that stayed with the RFU (who didn't play in a league) were said to play "rugby union."
Rugby League Comes to New Zealand
In 1905, New Zealand's rugby union team, the All Blacks, toured Britain. They saw how popular the Northern Union games were becoming. In 1906, an All Black player named George William Smith met an Australian businessman, J. J. Giltinan. They talked about the idea of professional rugby in Australia and New Zealand.
Around the same time, another New Zealand rugby player, Albert Henry Baskerville, started gathering players for a professional tour of Great Britain. Baskerville learned about the money to be made from a British newspaper. He wrote to the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) to ask if they would host a New Zealand team. George Smith found out about Baskerville's plans, and they teamed up to find players.
The All Golds Tour
When the All Golds team stopped in Australia, they played three games in Sydney against a professional New South Wales rugby team. These games were played under rugby union rules because they didn't have the new Northern Union rules yet. Baskerville was very impressed by Dally Messenger, a famous Australian player, and convinced him to join the tour. Because of this, the All Golds are sometimes called "Australasia," even though Messenger was the only Australian player.
The All Golds arrived in Britain in late 1907. They had never even seen a match played under the new Northern Union rules! They had a week of intense coaching in Leeds. After playing some warm-up matches, the first real rugby league "test" match was played. The All Golds lost 8-9 to Wales on January 1, 1908. However, the All Golds got their revenge, beating the full Great Britain team in two of their three test matches. The tour was a big success and helped boost the game in Britain, which was struggling against the rise of soccer.
Sadly, Baskerville died from illness during the Australian part of the tour. But the professional rugby movement continued. It grew in New Zealand despite strong opposition from the rugby union leaders.
Early Problems for the Game in New Zealand
Besides Baskerville's death, other problems soon affected rugby league in New Zealand. The All Golds were almost too successful, as many team members quickly signed big contracts with British clubs. Baskerville's game soon became popular, especially in Auckland. But rugby union had strong local organizations and money in New Zealand. This meant rugby league couldn't become as dominant there as it did in parts of Australia and England.
Rugby League Comes to Australia
New South Wales
In Sydney, Australia, which was a rugby stronghold, issues about class and professionalism were causing problems. There were rumors that the New South Wales Rugby Union was not truly amateur. Things got worse in 1907 when a working-class player, Alex Burdon, broke his arm playing for New South Wales. He didn't get any money for his time off work.
George Smith sent a message to a friend in Sydney to see if there was support for his New Zealand professional team to tour. J. J. Giltinan heard about it and was very interested. Giltinan announced that he had invited Baskerville's team to play three matches in Sydney. The Australian newspapers called the New Zealand team the "All Golds." This was a sarcastic play on the "All Blacks" nickname for the amateur New Zealand rugby team, hinting that the new game was all about money. The games were a big success. They gave the Australian rugby rebels much-needed money, which was vital for rugby league in Australia.
A meeting was held in Sydney on August 8, 1907, to organize professional rugby in Australia. Giltinan, Burdon, and famous cricket player Victor Trumper were there. They decided to form a "New South Wales Rugby Football League" (NSWRFL) to play the Northern Union rules. This was the first time "rugby" and "league" were used together in the name of an Australian sports group. Players were quickly recruited for the new game, even though the New South Wales Rugby Union threatened to ban them for life. The NSWRFL managed to get Herbert "Dally" Messenger, the most famous rugby player in Sydney at the time.
The first season of the NSWRFL competition was played in 1908. It has been played every year since then. It eventually became a national competition and is now the world's top rugby club competition.
In September 1909, when the new "Northern Union" game was still very new in Australia, a match was played between the Kangaroos (rugby league) and the Wallabies (rugby union). About 20,000 people watched, and the rugby league team won 29–26. That year, rugby union and rugby league made similar amounts of money. By 1910, rugby league's earnings had doubled. By 1913, rugby union's earnings were less than 10% of rugby league's. Rugby union had to give up its leases on major sports grounds, and rugby league took most of them over.
Queensland
The All Golds tour also helped start the game in Queensland, Australia, which was a big rival of New South Wales in rugby. On May 16, 1908, the New Zealanders played a quickly put-together Queensland team in Brisbane. People watching the new game were sad when Albert Baskerville got sick in Brisbane and died. Test matches between Great Britain and New Zealand are now played for the Baskerville Shield, named in his memory.
