About the Book
Since it’s first publication, Rugby’s Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England’s northern working class.
Tony Collins’ analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history – about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league’s failure to establish itself in Wales.
Rugby’s Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues – issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain’s social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations. Series Editor's Foreword. Preface to the Second Edition. Introduction 1. From Folk Football to Civic Pride: Origins to 1879 2. The Coming of the Working Class: 1879-1886 3. 'King Football': 1886-1893 4. Schism: 1893-1895 5. The Rise and Decline of the Northern Union: 1895-1905 6. A Revolution in Rugby: 1905-1910 Conclusion: The Northern Union and Working Class Culture. Appendices. Bibliography. Index
About the Author :
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK Formerly at the University of Strathclyde, UK La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Review :
"Tony Collins shows in this major work that there are reasons behind [rugby league] developing the way that it did and that they are reasons as honourable as those behind the rise of any other form of working class self-expression.
It should be compulsory reading for anyone who believes that the game more than a hundred years later is merely about competing for the same shiny suits and corporate contracts."
Book of the Week, The Independent, 15th June 1998
"This year's literary outpourings are dominated again by the lustre of bygone days, pre-summer and Super League. The pick is Rugby's Great Split, by Tony Collins ... who asks why there are two forms of rugby, and ends up with a celebration of the game's traditions and passions in answering that rugby's schism in 1895 actually defined the class barriers.
Rugby league was shaped in the spirit of defiance and Collins, successfully treading between social history lessons and good storytelling, lends weight to a truth not universally acknowledged: that little has changed in a century when the game remains wedded to an expansionist theory that has never quite succeeded."
Christopher Irvine, The Times, 22nd December 1998
"This book is a landmark in the history and historiography of Rugby League and of rugby in general."
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
"... replete with hundreds of footnotes, a comprehensive bibliography and extensive appendices, it is primarily aimed at academic consumption. None of that should put off the ordinary reader, however, for the book is written in a lively narrative way which will engross and inform all who take an interest in the whys and hows of the evolution of both codes of rugby.
The scope of this work borders on the monumental."
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
"Rugby's Great Split will undoubtedly supersede all other works on the origins of Rugby League. I have little doubt that it will become THE standard work on the early development of rugby itself."
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
"A few months ago the librarian at Twickers phoned me to say that he had read Tony Collins' thesis and at last he understood why Rugby League people often took the belligerent stance they do in regard to his own game's absurd treatment of theirs. It is hard to think of a more eloquent recommendation for buying Rugby's Great Split."
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
"Tony Collins has now produced what could be classed the definitive version ... he has written a serious account of both the actual mechanics of the [1895] split and, perhaps more importantly, the social aspects. ... Rugby's Great Split is one of the finest books ever to be written about Rugby and Tony Collins deserves great credit for his work."
Sports Collector, July 1998
"The author of this book has done a great service to the field with this fine book that places the split between Rugby-Football Union and the Northern Union (now called "rugby league") into its historical context. General readers might mistakenly be put off by the book's apparent topic, an esoteric exploration of the 1890s rugby schism; however, this work is much broader than that and would be interesting to anyone interested in class and culture in turn-of-the-century Britain. In the tradition of the best sport history, Tony Collins rescues the rugby league's history from the hands of hagiographic club secretaries and places it firmly in the mainstream of cultural and social history. Moreover, Collins brings new light to a tale that sport historians and rugby fans most likely believe they already know."
Patrick F McDevitt, Rowan University, Historian, Fall 2000
Rugby World - colour review -"..an authorative look at the historical basis on which today"s rugby survives it ia an excellent contribution."
Independent on Sunday - "Rugby"s Great Split brilliantly records the early years when rugby and football emerged from the public schools and seduced the working calsses, prompting the class tensions which led two games played exclusivelyby gentlemen to confront professionalism. This is a fine read which intelligently probes the connections between social calss and sport which still holds sway today."
The Independent - "It is the most detailed and perceptive account yet of the events around the great schism."
Financial Times - " The outstanding historical work was Tony Collins"s Rugby"s Great Split definitive on the 1895 schism between the two rugby codes."
The Times -"...Collins, successfully treading between social history lessons and good storytelling, lends weight to truth not universally acknowledged: that little has changed in a century when the game ren=mains wedded to an expansionist theory that has never quite succeeded."
The Final Hooter - feature that book won the Aberdare Book Prize
Total Rugby League - "... a truly brilliant book, and a real eye-opener. Don"t be put off by the scholarly title either. "Rugby"s Great Split" is readily accessible, you don"t need a PhD to read it, and it"s a real must for anyone even remotely interested in this great game"s heritage, and wondering how we got where we are today."
Sydney League News- " A ground-breaking work on the subject, this fascinating volume is probably the most important rugby league book of the year"
Sports Collector- " Rugby"s Great Split is one of the finest books ever to be written about Rugby and Tony Collins deserves great credit for his work"
St Helen"s Star/ Sport Journal/Yorkshire Post/Open Rugby
Bulletin of the Rugby League Collectors" Federation- " Tony Collins adds ...a large amount of very interesting detail which is so well presented that you can almost at times be transfered back to those exciting days of Victorian Rugby Football"
Loosehead Magazine- interview with Tony Collins- " Quite simply, it is the rugby league book of the year, and possibly one of the best ever written on the code"
League Express- " This book is a landamrk in the history and historiography of Rugby League and of rugby in general"
Albion-" This is a book that is grounded firmly in the seconday literature and draws on a wide variety of primary sources. Collins understands the difference between theory and empirically based conclusions. His straightforward prose shows how the sport(s) changed and draws important links between that and the changing nature of Empire, trade unionism, as well as attitudes towards local pride and masculine behaviour"
"The author of this book has done a great service to the field with this fine book that places the split between Rugby-Football Union and the Northern Union into its historical context."
The Historian
Praise for the previous edition:
'The outstanding historical work … definitive on the 1895 schism between the two rugby codes.'- Financial Times
'This book is a landmark in the history and historiography of rugby league and of rugby in general.' - Rugby League Express
