Rugby History Thread

[Hopping Mad]

3 hours ago, Trojan said:

The Northern Rugby Football Union

The History of Rugby League

1895 to 1922.

By Les Hoole

I had this bought for my birthday. I've just finished it. It covers the period of the Northern Union, from its birth in 1895 to its name change to Rugby League in 1922.  Teams, tours, RL Challenge Cups, personalities.  I found if fascinating.  I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the history of our sport.

I'd certainly recommend it to anyone from Huddersfield. Perhaps seeing how dominant they were in this period will awaken a new enthusiasm for the sport.

There are a few errors that a railway pedant like me would pick up on - like the LNER sending 5 special trains from Hull to a CC Final at Huddersfield, when the LNER didn't exist until 1922.  But that aside | really enjoyed it.

If we're recommending books, I recently bought, read and enjoyed Mike Brocken's Liverpool City RLFC, Rugby League in a Football City (London League Publications, £16.95, ISBN 978-1903659-40-3). Apologies if this has been flagged up earlier in the thread. I watched a bit of Huyton then Runcorn Highfield while studying at Liverpool University. Mike revealed quite a few things I didn't know about.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Hopping Mad

[Number 16]

The final table for the 1897-98 season of the rugby union Cumberland League. Two clubs had already switched to NU, with the rest following on over the next eighteen months.

 

[Futtocks]

 

[Padge]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

 

Thanks for posting that, brilliant.

[Futtocks]

A timely article from Australia: How Rugby League survived the Spanish Flu a hundred years ago.

[bazzzz65]

On Monday, November 11, 2019 at 10:07, Hopping Mad said:

Thanks for posting. I hadn't seen this before. Some interesting interviews with spectators, the positive, upbeat content of which seemed to take the Beeb's Tony Gubba completely by surprise.

I see the piece is introduced by Bob Wilson. Recalling that historic time, in The Fulham Dream, Rugby League Tackles London (ISBN 0-9526064-9-6), Fulham chairman Harold Genders wrote: "The only sore point of the whole weekend, which annoyed me considerably, was that Bob Wilson, the former Arsenal goalkeeper and self-styled sports expert, was of the opinion that rugby league would never take off in London. I detected a note of concern. Maybe his hallowed game of football felt threatened. In any event, what did he know about rugby league or, for that matter, the Fulham venture? Yet he was prepared to dismiss it in one remark. I have always maintained that football can live together with rugby league, and that London is large enough for both of us. His statement, to me at least, appeared to have a touch of small-mindedness."

So  it turns out that Bob Wilson was right and Harold Genders was wrong!!

[Bearman]

[Number 16]

Three pictures from newspapers of the day of the first tour by New Zealand in 1907.

 

[Number 16]

Pictures from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of the first Northern Union game in London; the second test against New Zealand at Stamford Bridge in 1908.The All Golds won 18-6 in front of 15,000 Cock-er-nees.

Picture 1 is of Dally Messenger on the ground following a tackle.

Picture 3 is Halifax's Percy Eccles possibly on the way to his try in the game.

 

[RP London]

22 hours ago, Number 16 said:

Pictures from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of the first Northern Union game in London; the second test against New Zealand at Stamford Bridge in 1908.The All Golds won 18-6 in front of 15,000 Cock-er-nees.

Picture 1 is of Dally Messenger on the ground following a tackle.

Picture 3 is Halifax's Percy Eccles possibly on the way to his try in the game.

 

i wonder what colour the shorts and socks were... could be interesting to bring back.. makes a change from the all white.

[Number 16]

WTF!!!

Leeds Mercury - February 1914

Edited May 10, 2020 by Number 16

[Futtocks]

8 minutes ago, Number 16 said:

WTF!!!

Leeds Mercury - February 1914

Okay, if someone has any more information on this, we need to read it!

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

On 03/05/2020 at 11:35, Number 16 said:

Pictures from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of the first Northern Union game in London; the second test against New Zealand at Stamford Bridge in 1908.The All Golds won 18-6 in front of 15,000 Cock-er-nees.

Picture 1 is of Dally Messenger on the ground following a tackle.

Picture 3 is Halifax's Percy Eccles possibly on the way to his try in the game.

 

I have read that Dally Messenger was an enthusiastic exponent of the field goal, that is kicking the ball from the ground in open play, over the crossbar.  This method of scoring was abolished in union in 1905, a rare example of union giving a lead to league, rather than, as is commonly the case, vice versa.  The NSW RFL apparently scrapped it in 1922, but it did not get scrapped by the RFL until 1950, though one imagines by then it was rarely if ever used (is my supposition correct?)

The fact that its abolition in league had two quite different dates in different hemispheres is a depressing reminder that not having a single set of rules is a long established 'tradition' in our game.

That a field goal was quite different from a drop goal makes me wonder why the southern hemisphere adherents of our code insist nowadays in muddying the historical waters by needlessly calling the latter by the name of the former; drop goal is a perfectly satisfactory term, it seems to me.

[Bleep1673]

The Lions of Swinton by Steven Wild, is a bit of light reading if you are into RL history, my copy only goes up to 1998 though.

[Futtocks]

Looks like pretty much all the footage there is, but compiled into a convenient single clip.

 

[Number 16]

Barrow trial match from 1912 - Red & Blacks vs Blues.

 

[Copa]

[Number 16]

The 1909 Challenge Cup Final teams with some interesting birthplaces!

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

1 hour ago, Number 16 said:

The 1909 Challenge Cup Final teams with some interesting birthplaces!

Thanks for sharing that information, No 16.

Re-birthplaces, perhaps Hull had a good scout at the northern end of the West Country, or maybe Messrs Cottrell, Herridge and Holder had attended the test match against New Zealand in Cheltenham, and been inspired.

I was intrigued by the size and weight statistics.  Imagine a modern team turning up with nobody taller than 5' 10" and only one player on the field making 6'!

[Number 16]

1 hour ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Thanks for sharing that information, No 16.

Re-birthplaces, perhaps Hull had a good scout at the northern end of the West Country, or maybe Messrs Cottrell, Herridge and Holder had attended the test match against New Zealand in Cheltenham, and been inspired.

I was intrigued by the size and weight statistics.  Imagine a modern team turning up with nobody taller than 5' 10" and only one player on the field making 6'!

Was the Hartlepool link the docks and dock workers? 

The age stats are surprising also. Both teams have a youngish average. 

[Gooleboy]

Eighty years ago, Featherstone v Wakefield in the Yorkshire Cup Final, here is the front and back of the programme:

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Eighty years ago, Featherstone v Wakefield in the Yorkshire Cup Final, here is the front and back of the programme:

Superstition alive and well and living in wartime Yorkshire - no number 13s!

[Gooleboy]

Just now, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Superstition alive and well and living in wartime Yorkshire - no number 13s!

My friend who this belongs to can only remember Swinton playing with a 13 in those days.

[Gooleboy]

Autographs of the 1959 Australian Touring Team when they played and got beat at Featherstone.

[Number 16]

Some interesting pre-1895 images relating to current RL clubs.

http://www.hhtandn.org/gallery/420/1886-1897-the-great-schism