A Queensland Rugby Football Association was founded. In early July, informal club games were played in Brisbane. Later that month, there were three games against New South Wales. These games helped choose players for a national team.
The Brisbane Rugby League premiership began in 1909. On May 8, the first match was played in Brisbane between Norths and Souths at the Gabba.
By the 1920s, the Queensland Rugby League was a strong rival to the NSWRL.
Rugby League's "Ashes"
Also in 1908, the Australian rugby union team returned from a tour of Britain. Thirteen of their players immediately joined rugby league teams. By late 1908, an Australian touring team was heading to Great Britain. The series of test matches was called "The Ashes" by the newspapers. This was like the famous Ashes cricket matches between Australia and England.
Later in 1909, when New Zealand toured Australia, the Australian team's jersey had a kangaroo on it for the first time. This gave them their famous nickname, "The Kangaroos."
Before World War I: Game Developments
In the early 1900s, there were also attempts to start the game in Wales. Many teams were formed there. While these teams didn't last long, Wales remained a source of talented players for rugby league. Over the years, many Welsh rugby union players moved north to the big English clubs. They were attracted by the chance to earn money playing rugby. This continued until rugby union officially allowed professionalism in the late 1900s.
The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first ever. It included several Welsh players who used to play rugby union. Several Australian rugby union players switched to rugby league to play against this touring team, which was expected to be one of the best ever.
In Australia and New Zealand, the game focused on local or state-wide leagues. There were no national competitions in either country until much later. Rugby league quickly became more popular than rugby union in New South Wales and Queensland. Other parts of Australia were already dominated by Australian rules football. In New Zealand, the amateur rugby union was still strong, but rugby league was becoming a popular rival.
Sports suffered during the First World War, and rugby league was no different. In Britain, the government didn't encourage professional sports, and major competitions stopped. In Australia, it was less serious, and rugby league continued. Rugby union stopped playing during the war. This decision is often seen as a main reason why rugby league became more dominant than rugby union in Australia.
Even though clubs kept playing, many were short of players because of the war. In 1917, Australia's first rugby league club, Glebe, caused controversy. They played a player named Dan "Laddo" Davies, but a rival club protested that he lived in their area. Glebe lost points, and Davies was banned for life. Many Glebe players felt the league was unfair to them and went on strike. The league responded by suspending their top team. This led to more problems and even a breakaway competition for a while. Glebe was eventually removed from the main competition in 1929.
In November 1921 in England, the first player was transferred for £1,000. This was winger Harold Buck, who moved from Hunslet to Leeds.
Internationally, the game had a steady pattern of teams touring. Australia or New Zealand would visit Britain every two years, and Britain would visit them. The war interrupted this, but the schedule started again after the fighting ended. More and more Australian and New Zealand players went to England for bigger paychecks.
Between the World Wars
For many years, rugby union leaders thought that French rugby union was cheating on the amateur rules. In the early 1930s, the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against other nations. In 1932, the first rugby league match played under floodlights took place between Leeds and Wigan in London. After some work by Harry Sunderland (for the Australian Rugby League) and the Rugby Football League in England, the Australian and Great British teams played a special game in Paris in late 1933. The French Rugby League was officially formed on April 6, 1934.
Many French players looked for another option and turned to rugby league. It quickly became the main game in France, especially in the southwest. Having a French team on the international stage added more variety to tours and led to the creation of a European Championship.
During World War II, the British government saw professional sports as good for public morale. While normal leagues stopped, a War Emergency League was created. Clubs played in separate Yorkshire and Lancashire sections to avoid long travel. During this time, rugby union players were temporarily allowed to play with rugby league players. In a special event, a rugby league team played a rugby union team in two matches to raise money for the Red Cross. Both games were played under rugby union rules, and the rugby league team won both!
In Australia, the war years brought large crowds. Financially, the sport didn't suffer as much as it did during World War I. However, losing many young men in the fighting certainly meant fewer talented players were available.
The defeat of France in the war had serious effects on rugby league in France. The government at the time banned rugby league. They forced players, clubs, and officials to switch to rugby union. The money and property of the rugby league and its clubs were given to rugby union.
The effects of this are still felt today. The property was never returned. Even though the ban on rugby league was lifted, it was not allowed to call itself "rugby" from 1949 to the mid-1980s. It had to use the name Jeu à Treize (Game of Thirteen), referring to the number of players on a rugby league team.
