The People's Game: A Sporting TL

I realise that for many this holds no interest, but this was done in part for my own enjoyment but I hope that those that do read it take pleasure in doing so. It details Rugby League developing far earlier and becoming the most popular sport in England and eventually the Western World. C&C welcomed and appreciated.


Chapter One: An unholy trinity

Before 1863, there was only one game that dominated the British sporting landscape; the earliest variant of football. However it was deeply divided on how the game should be played and it soon became clear that there would have to be a definitive set of rules. Therefore, on the 26th of October, 1863, the football clubs of England met to lay down the laws of the game. There were two factions; those that believed that football should be played exclusively without rough and tumble and those who believed that the ball should be handled and that rough practices, such as hacking, kicking, tripping and holding should be encouraged. By the end of the meeting it was clear that the two could not co-exist. The owner of Blackheath Football Club left the Football Association, followed shortly by a number of others, to form the Rugby Union.

The 21 clubs who left the FA met at the Pall Mall Restaurant in 1871 to form their new game. Very little in the way of laws for the sport were created however, due to the bitter division (here is the POD) over the contentious issue of amateurism. Many of the clubs believed that it was akin to slavery to let their players play without a wage and believed that professionalism should be the stance rugby took. On the other hand, many clubs maintained that nobody was forced to play and that it was a leisure activity and not a job and therefore the players did not deserve pay (many modern day observers agree that greed was in fact the biggest motivator in not paying the players). The argument raged for days, but it was clear that there was not going to be one single winner. A whole two weeks after the start of the meeting the owners of the 8 clubs in support of professionalism (Wimbledon RFC, Gipsies FC, Flamingoes FC, Clapham Rovers, West Kent, Lausanne, The Mohicans and Belsize Park) stormed out to form their own union of clubs, starting the now famous Professional Rugby League, whilst the supporters of amateurism worked together to form the Amateur Rugby Union.

The PRC met six weeks later to create their new rules. The owners of the clubs were, unlike the ARU owners, very concerned in attracting spectators to their games to pay for the wages of the players, and created the rules accordingly. Instead of the ball spending a lot of the time out of the public eye (like it did in the ARU’s game) the owners created the drag-back rule that kept play flowing, giving the team 5 tackles to advance up the field with (expanded to 6 in 1899) and created the scoring system that gave a try (grounding the ball in the opponents end zone, similar to an OTL American Football touchdown) 3 points, a penalty or field goal 2 points (similar to an OTL American Football field goal) and a conversion (similar to an OTL American Football Extra Point) also being worth 2 points. This was different to the ARU’s game which rewarded the conversion more points than the try, a seemingly bizarre move that alienated many potential fans. (Details of OTL Rugby League rules, which are very similar, can be found here)

After a few well received exhibition games over a period of a couple of years, the clubs decided to step up the organisation and form a league to ensure organised play and a prize at the end to strive for. The owners realised that the public, who were enjoying the exciting, fast paced game much more than Rugby Union and at least as much as Football, would be attracted by a set fixture list so they could attend games regularly and follow the fortunes of their favourite teams. Therefore, in 1876 the original 8 clubs, as well as two additional, newly founded ones (Tottenham RLC and the Internationals) created a league and played out an entire organised season. This was the first league formed by any of the three popular sports, which is considered a primary reason for the success of Rugby League over the rest, as whilst rugby union only had a few haphazard games hastily arranged and football the FA cup which, whilst exciting, did not offer longevity, the Professional Rugby League had a system that could be followed throughout the year. The first season was won comprehensively by the omnipotent Wimbledon RFC who lost only 4 games and garnered an impressive 28 points, far exceeding second place Belsize Park.

In the season each team played every other team twice, once home and once away, with 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss. This system was to endure all the way to 1999. Below is the table for the first ever fully organised season of Rugby League:

1876EnglandSeason.png

The league was extremely successful, with the people enjoying both the sport itself and the league structure which many believed added meaning to the game. This new development in Rugby League persuaded even Rugby Union diehards to convert to the sport and the ARU finally gave in to the PRL on the 7th of January 1877. The following quote is taken from The Times and describes perfectly the situation:

The Union Collapses, the Professional League victorious!
Early yesterday afternoon the Amateur Rugby Union signed their own absolute surrender to the Professional League, a group of clubs that the Union itself had been unable to hold on to. The news comes as no surprise to the punters of the sport, many of whom are merely impressed that the ARU lasted as long as it did. The clubs of the former Union all came humbly to the Professional Rugby League later in the afternoon to ask to convert from amateurism to the previously despised stance of professionalism and be part of their successful league format. With a derogatory sneer, often seen on the face of the victorious, the League resoundingly replied no. There are talks of the Union clubs forming their own league based on the PRL’s rugby rules, but their financial ruin, caused by their love of the amateur game, means that this is an unlikely scenario.


