The growth and development of Rugby League is very similar to that of the Rugby Union and both faced similar issues in the beginning.
During 18th century, folk football games were the trend in Great Britain and there were several types of football games played at different parts of the country.
Apart from this, Scotland, Ireland and Wales had their fair share of games and they also enjoyed football games more than anything else. The major problem rugby players faced was identifying crisis and this is how Rugby Football Union came in place.
However, the Northern States were not happy with many decisions taken by Rugby Football Union and the urge to start a new organization become stronger. This is how Rugby League came into existence in 1895.
Interestingly the major conflict was not about the game play rules or other regulations but it was about the payment structure for players. While Rugby Football Union insisted that the game should be continued as an amateur game and paying for players is not acceptable, teams and organizations from Northern States strongly opposed this idea.
For them, payment was inevitable as the players are mostly from working class and they had to suffer a huge financial loss in order to stick to the game. This is how the first organization that is supporting Ruby League was born. However, the organization was known as the Northern Union during its inception.
Needless to say, the decision of Northern Union was on the right track and even the changes they made on the game became a favorite among players and spectators.
The number of players was reduced from 13 to 15. In the beginning, rugby games used to have twenty players and it was only Rugby Football Union that reduced the numbers from twenty to fifteen. When Northern Union reduced it again to thirteen, there were considerable changes in the game's playing style and strategies even though the rules were not changed immediately.
Many teams found the new rule to be more acceptable as this reduced their team running costs by reducing two players. Even the game rules were changed and the new rules made Northern Union more famous among spectators as the game included more sporting spirit.
Since the "play the ball" rule introduced into Rugby League, the need of scrum was significantly low and the game looked vibrant and fast.
Rugby League was not receiving a worldwide popularity even though local support for the game was very high. Australia and New Zealand were inclined towards Rugby Football Union and the associations in these countries decided to join hands with Rugby Football Union in future as well. Due to this, the official rules in these countries remained the same and rugby was an amateur game over there.
The decision from authorities were not without any trouble, working class from Sidney and many other parts of Australia protested against the organization's decisions to keep the game as an amateur one. This didn't bring any immediate changes for the already implemented rules.
By 1907, the protest became even stronger and a rugby league was formed in Sydney which prevented the popularity of union. Rugby League that was formed in Australia was supporting professional games and the working class in Sydney wholeheartedly accepted this decision which was a huge blow on Union's face as this was something that they didn't expect.
By 1908, there were other unions that were also formed in Australia and the leagues started organizing matches between local teams. The teams were supported with compensation and there were injury benefits as well. Due to this, players were supporting only Rugby League and arranging a match was never a difficult task for the league.
There were "Kangaroos" who were supporting Rugby Leagues and "Wallabies" who were supporting Rugby Football Union. Both parties decided to go for a tournament in Britain during 1909 to promote the game but the experience for Wallabies were not so welcoming. Many people accused Wallabies of accepting bribes and instead of supporting the players, the Union made their life even harder by completely taking off their already poor compensation.
When the Wallabies came back to Australia, their move was so evident and more than half of the members from Wallabies team joined Kangaroos within a couple of weeks.
There were no doubts that the Rugby League was receiving large popularity because most of the working class players were playing for the league and their families and friends contributed to a very large extent in the quickly risen popularity of the league.
This helped Rugby League to arrange several international tournaments and once again a British team participated in rugby league tournament. This time it was British Lions rugby league team who were playing against Australian and New Zealand team and the crowd gathered for the event was truly memorable.
It was quite a surprise for even the organizers but sourcing funds for tournaments were never a problem for rugby league again.
However the future was not very promising for Rugby Union while Rugby League was nourishing better than ever. The crisis became even worse with WWI and Rugby Union was struggling hard to pool up money while enforcing amateurism even more strictly. However, Rugby League encouraged every type of sponsorships and even during the World War era, they were managing pretty well.
Rugby League could arrange some tournaments and provide a decent compensation for its players while the Union was struggling hard for arranging tournaments and compensation for players. By 1910, Rugby League became the premier organizer of rugby in New Zealand and organized winter rugby every year.
By 1915, Huddersfield became one of the most reputed team with a tremendous win of all four cups introduced in that season. Even money was flowing in heavily to the sports and by 1921, rugby is associated with sports that pay their players heavily because in this year, a player named Harold Buck changed his team for a 1000 pounds deal which was a very big amount of money that time.
By 1922, Northern Union decided to change its name as they found that there is no point in keeping a name that is similar to the Rugby Union. Instead of Northern Union, they adopted the name, Rugby Football League. By 1927, BBC decided to broadcast the tournament live due to the huge popularity of rugby league. This was just the beginning of the game's popularity and the game started receiving the sort of recognition that other international sports received.
In 1932, the first rugby league tournament under a fully fledged floodlight stadium was held.
Jean Galia, a former player of Rugby Union decided to part his way from union. After a short break, he decided to join Rugby League as he observed that there is no point in sticking to the game as an amateur player.
He formed the first Rugby League Organization in France during 1934. Interestingly, the French Rugby League had more than 225 clubs under their belt within a short span of five years.
In 1948, a Rugby league match was broadcasted through television for the first time and this was the beginning of a new era.
In 1954, the first Rugby League World Cup was arranged in France and several people came to watch the World Cup. Due to the ever increasing popularity, several college teams were formed to play rugby league and these colleges insisted on an inter college level competition.
After some years, this came true and the only setback for rugby league all these years was the formation of an amateur league in Great Britain. The rules and regulations for the game used to change periodically and the point system and other rules were newly introduced after revisions.
Another milestone in the history of rugby league was introducing hall of fame in 1988. In the first year, the organization added nine players to the hall of fame list.
It took few more years for the game to enjoy a truly international fan base and competitions. The first country to join rugby league was Russia apart from the traditional supporters such as Australia, New Zealand and Britain.
Within the span of few years, United States and Canada also joined rugby league and all these nations participated in International tournaments held by the organization. When Grand Finals and Play Offs were a part of the new Super League, the game became even more popular.
With good support from fans and a good amount of money coming in Rugby League reached the peak of fame and stands as one of the most recognized rugby games in the world.
