This week we talk to Ryan Bodman about his forthcoming book on the social history of rugby league in New Zealand. As Ryan explains, league in NZ has always been a game of the excluded and dispossesed: industrial workers, Maori and Pacific Islanders. He talks about the deep links between the sport and the labour movement, discusses how anti-Catholic sectarianism saw Irish Catholics come into the game, and why NZ schools even today are a battleground between league and union. For more on Ryan’s work and the history of New Zealand rugby league, visit his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/rugbyleaguenzhistory/
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