The history of rugby league as a separate form of rugby football goes back to 1895 in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire when the Northern Rugby Football Union broke away from England's established Rugby Football Union to administer its own separate competition. Similar schisms occurred later in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Gradually the rugby played in these breakaway competitions evolved into a distinctly separate sport that took its name from the professional leagues that administered it. Rugby league in England went on to set attendance and player payment records and rugby league in Australia became the most watched sport on television. The game also developed a significant place in the culture of France, New Zealand and several other Pacific Island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, where it has become the national sport.
The Manningham F.C. team that won the 1895–96 championship, posing with the shield awarded. The club was the first rugby league champion of the Northern RFU and the first in the world. After a series of meetings in 1903 the club committee decided to leave the rugby code and switch to association football, becoming current Bradford City A.F.C.
Rochdale Hornets team of 1875, one of the early rugby football clubs that then switched to rugby league
A cartoon lampooning the divide in rugby. The caricatures are of Rev. Frank Marshall, an arch-opponent of broken-time payments and James Miller, a long-time opponent of Marshall
George Hotel, where club representatives met to form the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895
Rugby league in New Zealand
Rugby league in New Zealand dates to the beginning of the sport in England. New Zealand played an integral role in the history of rugby league football. Of all rugby league nations New Zealand was second only to England to compete in international competition.
New Zealand celebrating their 2008 Rugby League World Cup victory