The unholy trinity of sports was broken and with one opponent down, the Professional Rugby League was now keen to become more popular then Football and to expand the games reaches outside of London to truly become the people’s game.
 
No no noooooooooooo.:eek:

You cannot make football lose to rugby. You sir are a menace to society.:D

It is football that is the menace today my friend, just look at Florent Malouda's hair ;)

Yes !!! A rugby triumphs over football timeline......please continue.:D

Here you go sir :)




Chapter Two: The spread in the South

It was clear that, in London, Rugby League was a success. The league games, by the end of the season, were easily drawing more crowds then football, in part down to the speed and the high scoring matches coupled with an almost gladiatorial sense of violence, but also down to the league system that football didn’t have. Many contemporary sports historians say that the regular fixtures throughout the year were far more important than the difference in play between the two football codes in the success of rugby over football.

However, this was not replicated throughout the country; beyond London, many hadn’t hear of the sport and football was king. Joseph Pennyworth (owner of the Belsize Park club and commissioner of the PRL) was well aware of this and quickly moved to combat the problem. The second and third seasons were played out with the same teams with Wimbledon winning again in 77 and Gipsies FC winning the following year, but in 1879, three entirely new teams were formed with financial aid of the PRL. These teams were Southampton RLC, Bristol University Club, the Bristol Academics and Hove United RLC. Pennyworth was well aware that this was not a great expansion; two of the clubs were in the same city with one of them recruiting players from a university, and all four of them were based in the south and he knew that capturing the working class northern demographic was most important. Nonetheless it was a beginning and the new season began in September 1879, being the first season to spill into another year, making it the 1879-80 Professional Rugby League season.

Bristol Academics, Southampton RLC and Hove United were predictably poor with an influx of new, inexperienced players to the sport, but the university students took to the new game like ducks to water and they actually managed to win the league title against more well versed opposition. Many cite that the success of a non-London team was influential to the influx of new clubs that soon followed Bristol University’s championship win.

1879-80EnglandSeason.png

With this well publicised victory the sport exploded in the south of England. Hundreds of clubs within the decade, and in the next 5 years five more teams were added to the roster of clubs; Plymouth Pirates RLC, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Excelsior (of Portsmouth) and Yeovil RLC. Unfortunately the growth was stunted by the collapse of three teams, The Mohicans, Gipsies FC and Lausanne, all of whom were unable to attract punters when there were more successful or better funded teams in the same area of London. With the South quickly becoming converted to Rugby League's gospel and a plethora of new teams springing up, Pennyworth and the PRL set their sights on the real goal; the illustrious markets in the North.

The logo’s of the seven new teams introduced in this episode

Bristol Academics
BristolAcademics.png


Bristol University Club
BristolUniversity.png


Cambridge University
cambridge.png


Excelsior
excelsiors.png


Hove United
hove.png


Oxford University
oxford.png


Plymouth Pirates
plymouth.png


Southampton RLC
southampton.png


Yeovil RLC
yeovil.png
 
I realise that for many this holds no interest, but this was done in part for my own enjoyment but I hope that those that do read it take pleasure in doing so. It details Rugby League developing far earlier and becoming the most popular sport in England and eventually the Western World. C&C welcomed and appreciated.
--- snip ---
Hi Alex. Always good to read a rugby thread, and particularly interesting to see a rugby league thread.

My comment would be that the seeds that sowed rugby league in the 1890s of OTL wouldn't be there at the end of the 1860s. Rugby league developed how and where it did because of the professionalism issue, but also because of how rugby as a spectator sport developed in the northern English counties. In 1870 the sport would be dominated by public school old boys and Oxbridge graduates taking the rugby code back to their home area, and it was still very much a game for players, not the public. Clubs would have been membership led, not "owned" - individual unions on the university club model.

Rugby league came about where it did for a number of reasons:

1. Rugby grew rapidly in northern counties, particularly Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1880s, attracting spectators from the middle and, increasingly, working classes. The introduction of the half day on Saturdays saw to the working class support. In 1871 there was no audience for a professional game. It's worth noting that even soccer in OTL didn't accept professionalism until the 1880s.

