Rugby Reloaded #160 - Super League: 25 Years On

Thursday 8 April is the anniversary of the 1995 meeting in Wigan when British rugby league agreed with Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd to switch to a summer Super League.

It was part of the biggest revolution rugby had seen since 1895. Not only was rugby league changed forever, but rugby union was forced to embrace open professionalism.

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' examines the birth of Super League in Britain, looks at rugby union's dash for cash, and assesses the legacy of those dramatic days for the British game.

Maurice Lindsay signals the future for British rugby league…

Rugby Reloaded #159 - The Roots of Super League

29 March 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the very first game in Super League between the short-lived Paris St Germain and Sheffield Eagles, so part one of a special double episode steps back in time to examine the events that led up to the summer rugby league revolution.

We trace Super League's roots back to the problems that British rugby league faced from the 1970s, which escalated in the 1980s. Wage inflation, spiralling transfer fees, and the costs incurred after the Bradford City and Hillsborough disasters took the sport to the brink... and then came the satellite TV boom.

Rugby Reloaded #158 - XFL discusses merger with the Canadian Football League, with Spencer Kassimir

Barely six months after Super League pulled out of Toronto, the US-based XFL is now in talks with the Canadian Football League (CFL) about a potential merger. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to football scholar Spencer Kassimir about the history of the XFL and the CFL, the background to the talks, and what lessons can be learned by other football codes.

For more on the history of the CFL take a listen to ‘Rugby Reloaded' episode 32 on the origins of the Canadian game. And for an excellent primer on the rules of the gridiron football codes, take a look at the great Ninh Ly’s YouTube videos on the rules of the CFL, the rules of the XFL, and how the Canadian game differs from the American version.

The Toronto University team that was the first winner of Canadian football’s Grey Cup - it this time the game was still called rugby despite playing very different rules.

Rugby Reloaded #157 - Manchester: Rugby's Lost City

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

Rugby Reloaded #156 - Julia Lee: Rugby League Trailblazer

To mark International Women's Day 2021, this episode talks to Julia Lee, one of the true pioneers of British rugby league. Julia was the first women ever to referee a men's professional rugby match of any code anywhere in the world. She's also been a trailblazer in the administration of the sport, has had a play - Ref! - written about her career, and is now collecting the memories of women who have been involved in the game since the 1970s.

Julia reflects on the obstacles she faced in the game and the challenges that women still face in the quest for equality not just in rugby league but also in sport and society in general.

You can find Julia’s smart gallery of women’s memories of playing, watching and administering rugby here at her Women and Rugby League! website and here is the website for her business CommonSense Initiative.

Rugby Reloaded #155 - Rugby league and the Jewish community

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes a look at the history of Jewish involvement in rugby league. The birth of the sport coincided with a wave of Jewish immigration to Britain in the 1890s, and Jews in the big cities of northern England quickly took the game to their hearts. The same was true in Sydney, where a Jewish rugby league competition was played in the 1920s. From pioneers like Eli Jacobson to superstars like Albert Rosenfeld, and modern-day administrators like Todd Greenberg and Simon Johnson, Jews have played a major role in the history of the game.

There aren’t, as yet, any books on the Jewish history of rugby league, but it’s worth checking out Anthony Clavane’s story of Jews in soccer, Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here?: The Story of English Football's Forgotten Tribe, Dave Dee’s Sport and British Jewry, and Phil Goldstone chapter on sport in Leeds and its Jewish Communities.

Albert Goldthorpe, Eli Jacobson and Hunslet official Joe Lewthwaite in 1929.

Rugby Reloaded #154 - The Rise, Fall and Re-Rise of the Drop-Goal

As the new NRL season is about to raise the value of the drop-goal for the first time in 130 years, the new ‘Rugby Reloaded’ investigates the history of the drop-kick and the drop-goal.

How did the drop-kick become so important that for over fifty years it was the most valuable way of scoring points in rugby union? What’s the difference between a drop-goal and a field-goal? Why is the drop-kick still in the rulebooks of the NFL and CFL? And will the NRL's new rule lead rugby league back down a road it travelled in the late 1960s?

Doug Flutie’s extra point drop-goal for the Patriots in 2006, the only time one has been scored since 1941.

Rugby Reloaded #153 - Football Before 'football': folk-football in Britain

Humans have thrown and kicked a ball towards some form of goal fo as long as people have lived in communities. In any historical period, in part of the globe, football-type games have been played by men and women.

