Includes an additional Foreword by RFL Archivist
and rugby league historian Tony Collins..

Extract

"Without rugby league’s expansion into the southern hemisphere, the history of the game in Britain would have been radically different. It is probable that rugby league would have remained locked into the north of England.

"As The Rugby Rebellion makes clear, the Northern Union’s split from the RFU was an event of international importance. Not only was the progress of the NU being watched closely by rugby players and officials down under, but the treatment of the northern clubs by the RFU was mirrored by the behaviour of the 1899 and 1904 British rugby union tourists towards their Australasian hosts."

"As readers will notice, the Reverend Mullineux’s snobbish disdain for Australians seems to be a direct reflection of the Reverend Frank Marshall’s attempts to curb the influence of working-class rugby players in the north of England before the 1895 split."

"And of course the RFU was determined to ‘throttle the hydra’ of Northern Unionism wherever it reared its head. One of the book’s great strengths is that it shows how much in common there is between league in Australia and Britain."

"Fagan has uncovered much that is new, unravelled old mysteries and set the facts straight on numerous controversial issues. This book is as important to the history of rugby league in Britain, as it is to the game’s history in Australia."

"It is a shared history that belongs to every rugby league supporter, wherever they may be in the world."