2. The northern teams began to dominate in the 1880s and 1890s, with clubs like Swinton, Salford and Wigan frequently challenging the authority of "exclusive" clubs like Manchester FC and Liverpool Rugby Club. These clubs wanted to pay their players - in the cases above often coal miners and dockers - compensation for missing work on a Saturday morning. In 1871 there was no need to do this as the game hadn't spread to this audience.

3. The northern clubs dominated English rugby by the mid 1890s, supplying the vast majority of the England team and attracting huge crowds at clubs. The RFU, unable to accept compensation for "broken time", refused to sanction any payment of any sort, and even pursued witch hunts against northern clubs and their players. Eventually the 21 leading clubs had enough and set up their own sport, initially playing under the same rules.

4. The refusal of the RFU to recognise or compromise the issues led to RL becoming a distinct sport within a decade or so. There was no compromise until the 1980s.

Having "rugby league" develop elsewhere in industrial England from an 1871 POD is very realistic. But not until 1888 at the earliest IMO.

It is worth considering this with the Midlands, West Country and Welsh clubs, who all very nearly switched to rugby league in the 1890s. A unified professional rugby by 1900 would prevent many leading rugby league clubs switching to soccer in the early 1900s (Leeds United, Bradford City, Stockport County etc.), ensuring that rugby remained the dominant code in Manchester and Yorkshire, and probably the Midlands cities.

Hope this isn't too negative - please keep going!
 

You are entirely right. I realised that the conditions for Rugby league were not suited to the 1860's but I really couldn't see a way of developing the sport to be more popular then football without starting it early. I umm'ed and ahh'ed and eventually decided to start early and slightly ruin the realism, but I was really quite worried about when the POD should be and I realise that the development of rugby league ITTL is unrealistic. However, I'm going to stick with it and make it a more working class sport in the future to try and keep it close to it's OTL roots.

And it was not too negative at all, it's brilliant to get feedback and I'm grateful to find that anyone is reading this at all :)
 
You are entirely right. I realised that the conditions for Rugby league were not suited to the 1860's but I really couldn't see a way of developing the sport to be more popular then football without starting it early. I umm'ed and ahh'ed and eventually decided to start early and slightly ruin the realism, but I was really quite worried about when the POD should be and I realise that the development of rugby league ITTL is unrealistic. However, I'm going to stick with it and make it a more working class sport in the future to try and keep it close to it's OTL roots.

And it was not too negative at all, it's brilliant to get feedback and I'm grateful to find that anyone is reading this at all :)
Keep going - I think my main criticism would be it becoming an overnight success in the 1870s, rather than evolving over time.

What you could look at with an 1870 POD is the game becoming huge in university and school old boy games, with big spectator (albeit exclusive) support.

Alternatively have steady growth in the 1870s, with rugby having an earlier schism in the 1880s, prevent professional soccer having a ten year lead.

ie.

1870 RFU formed (6 months early). Inaugural meeting agrees to hold a "Challenge Cup" to provide fixtures for teams.
1871-2 Inaugural Challenge Cup contested by 8 teams and won by Harlequin FC at the Oval
1872-1880 Huge growth in Challenge Cup. By early 1880s clubs from industrial areas begining to dominate.
1883-4 32 Northern and Midland clubs excluded from Challenge Cup due to professionalism breaches. Clubs secede and form their own Rugby Football League.
1888 A RFL "England team" travel to Australia and New Zealand to play the colonists. Upon their return they are heralded as heroes. Rugby reunites and professionalism is accepted. A small number of dissenting clubs form their own Amateur Rugby Association (ASA).
1895 The RFL is three divisions strong with local leagues below. Rule changes now make it distinct from the ASA.

So here rugby gets the first cup and first league before football. Ironically ITTL rugby would probably be known as football in England.
 
Nice. Always liked League better then Union.
:cool:

ITTL:

"Here are the football results on Saturday 19th May 2012.

Rugby Football Premiership
Wigan FC 28 Leicester Tigers 18
Northampton 16 St Helens 6
Barrow 2 Manningham 12
Wasps 17 Hull FC 16
Salford 34 Sale FC 12 (at Old Trafford)
...etc...

And in other news, the Association Cup Final was contested this afternoon in front of a crowd of 73,000 at Alexandra Palace. Newton Heath beat Tottenham Hotspur 4 goals to 2 in the Association code's day in the sun."
 
Excellent idea. Although I'm a football guy, I do enjoy a good rugby match and I could imagine myself in a rugby dominated world. Also, count me in as an Excelsior supporter. Keep going !
 
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