Scratching Shed Publishing

The Highs and Lows of Northern Rugby in Victorian England

By Graham Morris

The Victorian era witnessed a dramatic growth in sport, none more than football, both Association and Rugby, the latter initially proving more popular, particularly in northern England.

Competitive rugby thrived in the north’s industrial communities and its leading clubs attempted to invigorate the code via the introduction of league and cup competitions. In part this was to combat the expanding reach of Association which introduced the F. A. Cup (in 1871-72), professionalism (1885) and the Football League (1888-89). But it was to no avail as Rugby Union’s internal politics, mostly related to accusations of professionalism, led to the historic 1895 split when many prominent clubs, particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, created the Northern Union, later renamed Rugby League.

Meanwhile, the Rugby Union abandoned its league competitions, seen as a route to professionalism. It would not be until the 1970s that official leagues were reintroduced, initially as ‘merit’ tables, its amateur ethos ending in 1995. Those competitive 19th century rugby union games have been virtually forgotten. But now, for the first time, the facts and figures from that period are published here in Rugby Victoriana.

Diligently researched by rugby historian Graham Morris, its scope covers the first ever representative game in 1870 – Yorkshire versus Lancashire – up to season 1900-01. Included are details of 622 representative matches, 90 league tables and 99 cup competitions, plus comment on contemporary rugby issues, providing the reader with a flavour of how the game was reported at that time.

Exploits of numerous leading northern rugby union teams of the period are documented, including Aspatria (Cumberland), Birkenhead Park (Cheshire), Hartlepool Rovers (Durham), Kendal Hornets (Westmorland) and Rockcliff (Northumberland). To that list we can add many of today’s rugby league clubs (Barrow, Huddersfield, Hull, Oldham, Swinton, Wigan, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington, etc.) whose first taste of competitive rugby came under the auspices of the Rugby Union during the Victorian era.

(…and other puzzles in rugby history)

By Tony Collins

Did a schoolboy named William Webb Ellis really invent rugby two hundred years ago in 1823?
It’s a myth – but has always been a major part of the game, emerging in the culture wars that led to rugby’s great split of 1895.
The debate between league and union is endless. Which rugby code can claim to be the authentic version? Who has rightful claim to the original British Lions? Why did rugby league become the dominant code in Australia? How come it isn’t the premier code in Wales?
There are endless puzzles on the pitch too. Why does union follow football and have a throw-in? What’s the role of the drop-goal in the modern age? And what are the reasons for the decline of scrums?
In Who Framed William Webb Ellis?, award-winning professor of history Tony Collins uncovers and explains these and many more such enigmas surrounding rugby.
He reveals, for example, that rugby was once far more popular than football, that Manchester was a hotbed of the oval ball, and that Leeds United owes its existence to a rugby league club.
So what did happen that meant soccer and not rugby ultimately became the world game?
Based on episodes of his Rugby Reloaded podcast, Collins also explores the culture of rugby, and looks at Tom Brown’s School Days, the 19th-century equivalent of Harry Potter, 1960s kitchen sink movie classic This Sporting Life, the mysterious ‘Battle of the Roses’ painting, and even a Sherlock Holmes detective story.
If you’ve ever had a question about rugby history, then this is the book you need to read.