Rugby Reloaded

Rugby and coalminers in the north of England formed an unbreakable bond as far as back as the 1880s. Rugby league was built on pit villages and mining towns. Of the first ten members of the RFL Hall of Fame, three were miners. But as this episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' explains, this link went much deeper, because both mining and rugby league were seen as exemplars of working-class toughness, teamwork and identity, a spirit which continues even today, long after the last pits have closed. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

For 140 years, Welsh rugby players have travelled to the north of England to find fame and fortune. At first they went to play for the powerhouse clubs of northern rugby union, and when those clubs created rugby league, Welsh players became an integral part of the 13-a-side game. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' investigates the players who 'went North' from the 1880s to the 1930s, looking at their stories and motivations. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Cricket's County Championship began last week, so this week's episode looks at the huge role that cricket played in the birth of the football codes. In the mid-nineteenth century cricketers across Britain took up football and cricket clubs started their own football sections. The rugby and football authorities borrowed from cricket and took their lead from cricket's attitude to professionalism. But within two decades, the tables had turned and cricket started to rely on football for financial security. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Thursday 8 April is the anniversary of the 1995 meeting in Wigan when British rugby league agreed with Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd to switch to a summer Super League. It was part of the biggest revolution rugby had seen since 1895. Not only was rugby league changed forever, but rugby union was forced to embrace open professionalism. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' examines the birth of Super League in Britain, looks at rugby union's dash for cash, and assesses the legacy of those dramatic days for the British game. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

29 March 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the very first game in Super League, so part one of a special double episode steps back in time to examine the events that led up to the summer rugby league revolution. We trace Super League's roots back to the problems that British rugby league faced from the 1970s, which escalated in the 1980s. Wage inflation, spiralling transfer fees, and the costs incurred after the Bradford City and Hillsborough disasters took the sport to the brink... and then came the satellite TV boom. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com - where you can find the links for this episode - and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Barely six months after Super League pulled out of Toronto, the US-based XFL is in talks with the Canadian Football League about a potential merger. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to football scholar Spencer Kassimir about the history of the XFL and the CFL, the background to the talks, and what lessons can be learned by other football codes. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Manchester City and United are currently dominating the English Premier League - but until the 20th century Manchester was seen as a hotbed of rugby, not soccer. So how did the city lose its status as one of rugby's most important centres? The new 'Rugby Reloaded' explores the rise and decline of Manchester as a rugby city, and examines how a series of decisions dealt a body blow to rugby from which it never really recovered. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

To mark International Women's Day 2021, this episode talks to Julia Lee, one of the true pioneers of British rugby league. Julia was the first women ever to referee a men's professional rugby match of any code anywhere in the world. She's also been a trailblazer in the administration of the sport, has had a play written about her career, and is now collecting the memories of women who have been involved in the game since the 1970s. She reflects on the obstacles she faced in the game and the challenges that women still face in the quest for equality not just in rugby league but also in sport and society in general. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

The birth of rugby league coincided with a wave of Jewish immigration to Britain in the 1890s, and Jews in the big cities of northern England quickly took the game to their hearts. The same was true in Sydney, where a Jewish rugby league competition was played in the 1920s. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes a look at the history of Jewish involvement in the sport, from pioneers like Eli Jacobson to superstars like Albert Rosenfeld, and modern-day administrators like Todd Greenberg and Simon Johnson.

As the new NRL season is about to raise the value of the drop-goal for the first time in 130 years, the new ‘Rugby Reloaded’ investigates the history of the drop-kick and the drop-goal. How did the drop-kick become so important that for over fifty years it was the most valuable way of scoring points in rugby union? And will the NRL's new rule lead league back down a road it travelled in the late 1960s? For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Humans have thrown and kicked a ball towards some form of goal fo as long as people have lived in communities. In any historical period, in part of the globe, football-type games have been played by men and women. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes the long view of 'folk football' in Britain before the emergence of the modern rugby and soccer football codes, and asks why it lagged behind sports like cricket and boxing, and did not develop into a modern game until the last third of the 1800s.

Although rugby's great split of 1895 is often portrayed as a professional breakaway, it also led to the vast majority of amateur rugby clubs in the north of England leaving the RFU and joining the Northern Union. This week's episode takes a look at the early history of rugby league below the professional level, examining its rise, fall, and rise again as it battled with the effects of war and the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Romanian rugby boomed in the 1950s, threatening the Five Nations dominance of European rugby union, as its club sides proved to be more than a match for the top English and Welsh teams. Then the British Foreign Office stepped in... The new ‘Rugby Reloaded’ uncovers the secret history of Anglo-Romanian ‘rugger diplomacy’ and discovers an unknown league link. If you think that politics in rugby is a recent thing, think again. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Tuesday 26 January is the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Rugby Football Union at the Pall Mall Restaurant in the centre of London. In this week's 150th episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' we explore why and how the RFU was formed, and discover the contemporary parallels which forced rugby clubs to form their first governing body. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Facts speak for themselves, don't they? Not always, as we discover in this week's interview with Neil Ormston from the Rugby League Record Keepers' Club. As well as looking at the history of league stats, we discuss what constitutes an international match, what makes a club a club, and why league sides don't include their pre-1895 stats in their records. This is the episode where history, statistics and the philosophy of knowledge come together with the force of an Adrian Morley tackle. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

This week’s 'Rugby Reloaded' explores the book that did more to shape the modern sporting world than any other: Tom Brown’s School Days. When it was published in 1857, it was the Harry Potter of its day, but it went on to influence not just rugby football, but all football codes and all modern sports, not least the Olympic movement. But what exactly was its message and what lessons did it expect its readers to learn? Underneath the surface, its coming of age story reflects all the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of Victorian Britain - and would their stamp on sport even in the 21st Century. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, together with show notes and links for this episode, visit www.rugbyreloaded.com

It's widely believed that William Wollen's famous rugby painting of 'The Roses Match' accidentally reveals 'ghost players', men who joined the Northern Union and were later painted out of the picture. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' looks at the history of rugby's most memorable masterpiece and explores the truth behind the 'painted out players' story. As one myth is debunked, the painting reveals yet more mysteries and the latest research uncovers new facts about the painting. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

This week’s episode talks to Peter Harvey, the former England schoolboys’ rugby union captain and St Helens centre/stand-off of the 1960s, about his life in rugby. Peter grew up watching rugby league in St Helens, but he passed his 11+ exam and went to grammar school, where he began playing rugby union. He played for Lancashire and captained England schoolboys, before signing for St Helens and becoming a central part of the great Saints side of the mid-1960s. This is a fascinating insight into one man’s journey through rugby and the British class system. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

Christmas is just around the corner - and in past times soccer and rugby league supporters would have been looking forward to watching a match on Christmas Day. It was a tradition that brought record crowds and festive-style football. But how traditional was it - and why did it die out? The new episode of ‘Rugby Reloaded’ unwraps the history of Christmas Day football and asks if it’s a tradition that could be re-invented for the 21st Century? For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony

To mark the publication of a new book on the origins of British public school football games - 'Puddings, Bullies and Squashes', edited by Malcolm Tozer (Sunnyrest Books)- this episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' goes back to the 19th Century to look at the development and influence of schools' football. Did the public school codes influence modern games of football? What was the role of Muscular Christianity? How did the school game relate to the adult football clubs that also emerged at the same time? Take a ten-minute trip back to the primodial origins of the world's football codes. For more on the history of rugby and the other football games, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony