Rugby League Clubs
In Britain Rugby League has always had a predominantly working class image, something that it still wears with a certain pride today. It was indeed a class divide that created the split with Rugby Union in 1895: not only did the rather better off clubs in the south conspire to ban the payment of players, and even their compensation for missing work, something that affected the miners and factory workers playing in the North rather more than the ex-public schoolboys representing London clubs; but there was some resentment of the increasing success of northern clubs filled with working class lads enjoying hammering their ‘betters’.
Rugby League thrives today in its traditional heartland of Yorkshire (the split came at the George Hotel in Huddersfield) and Lancashire, with plenty of amateur clubs as well as the professional ones like Bradford, Warrington, St Helens and Wigan. It is a fast game, offering constant entertainment for spectators, and a hard one too. But over recent years the sport has spread with increased economic mobility, so there are clubs to be found from Scotland down to Devon, with more than a few visiting Aussies and Kiwis adding to the mix at some. And in Rugby League the club ethos is still alive and kicking (and only very occasionally elbowing), with membership entailing a lot more than watching the First 13: social events, feeder teams, fund raising, family entertainment and much more goes on at most, helping to create that rare and wonderful thing - a community.
Click to view Rugby Union Clubs
England
Bristol |
Cambridgeshire |
Cheshire |
Cleveland and Teesside |
County Durham |
Cumbria |
Devon |
East Yorkshire |
Gloucestershire |
Kent |
Lancashire |
Lincolnshire |
London |
Merseyside |
North Yorkshire |
Northamptonshire |
Nottinghamshire |
Shropshire |
Somerset |
South Yorkshire |
Surrey |
Tyne and Wear |
West Yorkshire |
Scotland
Glasgow |
Wales
South Wales |
Recommended Books:
The History of the British and Irish... |
Rugby League Hall of Fame |
The Autobiography |
Team England Rugby: World Cup 2003 - The... |
for Rugby Union Premier League clubs click here
Recommended Books:
A Picture of Britain |
Ashes Fever |
Coast |
Churchill |
Brit Quote: |
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