Changes

The mid-nineteenth century represented the sporting equivalent of the 'big bang' in terms of winter sports in England, giving rise to the development of what today we call rugby union, football and rugby league, all from the same origin. Perhaps due to its popularity amongst the public schools of the day, rugby union for many years claimed the moral high ground, advocating amateurism and an emphasis on playing the game rather than providing a public spectacle. Indeed, the arguments over the dangers of professionalism, which initially led to the split into rugby league from the Northern clubs, continued in union for well over a hundred years right up to the former England captain Will Carling's description of the powers that be of the RFU as 'old farts'. In 1896 Bertrand Bertram Fletcher Robinson, together with contributions from a few leading players of the day, wrote Rugby Football which was the first volume in a successful nine-part series on Sports and Pastimes that was written for the Isthmian Library. This edition is effectively a facsimile of that book, with the addition of an introduction, penned by Patrick Casey and Hugh Cooke and compiled by Paul Spring.