In Britain, football seems to have emerged in the Middle Ages and developed any different forms, from traditional matches with hundreds of players to small-sided games with detailed rules. By Shakespeare;s time it had become seen as a game for the labouring masses.

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes the long view of 'folk football' in Britain before the emergence of the modern rugby and soccer football codes, and asks why it lagged behind sports like cricket and boxing, and did not develop into a modern game until the last third of the 1800s.

Shrove Tuesday football at Kingston on Thames, 1846.

Rugby Reloaded #152 - The Other Amateur Rugby: the early history of amateur rugby league

Although rugby's great split of 1895 is often portrayed as a professional breakaway, it also led to the vast majority of amateur rugby clubs in the north of England leaving the RFU and joining the Northern Union. This week's episode takes a look at the early history of rugby league below the professional level, examining its rise, fall, and rise again as it battled with the effects of war and the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

For more on the history of amateur league, there are two chapters in Rugby League: A People’s History and numerous books published on the history of amateur clubs across the north of England. Check out my Twitter feed for mentions of some of them.

Rastrick amateur rugby club in 1926, the year fo the General Strike.

Rugby Reloaded #151 - 'Rugger Diplomacy': the British Foreign Office and Romanian rugby

The latest episode looks at how Romanian rugby boomed in the 1950s, threatening the Five Nations’ dominance of European rugby union, as its club sides proved to be more than a match for the top English and Welsh teams. Then the British Foreign Office stepped in...

We uncover the secret history of Anglo-Romanian ‘rugger diplomacy’, the role played by England rugby union great Wavell Wakefield, and discover the rugby league link in all this. If you think that politics in rugby is a recent thing, think again.

Rugby Reloaded #150 - 150 Years Since The Founding Of The RFU

Tuesday 26 January is the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Rugby Football Union at the Pall Mall Restaurant in the centre of London. In this week's 150th episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' we explore why and how the RFU was formed, and discover the contemporary parallels which forced rugby clubs to form their first governing body.

The London plaque marking the RFU’s foundation on the corner of Pall Mall East and Cockspur Street.

Rugby Reloaded #149 - Tries, Damned Tries and Statistics, with Neil Ormston of the RL Record Keepers' Club

Facts speak for themselves, don't they? Not always, as we discover in this week's interview with Neil Ormston from the Rugby League Record Keepers' Club.

As well as looking at the history of league stats, we discuss what constitutes an international match, what makes a club a club, and why league sides don't include their pre-1895 stats in their records.

This is the episode where history, statistics and the philosophy of knowledge come together with the force of an Adrian Morley tackle.

You can contact Neil directly at neil.ormston@gmail.com and the RLRKC also hosts its own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RLRKC

Rugby Reloaded #148 - Tom Brown's School Days

This week’s episode explores the book that did more to shape the modern sporting world than any other: Tom Brown’s School Days. When it was published in 1857, it was the Harry Potter of its day, but it went on to influence not just rugby football, but all football codes and all modern sports, not least the Olympic movement.

But what exactly was its message and what lessons did it expect its readers to learn? Underneath the surface, its coming of age story reflects all the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of Victorian Britain - and would their stamp on sport even in the 21st Century.

You can download a copy of Tom Brown from the Internet Archive and you can watch various film adaptations from 1916, 1940, 1951 and 2005 on YouTube.

Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044134A faithful rendition of the Thomas Hughes book of life at the famed Rugby School for Boys in...

Rugby Reloaded #147 - The Ghost Player at the Roses Match →

It's widely believed that William Wollen's famous 1895 rugby painting of 'The Roses Match' between Lancashire and Yorkshire accidentally reveals 'ghost players', men who joined the Northern Union and were later painted out of the picture.

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' looks at the history of rugby's most memorable masterpiece and explores the truth behind the 'painted out players' story. As one myth is debunked, the painting reveals yet more mysteries and the latest research uncovers new facts about the painting.

W. B. Wollen, ‘The Battle of the Roses’ (1895)

Rugby Reloaded #146 - Peter Harvey: from St Helens to Twickenham and Back Again →

This week’s episode talks to former England schoolboys’ rugby union captain and St Helens centre/stand-off of the 1960s Peter Harvey about his life in rugby. Peter grew up watching rugby league in St Helens, but he passed his 11+ exam and went to grammar school, where he began playing rugby union. He played for Lancashire and captained England schoolboys, before signing for St Helens and becoming a central part of the great Saints side of the mid-1960s.

