Rugby League

Rugby League is a variant of Rugby, with different rules from Rugby Union. The game was developed out from Rugby Union by Northern England and Scottish clubs. The players in these clubs were largely working-class, unlike the clubs in Southern England whose players were middle or upper class. Since, the Rugby Union competition at the time did not allow paying players any salary; the working-class players felt they could not afford time off to train and play.

In 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against clubs in Bradford and Leeds, Yorkshire? after they compensated players for missing work. In 1895 representatives of the northern clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the "Northern Rugby Football Union", a professional Union which would eventually become the Rugby Football League in 1922. By 1907, when the first league was formed, the new Unions rules had diverged from those Rugby Union, most noticeably in the reduction of players from 15 to 13 and slightly different scoring. Around this time a similar schism, and for similar reasons, opened up in the Union establishment of Australia, where the term Rugby League was first used for the new game.