Rugby's
Great Split
Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football
by Tony Collins
Frank Cass Publishers
"There's
either a lamentable want of brains or honesty - perhaps a want of both
- in all [the Lancashire and Yorkshire clubs'] movements and people
are getting heartily sick and tired of the whole thing.
There
are two courses open for the clubs to take - either amateurism or professionalism...
What we do want, and pine for, is the honest official bold enough to
give prominence to the wishes of the majority of the working men players,
and strike out for professionalism."
So
said A. A. Sutherland of the Clarion newspaper in early December 1894.
Nine months later the Northern Rugby Football Union was formed and the
game of rugby league had begun.
The
thoughts of Sutherland give you the short version of how the rugby divide
of 1895 came about - and how its arrival was inevitable. There could
never have been an amicable solution.
The
RFU couldn't 'fall on its sword' and allow any form of payment from
clubs to players.
And
the working men of Yorkshire and Lancashire, whose ability to participate
in the rugby game they loved meant missing out on wages, couldn't continue
to play unless they were recompensed by their club.
Something had to break the rising frustration, so well encapsulated
by Sutherland, and that was 'the split'.
The
great falsehood portrayed by many rugby league history articles, documentaries
and books is that the game was born in 1895. All before that time rarely
gets a mention - as if 'the greatest game of all' simply walked out
of a coal pit and saved thousands of Northern men from the scurge of
rugby union. The story of rugby league begins when 'rugby' began.
Tony
Collins' rugby league history book - Rugby's Great Split - covers the
rugby game from its folk origins, through its development in the 19th
century, the divide of 1895 and into the early 20th century with the
arrival of the first New Zealand rugby league team.
Many of England's rugby league clubs were born long before 1895, and
Collins explores the world that they belonged to - both on and off the
field. His work is meticuously researched and annotated with references
throughout.
There
is little in the way of speculation or well worn tales - he dismisses
William Webb Ellis' deed in less than a page and speaks of it no more
than to say that it has "become possibly the most famous example
of myth-making in British sport". (Don't forget that one when the
trophy for the 2003 Rugby World Cup is being bayed upon).
Collins
examines the working class background of the northern clubs and looks
at how the community and club were inter-twined. If the upper class
owners of Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs had wanted to stay faithful
to the Rugby Football Union, they would have ended up with no players,
no supporters and disgruntled workers in the factories and mills that
they also owned.
I
wouldn't say this was the easiest rugby league book to read, especially
if your used to just taking on the odd player's biography. But in the
oft' repeated words of many representative players, you will 'need to
step up a gear' as you will be facing 'a tougher opposition'.
After
having read Collins' book you will definitely be the better for it -
and a lot more informed.
'Great
Split' is a required read for any fair minded 'rugby' fan - of either
code.
Rugby's
Great Split:
Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football
by Tony Collins
Published
by Frank Cass Publishers, London : ISBN 0-7146-4424-2