After World War II: New Growth
The rules of the sport kept changing. Until the 1940s, there was no world group to make sure the rules were the same everywhere. Countries had to agree on rules for tours. Usually, other nations followed the British rules. For example, the field goal (kicking the ball through the posts during play) was banned by the New South Wales Rugby League in 1922. But it wasn't officially removed from the game until 1950, when the British also banned it.
This changed in 1948. The French pushed for it, and the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed on January 25, 1948, in Bordeaux. The 1947-48 Challenge Cup Final was the first rugby league match ever shown on TV. All sports in the UK became very popular after World War II, and rugby league boomed. Huge crowds were normal for about 20 years. The total number of people watching games in the British season reached a record in 1949-50, with over 69.8 million paying customers! On November 10, 1951, the first international rugby league match was shown on TV. It was between Great Britain and New Zealand.
The huge interest in the sport was also shown by the 1954 Challenge Cup Final replay. This game between Halifax and Warrington was held at Odsal Stadium in Bradford. The official attendance was 102,569 people! This was a record for a single rugby league match until 1999. It's thought that another 20,000 people got in for free after a fence collapsed. Warrington beat Halifax 8-4.
This time also saw crowds grow in Australia, New Zealand, and France. This was a "golden age" for the French team. Led by the amazing Puig Aubert, they traveled to Australia and beat their hosts in a three-game series in 1951. When they returned to France, an estimated 100,000 fans greeted the winning team in Marseille. They repeated this success in France in 1952-53 and again in Australia in 1955.
The First World Cup and New Changes
The French were the main reason the first Rugby League World Cup was held in 1954. This was also the first tournament officially called the "Rugby World Cup." This competition has been held on and off since then, in different ways. Unlike many other sports, the World Cup has never really been the most important international event. That honor usually goes to international test series like the Ashes.
In 1956, the government in New South Wales, Australia, made it legal for clubs to have poker machines. This quickly became the main way for rugby league clubs to make money. Some of these "leagues clubs" became huge and fancy places for their fans. This money stopped Australian players from moving to better-paying clubs in England. It also led to more recruiting of rugby union and league players from Queensland and other countries by New South Wales clubs. Within a few years, the Sydney-based league became the most powerful in Australia. The large profits from gambling have always been a bit controversial. Many people questioned if it was right and worried it could lead to financial problems.
In 1961, the first rugby league game was shown on TV in Australia. In the UK, live TV coverage of professional rugby league started in the early 1960s. This showed the game to people all over the country. David Attenborough, who worked for BBC2, decided to show rugby league games from a new competition made for evening TV, called the BBC2 Television Floodlit Trophy. It was a success, and rugby league has been on TV ever since. Now, money from selling TV rights is the biggest source of income for the game. In Australia, the 1967 NSWRFL season's grand final was the first football grand final of any kind to be shown live on TV in Australia.
This time also saw more changes to the rules. In 1964, substitutes were allowed for the first time, but only for players injured before half-time. In 1966, a new rule called "limited tackles" was introduced. In 1967, professional matches were allowed on Sundays for the first time. Also that year, a team could only keep the ball for four tackles after a play-the-ball. This rule was meant to make the game more exciting and stop teams from just holding onto the ball. It worked, but four tackles often wasn't enough time to plan an attack. So, in 1971, the number of tackles allowed was increased to six, and it has stayed that way ever since. That year, the value of field goals was also reduced from 2 to 1 point.
In Britain's 1971-72 season, sponsors started to get involved in the game. In 1976, a Sydney club, Eastern Suburbs, became the first to have a major sponsor's name on their jersey.
In 1980, the first State of Origin match was played in Australia. This game put teams representing Queensland and New South Wales against each other. Matches between the two states had happened for years. But the "origin" idea meant players were chosen based on where they first played the game, not where they were playing now. This made the competition more even and made fans feel more pride, as players truly represented their states. State of Origin matches are now some of the biggest and most exciting games in Australian sport.
The 1980s also saw efforts to make rugby league more popular outside its usual areas. In Great Britain, a new team from London (Fulham) joined the professional league. In Australia, the first teams from outside Sydney joined the top competition in 1982. These were the Illawarra Steelers (from Wollongong) and the Canberra Raiders (from Canberra).
In 1981, the 'Sin Bin' rule was introduced in rugby league in Australia. This means a player can be sent off the field for a short time for breaking rules.
