1906 When Rugby League Became the 13 Man Game
Play The Ball and Goodbye Flankers Creates the Modern Game
Sep 23, 2009
In 1906 three significant rule changes where passed by the Northern Union. These revolutionized the game transforming it from rugby union, just being played under a different governing body, to a sport in its own right. They were:
- Teams reduced from fifteen to thirteen, with two forwards removed.
- That a tackled player be allowed to regain his feet and place or drop the ball before playing at it with his foot in any direction.
- The formation of scrum from where the ball had been kicked if it left the field of play on the full
Rugby Union and Deaths During Play
The genesis of these rule changes are many but significantly, and one often forgotten, is the deaths of players whilst playing the sport. Robert Gate reports in his 1989 book, An Illustrated History Rugby League, that The Wakefield Express did a survey for the three seasons leading up to 1893. In Yorkshire alone they found there were “71 deaths, 208 broken bones and 158 other injuries.” The game spent too much time in chaotic pile ups.
The Northern Union never planned to play a different sport, the points of division were off the field matters, but the logic of an increasingly professional sport demanded attention to both player safety and a desire for the paying spectators to see the ball.
Open and Running Rugby
The 'play the ball' rule was brought into effect because at the time all completed tackles invariably led to a scrum. They were messy affairs with players free to leave the scrum, run round and join the other side, and wheel it around at will. The frequency of the scrum meant a lot of time was wasted setting up and the ball spent an inordinate amount of time hidden from view at the bottom of a pile of players.
The logic and desire to clean up the 'contact' area of the sport has been the underpinning ethos behind almost every other change in the century following. This has lead very much to rugby league being a game of open running as opposed to a game of 'contest for possession'. The points system had already been altered in 1897 to reduce the importance of penalties and goal kicking in favour of tries.
Farewell to the Flanker
Equally as important was the decision to reduce to thirteen players. The very first rugby union international between England and Scotland had been twenty a side so the issue of player numbers had always been debated. Effectively the Northern Union took the view that too many players meant less space for running rugby, dovetailing perfectly into the creation of the 'play the ball'. In fact eleven side games had already been experimented with, but perhaps this was too close to the number of players in association football.
Kicking to Touch, No Clapping
As part of the sporting revolution the punishment of a kick straight into touch was created to encourage more running. A rugby union journalist of the time called it: "...by far the most idiotic ordination ever passed by man for the utter ruination of a capital sport." It took union until the 1990s to adopt this rule and try to throw off the pejorative of being thought of as 'kick and clap'.
Rugby League and Rugby Union
Since the professionalisation of rugby union in 1995 many have speculated that this would mean the healing of the split and the rejoining of the two codes. This assumes that the main difference was mainly about paying players to play. The reality is that since 1906 they have gone their separate ways. Once the Rubicon was crossed several other rule changes, especially limited tackling and the 10 metre rule, have further entrenched this situation.
Source:
Robert Gate, An Illustrated History Rugby League, Arthur Barker, 1989
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