Editing Rugby league (section)

== History ==
[[File:The George Hotel, Huddersfield - geograph.org.uk - 676033.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[George Hotel, Huddersfield]], the birthplace of rugby league]]
[[File:Challenge cup 1897.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.15|The first ever [[1897 Challenge Cup|Challenge Cup Final, 1897]]: Batley (left) vs St Helens (right)]]
{{Main|History of rugby league}}

In 1895, a [[History of rugby league#The schism in England|schism]] in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the [[Rugby Football League|Northern Rugby Football Union]] (NRFU).<ref name=begin>{{Cite book|last=Fagan|first=Sean|title=League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia|publisher=National Museum of Australia|year=2008|pages=vii|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/the_game_begins/files/22449/C-The_game_begins.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517000217/http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/the_game_begins/files/22449/C-The_game_begins.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 May 2008|isbn=978-1-876944-64-3}}</ref> The success of [[working class]] northern teams led to some compensating players who otherwise would be on their job and earning income on Saturdays. This led to the RFU reacting to enforce the amateur principle of the sport, preventing "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Northern teams typically had more working class players (coal miners, mill workers etc.) who could not afford to play without this compensation, in contrast to affluent southern teams who had other sources of income to sustain the amateur principle.<ref name="Tony Collins 2006 p.3"/> In 1895, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged led to twenty-two clubs (including Stockport, who negotiated by telephone) meeting at the [[George Hotel, Huddersfield]], on 29 August 1895 and forming the "Northern Rugby Football Union".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Groeneveld |first=Margaret |title=Matters of the heart: The business of English rugby league |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2007 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rY2tVBypH0C |isbn=978-1-84545-054-0}}</ref> Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby league.

In 1897, the [[line-out (rugby union)|line-out]] was abolished<ref>Tony Collins, ''Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain'' (2006), p.6</ref> and in 1898 [[Professional sports|professionalism]] introduced.<ref>Tony Collins, ''Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain'', p.5 (2006)</ref> In 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the [[Playing rugby union#Ruck|ruck]] formed after tackles with the [[Rugby league gameplay#Play-the-ball|play-the-ball]]. By this point, rule changes meant the game organised by the RFL was distinct as a sport from its union cousin.<ref>Tony Collins, ''Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain'' (2006), p.6, quote:"in 1906 the number of players in a team was reduced to thirteen and an orderly play-the-ball, whereby a tackled player had to get to his feet and roll the ball behind him with his foot, was introduced. These two changes completed the break from the playing rules of rugby union and marked the birth of rugby league as a distinct sport with its own unique rules".</ref>

A similar schism to that which occurred in [[England]] took place in [[Sydney]], Australia. There, on 8 August 1907 the [[New South Wales Rugby Football League]] was founded at Bateman's Hotel in George Street.<ref name=baker>{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=Andrew |title=100 years of rugby league: From the great divide to the Super era |newspaper=[[The Independent|Independent, The]] |publisher=independent.co.uk |date=20 August 1995 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/100-years-of-rugby-league-from-the-great-divide-to-the-super-era-1597130.html |access-date=25 September 2009 |location=London}}</ref> Unlike in England, where both codes maintained their own geographic areas of dominance, in Australia rugby league went on to displace rugby union entirely as the primary football code in [[New South Wales]] and [[Queensland]], while [[Australian rules football]] dominated the rest of Australia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jupp |first=James |title=The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |pages=342 & 343 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgoFxfSTfYAC |isbn=978-0-521-80789-0}}</ref>

On 5 May 1954, 102,569 spectators watched the [[1954 Challenge Cup|1953–54]] [[Challenge Cup]] Final replay at [[Odsal Stadium]], [[Bradford]], England, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code.<ref name=baker/> Also in 1954, the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the [[Rugby League International Federation|International Board]] introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a [[Scrum (rugby)|scrum]] was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Collins|first=Tony|title=Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/rugbyleaguetwent00coll|url-access=limited|publisher=Routledge|date=18 April 2006|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rugbyleaguetwent00coll/page/n127 113]–114|isbn=978-0-415-39615-8}}</ref> 1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played.

The first sponsors, [[Tetley's Brewery|Joshua Tetley]] and [[John Player]], entered the game for the [[1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season]]. Television had an enormous impact on the sport of rugby league in the 1990s, when News Corporation paid for worldwide broadcasting rights. The media giant's "Super League" movement created changes for the traditional administrators of the game. In Europe, it resulted in a move from Rugby League being a winter sport to a summer one, as the new Super League competition tried to expand its market. In Australasia, the [[Super League war]] resulted in long and costly legal battles and changing loyalties, causing significant damage to the code in an extremely competitive sporting market. In 1997 two competitions were run alongside each other in Australia, after which a peace deal in the form of the National Rugby League was formed. The NRL has since become recognised as the sport's flagship competition and since that time has set record TV ratings and crowd figures.<ref name="rleague-attendances-1957-2010">{{cite web|url=http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/summary.html|title=Rugby League Attendances 1957–2010|publisher=rleague.com|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408033449/http://stats.rleague.com/rl/crowds/summary.html|archive-date=8 April 2009}}</ref>