In 1983, the points for scoring a try increased from three to four. Also in 1983, an Australian TV show called Four Corners aired an episode about rugby league. It talked about problems within the NSWRL, including suggestions that officials were misusing money. This led to a big investigation. It resulted in changes and improvements in how rugby league was managed in Australia.
In the late 1980s, rugby league competitions started or grew in Russia, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific islands.
More teams joined the NSWRL in 1988. These included the first Queensland teams: Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Giants, plus another team from outside Sydney, Newcastle Knights. More teams were added in 1995, including teams from Perth, Townsville, and Auckland.
The 1990s saw TV money become even more important for the sport. A fight over TV rights led to the famous Super League war. This split the game into rival competitions in the middle of the decade. This event affected rugby league worldwide, and the damage is still being fixed.
Switch to Summer Rugby and World Cup Growth
While the Super League war was happening in Australia, Rupert Murdoch suggested to English clubs that they form a Super League. This was partly to help him in his fight for TV rights in Australia. A lot of money from Murdoch's company, BSkyB, helped fund this idea. The new competition started in 1996. As part of the deal, rugby league in Britain switched from a winter to a summer season. The British, Australian, and New Zealand seasons now run from March to October. Major international tournaments are mostly played in November. However, the French still play a winter season.
After the 1997 season in Australia, the Super League war ended. News International and the Australian Rugby League agreed to combine their competitions to create the National Rugby League, which started in 1998. The first team from Victoria, the Melbourne Storm, joined the competition. Several clubs were forced to merge (like St. George Dragons and Illawarra Steelers becoming St George Illawarra Dragons), or they closed down. The removal of South Sydney Rabbitohs, one of the original founding clubs, led to huge protests. Although Souths didn't play in the NRL in 2000 and 2001, a court decision in July 2001 allowed them to return in 2002.
In 1995, rugby union became professional. Many people who had always looked down on rugby league as just a professional version of rugby union started predicting that rugby league would die out. The Super League war, money problems with the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, and some famous rugby league stars switching to rugby union seemed to support this idea.
With rugby union becoming professional, several well-known rugby league players changed sports. Some did well, others didn't. Australian rugby union leaders seemed to target league international players. In 2001/02, Kangaroos players Wendell Sailor, Mat Rogers, and Lote Tuqiri all switched and soon played for the Wallabies (Australia's rugby union team). Other famous players like Jason Robinson also switched. However, newspaper claims at the time that a "flood" of players would leave proved to be over-the-top. By the end of the decade, the number of league players moving to union for big money seemed to have settled down. In fact, in many cases, this actually helped rugby league. The money from transfer fees was used to help the game grow and develop young players in Britain. Also, many of the star players who switched later returned to rugby league in Australia.
In Britain, the end of unfair treatment against rugby league (because rugby union became professional) led to more people playing the amateur game. Many amateur rugby union players were keen to try out the other code. In 2004, the Rugby Football League reported that it was making a profit again. It also had a unified structure and a 94% increase in registered players in just two years.
In 2008, rugby league held its first World Cup since the difficult 2000 tournament. The 2008 competition was a big success, making a good profit. It was seen as a major step forward for the international game. Also, the Rugby League European Federation was set up during this decade. As a result, the game saw huge improvements in both the quality and number of international competitions. The game in France saw a rebirth, largely because the Catalans Dragons joined Super League. Big progress was also made in other countries like Wales and New Zealand, who finished the decade as world champions.
In Australia in 2009, rugby league's popularity was confirmed. It had the highest official TV ratings of any sporting event.
The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was held in Europe. The final was played at England's Old Trafford in front of 74,468 people, the largest crowd ever for an international match.
The 2014 National Rugby League Grand Final was the most-watched TV show of the year in Australia.
In 2015, the league changed its structure. Promotion and relegation (teams moving up or down divisions) were brought back between Super League and the Championship. Rugby league also had 4 of the top 5 highest-rated TV broadcasts in Australia that year.
In 2017, rugby league saw its first professional club outside of Europe or Australia/Oceania. The Canadian team Toronto Wolfpack joined the British Rugby League system in the third division. Toronto won their league in their first season and moved up to the Championship, the second level of British Rugby League, for 2018.
See also
- Rugby league
- History of rugby union
- Tom Brock Lecture – a yearly talk celebrating the history of rugby league in Australia
- Super League war
- Rugby league in Australia
- Rugby league in New Zealand
- List of defunct rugby league clubs
Images for kids
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The first ever Challenge Cup Final in 1897: Batley (left) vs St Helens (right).
