Manchester City and United are currently dominating the English Premier League - but until the 20th Century Manchester was seen as a hotbed of rugby, not soccer. So how did the city lose its status as one of rugby's most important centres?

The new 'Rugby Reloaded' explores the rise and decline of Manchester as a rugby city, and examines how a series of decisions dealt a body blow to rugby from which it never really recovered.

For more on Manchester’s early footballing history, take a look at Graham Morris’s Rugby League in Manchester (2003), Stephen Wild’s edited book Swinton Lions Rugby League Club: 150 Years (2017) and Gary James on the development of soccer in 19th century Manchester, The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919 (2019)

1899: a joint match-day programme for Man City, Newton Heath, Salford and Broughton Rangers