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Book Review
| Tony Collins, Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain: A Social and Cultural History, Routledge, London, 2006. pp. 272. £80.00 cloth.
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| Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain is the sequel to Rugby's Great Split, Tony Collins' excellent first book. Among other things, this exploded the 'big bang' theory of the 1895 Huddersfield split between the two rugby codes. It showed that the split from union and the formation of British rugby league was a more protracted process than hitherto had been allowed and, in effect, was a response to a bosses' lockout. Though less revisionist in its findings, Collins' most recent offering is a worthy successor. |
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One of the major issues attendant to the writing of sport and social history is to maintain the balance of detail and interpretation. One the one hand it is important to resist the temptation of including too much Anorak style detail. On the other, to use rugby league parlance, 'overreading the play', overloading the text with too much interpretation and analysis, is also to be avoided. |
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Tony Collins succeeds admirably in this regard. Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain proceeds in a broadly chronological sequence. Chapters on the game in World War I and World War II, the Great Depression and later the post-war years are interspersed with more specifically thematic accounts on such issues as evolving professionalism and the impact of rule changes. Through it all Collins uses insights from broader economic and social history as a window for understanding sport. For instance, with the class divide between league and union in mind, Professor Collins argues that the current rise in rugby union's popularity in Britain is partly attributable to the growing self-confidence of the British middle class. This is a legacy of the many defeats of the trade union movement, together with the long term effects of Thatcherism and the subsequent hegemony of free market economics, as well as a product of the re-emergence of London as a major financial hub of the global economy. After watching the 2003 Ireland versus England rugby union international one Spectator journalist rejoiced: 'Aren't you glad you are middle class?' |
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Australian readers may well find the chapter on rugby league's Anglo-Australian connections the most interesting. For instance, given the broader significance attached to the Bodyline cricket tour and its role in asserting growing Australian nationalism in the early 1930s, the lack of long term trauma caused by rugby league's infamous 'Battle of Brisbane', the vicious second test of the 1932 tour that at one point left Australia playing with only 10 of 13 men, is curious. Collins argues that the fact that Australian rugby league officials remained fundamentally loyal to the empire and the shared cultural affinities between the game's predominantly working-class constituencies in both countries kept the lid on the matter. I'm not sure about this. Collins understands Britain far better than Australia. In common, however, with cricket, rugby league served to reinforce the shared cultural capital of the two countries, the 'Chooms' (as opposed to the Poms in cricket) being invariably admired and respected, at least when the heat of battle had subsided. For those less historically minded than Tony Collins it is useful to be reminded that the current era of Australian dominance only began in the late 1970s. Even in the 1960s some Australian commentators assumed that British superiority in rugby league would never be overcome. Those who despair about the current lopsidedness of international competitions in rugby league between Australia and Great Britain would do well to remember that, like George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, nothing is forever. |
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Unlike many other sports historians who have succumbed to the cultural studies malaise, Tony Collins knows that Mick Foucault did not play scrum half for Hull KR. Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain is influenced by old fashioned class analysis – and a good thing, too. With sections on gender and race, nor does he lose sight of the other two legs of the trendy trifecta. Collins is also an empiricist and the book is impressive for the research in specialist archives that informs it. The chapters locating rugby league in its broader working-class cultural milieu add empirical grunt to assertions that are commonly made but less often backed up with real, substantive evidence. Some of this sheds light on the great mysteries of British rugby league. For instance, the intense animosity between the two teams of neighbouring Lancashire towns, St Helens and Wigan, apparently stems from the 1926 general strike. While the miners of St Helens remained solid to the very end of the strike, their colleagues at Wigan returned to work early. There were rumours that the captain of the Wigan rugby league team had persuaded them to do so. Because Wigan's miners returned to work on the bosses' terms, eating as it were humble pie, to the present day Wigan and its supporters are known as 'pie eaters'. |
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British rugby league has had some distinguished chroniclers. Geoffrey Moorhouse, one of the twentieth century's truly great writers, wrote the official centenary history in 1995, as well as the series of essays, At the George, that is, in my opinion, the best single book ever written about any sport. Professor Collins is in the same league as Moorhouse, the heir apparent, a Jonathan Thurston to a Matthew Johns, less of a stylist than Moorhouse but equally insightful in informing his readers about sport and why sport history matters. |
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| University of Western Sydney |
ANDREW MOORE | |
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