RUGBY LEAGUE

There are two versions of the game which takes its name from the English public school; rugby union and rugby league. Although originally the same game, the parting of the ways came at a meeting in a Huddersfield hotel in 1895, when northern clubs broke away from the Rugby Football Union to form their own organisation. Within a few years, the breakaway clubs had made the changes to the rules (13 players a side instead of 15, no line-outs, and "play the ball" after the tackle instead of a ruck) that make rugby league different.

As with many things in English sporting history, the root cause of the dispute was about class. Rugby union was a completely amateur sport at the time (indeed, it was not until 1995 that it became openly professional); yet many of the leading clubs in the north were popular amongst the industrial working classes of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Accusations of professionalism had been around for some time in the late nineteenth century. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the issue of broken time payments, compensation to players for missing work because of match commitments. Wealthier southern players didn't need such payments; poorer northern ones did. The result, for 100 years, was an amateur game of rugby union and a professional game of rugby league. And although rugby union has since spread across the country, rugby league is still largely confined to gritty northern towns such as Castleford, Wigan and St. Helens.

Not surprisingly, rugby league's professionalism resulted, for many years, in fitter, more skilful players. In 1996, Bath and Wigan, then the best clubs in the country at union and league, played a match of each. Bath won the union game 44-19, and it was close until the end; but Wigan won the league game 82-6. Since that time, many of the developments in rugby union, including professionialism, have been league-like; shoulder pads, strip tackles, dummy runners and line defence.

I have always liked both codes. Rugby league matches were a standard part of my Saturday afternoon as a boy, when Eddie Waring commentated weekly on BBC's Grandstand from somewhere up north. Then, in the spring, Bill McClaren would take the rugby union internationals - also on BBC - in the 5 Nations championship. If a rugby union game has lots of attacking, then it is probably the more exciting; on the other hand, a dull rugby union game with lots of kicking is much duller than a rugby league game.

If New Zealand are the traditional powerhouses of rugby union, the leaders in rugby league are undoubtedly Australia, where it is the top game in New South Wales and Queensland and the most watched sport on television nationwide. Such is the dominance of "the Kangaroos" that no British team has beaten them at home in a test series since 1959. However, there were high hopes this evening of ending that dismal record, when England (the previous Great Britain team has been divided into England and Wales) met Australia in the final of the 4-Nations tournament at Elland Road, Leeds. Although Australia had beaten England in the round-robin stages, England had played brilliantly a week earlier to defeat New Zealand, 4-Nations and World Cup holders, and a repeat performance in the final looked like being on the cards. 10 minutes into the second half of a gripping game, it was tied at 8-8; but a couple of English errors and some inspired Australian play saw the latter run out comfortable winners by 30-8.

The match was shown on the U.K.'s Sky Sports 2, which I don't have. However, I have found a streaming service on my computer, that shows all of Sky's channels for free, so that was OK.   

Walter Blotscher