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PETER SMITH: Key moments in history
Rugby league has never been afraid to innovate.From the day the Northern Union was formed, August 29, 1895, the sport's movers and shakers have continually been doing just that.
The code has rarely stood still as rules and ideas have been experimented with, introduced and – often – discarded.
While some sports, like cricket, football and even rugby union, have been resistant to change, rugby league has embraced it, not always successfully.
The RFL sent out an email to members of the media the other day, asking for suggestions for the sport's five leading innovations.
Doubtless, everybody who responded came up with a different list and a case could be made for dozens of new methods or ideas pioneered in rugby league over the past 114 years.
Ignoring – more or less – those pinched, borrowed or adapted from other sports, here's this column's top five rugby league innovations.
1) Early rule changes.
Okay, so this is a bit of a cop-out – effectively grouping a series of different ideas together – but the fledgling years of the Northern Union were a ground-breaking period as the sport carved out its own identity.
Rugby league's reason for being was to allow clubs to compensate players for time they had to take off work – broken time payments as they were called. Initially, professionalism was banned in the Northern Union, as it was by the Rugby Football Union.
Professionalism wasn't permitted until 1898, but if players were to receive money from clubs, they in turn had to find ways of generating more income through the gate.
The result was a series of rule alterations, designed to make the code more attractive to paying fans.
These included abolition of the line-out (1897), the touch-finding rule, so kicks had to bounce before going out of play (1902), teams reduced by two players to 13-a-side and the advent of the play-the-ball (both in 1906).
Those early innovations, all within the sport's first 10 years, gave it its own unique identity and characteristics and, even at that early stage, made it more attractive to watch than the rival code. Of those, the play-the-ball remains the unique law which marks rugby league out from all other ball games.
2) Taking the Challenge Cup final to Wembley (1929).
This was actually a Welsh idea, proposed by delegate John Leake to the RFL's annual conference at Llandudno in 1928, though it was seconded by Hunslet's representative. The motion was passed by only 13 votes to 10, so it was a close run thing.
Crystal Palace was a possible alternative stage, but the south London venue wanted a third of the gate money – and all of that taken before noon on the day of the game – while Wembley was willing to settle for 15 per cent, though that went up to a quarter in subsequent years.
The first Wembley final, between Wigan and Dewsbury, attracted a gate of 41,600 and that went up year on year.
The move to Wembley took rugby league away from its northern roots and earned the sport a place in the national consciousness, also leading to brief and ill-fated attempts to establish club sides in the capital.
Largely because of the switch to the national stadium, the Challenge Cup final became established as one of Britain's most prestigious annual sporting events, drew in BBC television and radio coverage and opened up the 13-a-side game to a new audience.
Without Wembley, the Challenge Cup final may not have attained listed status, which guarantees its place on terrestrial TV.
3) The four tackle rule (1966).
In typical rugby league fashion, the goal posts were moved mid-way through the season. The new rule was initially introduced as an experiment in Floodlit Trophy matches, in October, before being rolled out for all games two months later.
Until then, the sport had operated an unlimited tackle law, which meant sides kept possession until they knocked-on or conceded a scrum through a forward pass or kick to touch.
That led to what were regarded as boring mid-field stalemates, with teams sticking the ball up their jumpers and driving forward through the middle of the field.
From 1966, if a team were caught in possession after four tackles, a scrum was formed.
In 1972 that was increased to six tackles and 11 years later the handover rule (as opposed to a scrum) was introduced.
4) Summer rugby (1996).
A massive change, which went hand-in-hand with the formation of Super League, funded by Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV empire.
The switch to summer would have been more controversial, had it not coincided with the original plans for Super League, which proposed merging some of the sport's most famous and established clubs.
Summer rugby is something of a misnomer for a fixture list which includes matches in February, March and April – as well as October and November – but there's no doubt it has transformed the way the game is played and watched. It has allowed more emphasis to be placed on fast, running rugby, with plenty of points scored – which isn't always a good thing.
It has also opened rugby league up to a younger market, both on and off the field and has led to all the modern-day, pre-match razzmatazz.
Summer rugby brought the British season into line with the fixture list Down Under, thus making possible the pre-season World Club Challenge, but ending regular full-scale Lions and Kangaroo tours.
Though most amateur clubs have stuck with winter, the National Conference is now running its own experimental summer competition and it could well be only a matter of time before traditional winter rugby is a thing of the past.
Without summer rugby, our next innovation wouldn't have been possible.
5) The Rugby League Conference (1998).
Beginning with just 14 teams, the Conference took rugby league into new areas of the UK. The competition now includes almost 100 clubs in England, Wales and Scotland, with plans for an expansion into Ireland next year.
Super League players who have come up from Conference clubs include Huddersfield Giants' Darrell Griffin, Harlequins' England duo Tony Clubb and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Michael Coady, who signed for Leeds Rhinos last week, plus Jordan James, Aled James and Geriant Davies of Celtic Crusaders, who effectively started as a Conference club.
The Co-op Conference allows players from rival sports to give rugby league a go, thus vastly increasing the sport's talent base.
It has also been the driving force behind the expansion of the game in London, which – the capital's elite club apart – is one of the code's great success stories. On top of all that, the RLC has brought about greater harmony with rugby union clubs and broken down age-old barriers, through the use of shared facilities.
It has also led to new and increased media coverage, at local level at least, throughout the country.
Rugby league made the Bristol papers last week and who would have thought that a decade ago?
Ends
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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