His life is, in many ways, that of the archetypal working-class grammar school boy of the post-war era, and Peter’s social awareness and understanding gives him an insight into how his experiences reflected British society at that time. This is a fascinating insight into one man’s journey through rugby and the British class system.

Peter’s 2014 autobiography, Redhead With Fire in his Boots, is still available (at £7.50 including postage and packing) and can be ordered directly from him at redheadbooks2440@gmail.com

Rugby Reloaded #145 - Christmas Day football and rugby league →

Christmas is just around the corner - and in past times soccer and rugby league supporters would have been looking forward to watching a match on Christmas Day. It was a tradition that brought record crowds and festive-style football. But how traditional was it - and why did it die out?

The new episode of ‘Rugby Reloaded’ unwraps the history of Christmas Day football and asks if it’s a tradition that could be re-invented for the 21st Century?

You can find Ian Nannestad’s fascinating article on Christmas Day soccer on his excellent Soccer History website, and Martin Johnes’ Christmas and the British is available here.

If you’d like to find out about football and the 1914 Christmas Day truce during World War One, check out Rugby Reloaded episode 41, Football and the 1914 Christmas Truce.

Artie Beetson breaks his leg playing for Hull KR in the 1968 Christmas Day derby. Johnny Moore and Colin Hutton look on.

Rugby Reloaded #144 - 'Puddings, Bullies & Squashes': Early Public School Football →

To mark the publication of a new book on the origins of British public school football games - Puddings, Bullies and Squashes, edited by Malcolm Tozer - this episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' goes back to the 19th Century to look at the development and influence of schools football.

Did the public school codes influence modern games of football? What was the role of Muscular Christianity? How did the school game relate to the adult football clubs that also emerged at the same time? Join with me in a ten-minute trip back to the primodial origins of the world's football codes.

Puddings, Bullies and Squashes is available from Amazon or direct from the publishers, Sunnyrest Books, email: sunnyrest-books@outlook.com

Puddings, Bullies and Squashes – pb ISBN 978-1838538996 (£19.00 + £4.00 p&p)

Puddings, Bullies and Squashes – hd ISBN 978-1838538989 (£29.00 + £4.00 p&p)

Rugby Reloaded #143 - Talkin' Salary Cap Blues with Sean McGuire →

What's the point of rugby league's salary cap? Rugby was was the original salary cap sport when it banned payments to players in 1886, which led directly to rugby's great split in 1895.

Super League introduced the sport's first salary cap in 1998 wth the aim of equalising competition and protecting clubs from themselves. But has it met it aims? This episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to former St Helens' CEO Sean McGuire about the history of wage control in the game and future of the salary cap.

You read about the principles of the RFL salary cap policy here and the detailed rulebook is here.

Credit: Steve Mascord

Rugby Reloaded #142 - Once Were Kangaroos - looking back on the 1986 Kangaroo tour with Mark Flanagan →

In the wake of the BBC's excellent Once Were Lions documentary, 'Rugby Reloaded' looks back on the 1986 Kangaroo tour of Britain with Mark Flanagan, author of The Invincibles: The Inside Story of the 1982 Kangaroos, the Team That Changed Rugby Forever.

Were they the greatest touring team of all time? What did their success tell us about the state of British rugby league, or about the future direction that rugby league would take?

Two parts historical analysis, one part nostalgia, this episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' looks back at the origins of the modern era of rugby league.

Opposite: the December 1986 front cover of the short-lived British monthly Sportsweek.

Rugby Reloaded #141 - Anglo-Welsh rugby union rivalry, with Huw Richards →

It's England versus Wales at rugby union on Saturday, the latest instalment in a rivalry that stretches across nation, class and playing style.

To discuss the roots and the history of a contest that dates back to 1881, this week's ‘Rugby Reloaded’ feature’s is longtime friend of the show Huw Richards, rugby historian, journalist and author of The Red & The White: A History of England vs Wales Rugby.

Huw examines the myths, legends and realities of rugby's most complicated rivalry - and looks at how rugby’s great split of 1895 forever altered the relationship between the two nations.