Rugby Reloaded

Lindsay Anderson's film version of David Storey's novel 'This Sporting Life' was released in 1963 and is one of the few movies to portray sport accurately on screen. But did it do rugby league a disservice, or was it aiming at something different? Dig out the popcorn and take a ten-minute intermission while 'Rugby Reloaded' unravels the many layers and complexities of rugby's cinema classic. For m...

Rugby Union is unique in world sport because of the importance of the penalty goal to match results. But why did the penalty goal become such a crucial aspect of the game? 'Rugby Reloaded' digs back into the history of the game to discover how it emerged in response to new players taking up rugby in the Victorian era.

This special edition of 'Rugby Reloaded' is the second part of the interview with Michael Aylwin about his fascinating book 'Unholy Union: When Rugby Collided with the Modern World'. What does the future hold for rugby union and how does it overcome the cultural baggage of its amateur heritage?

As the British general election was called last week, a think-tank suggested that Boris Johnson's Conservative Party should target 'Workington Man' in areas with 'strong rugby league traditions'. But rugby league was born in revolt against ruling elites and has a long tradition of radicalism. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' looks at the rebel origins of league and its radical DNA. For more on the his...

As the All Blacks enter four years of self-doubt, 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to David Scott about his book 'Return to Rugby Land' and his reflections about the place of rugby union in New Zealand history and society. It's a book that combines his own personal memories with observations on rugby in NZ culture and the position of Maori, Polynesians and Women in the game - and we end with his thoughts on...

This week sees the start of the Great Britain Lions' tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, so we look at the origins of the GB-NZ rivalry and go back to Cheltenham, the genteel town which staged the deciding test match of the 1908 series. Yes, Cheltenham! Step into the ten-minute time tunnel to discover its historic role in rugby league history. For more on the history of rugby and the other f...

To mark Black History Month, this week's podcast looks at the pioneering life and times of Lucius Banks, the first Amercian to play professional rugby and the first black athlete to play professional rugby league. This is a remarkable life story of an African-American man born two decades after the end of slavery, travelled across the Atlantic to play a sport he had never seen, and returned home t...

On Friday 11 October it will be the 50th anniversary of my father taking me to my first-ever Hull Kingston Rovers match. To mark the anniversary, this week's 'Rugby Reloaded plus' chats to 1960s Hull KR forward Keith Pollard about his life in rugby league in England and Australia, and talks about his autobiography, 'Red & White Phoenix: the adventures of a Hessle Road lad'. For more on the history...

This week we talk to Michael Aylwin, rugby union correspondent of the 'Guardian' and the author of a new book, 'Unholy Union: When Rugby Collided With The Modern World'. It’s a ‘state of the nation’ review of the problems and challenges facing rugby union today, almost 25 years since the sport took the momentous decision to go professional. Is its future conditioned by its amateur past, or can it...

This autumn is the 50th anniversary of the now infamous 1969 South African rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland. On Wednesday, BBC Wales will screen Gareth Edwards' 'Rugby, Apartheid and Me' in which he re-examines his decision not boycott South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. So this week's 'Rugby Reloaded' looks back at 1969, and the tour that was historic for all the wrong reasons. For more o...

Rugby Union's World Cup kicks off on Friday - but why did it take the game until 1987 to stage a world cup? 'Rugby Reloaded' plus talks to journalist and historian Huw Richards about the tangled pre-history of the world cup and how it eventually kicked off Down Under. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and take a look at www.rugbyreload...

As the kick-off for rugby union's world cup in Japan approaches, this week's 'Rugby Reloaded' steps back sixty-five years to explore the origins and tangled history of rugby's first world cup - the 1954 Rugy League World Cup. Initiated by a leader of the French Resistance, the RLWC has a tangled history whose promise has yet to be fulfilled. Could the 2021 RLWC be the turning point? For more on th...

Fiji has been a hotbed of rugby for over a century. It provides stars to the NRL and to rugby union around the world. In the 1950s northern England was lit up by the talent of its players. And it continues to dominate the world of rugby union sevens. Yet it has always been treated as a second-class citizen by world rugby union, and in today's globalised world, it looks like the future pf Fijian ru...

Ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the founding of the Northern Union in 1895, 'Rugby Reloaded' looks as the forgotten genius of English rugby, Dicky Lockwood. A manual labourer who captained the England rugby union team, Lockwood symbolised the rise of the northern working-class rugby player in the 19th century amd became the living embodiment of rugby's great split, yet his story was ignored and...

It's the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final on Saturday, so the latest 'Rugby Reloaded' looks back at one of rugby league's most iconic moments: Don Fox's dramatic last-minute missed conversion in the 1968 Final. Why has this become a defining event in the history of the Wembley final and why does it continue to resonate with us today after more than fifty years?

In September 1982 the Australian rugby league Kangaroos landed in Britain. When they left at the end of November they were acclaimed as the Invincibles, the greatest rugby league touring team ever. Not since the 1905 All Black rugby union tourists had any visiting sports team had such an impact on Britain. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to Mark Flanagan about his new book 'The Invincibles: The...

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' plus talks to Ian Syson about his book 'The Game That Never Happened' which looks at the origins and struggles of soccer in Australia's four-cornered football world. Ian discusses why soccer never became the premier football code down under and how it lost out to rugby league and Aussie Rules. It's a fascinating discussion which throws up lots of questions about why an...

The titanic rivalry between the All Blacks and the Springboks has dominated international rugby union for one hundred years. But the origins of that rivalry were based on racism and racial exclusion. The latest 'Rugby Reloaded' goes back to 1919 to discover how the great All Black Ranji Wilson was excluded from the first tour to South Africa and how race defined the relationship between New Zealan...

Harold Wagstaff died 80 years ago on 19 July 1939. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes a ten-minute tour of his life and times to explore why he was he arguably rugby league's greatest-ever player, and also how he came to symbolise league culture in Britain and Australia. For more information about 'Ahr Waggy', go to www. HuddersfieldRLheritage.co.uk, where there are also details of the Wagstaff He...

For over a century, rugby union has been a symbol of Afrikaner culture and white South Africa. But why did the Afrikaners play the game of their British war-time enemies and rivals? This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes ten minutes to look at the legacy of the Boer War and the 1906 Springbok tour, and discover what made rugby so appealing to Afrikaners. For more on the history of rugby and the other...

With the deciding State of Origin rugby league match just two days away, Rugby Reloaded plus chats with Joe Gorman about his forthcoming book 'Heartland: How Rugby League Explains Queensland'. We talk about why Origin is so important for Queenslanders, what it says about their identity, how racism has been undermined and why the future of the game could be female. For more on the history of rugby...

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' plus edition talks to Victor Ramalho, historian of Brazilian rugby and ESPN Brazil rugby commentator. Victor talks about how rugby lost out to soccer, its slow growth in the 20th century, its new popularity, the women's game, and the emergence of rugby league. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.ru...

The Samoan rugby league team broke its drought at the weekend with victory over Papua New Guinea, while Samoan rugby union remains at its weakest point for decades. But how did it become a powerhouse of rugby? This week's Rugby Reloaded looks back at what makes Samoan history unique and how globailsation could be the saviour of both codes. For more on the history of rugby and the other football co...

It's State of Origin #2 on Sunday, but 50 years ago the same intense focus would have been on a Great Britain v Australia Ashes series. This week's episode looks at why Origin overcame the Ashes and explores the history of Anglo-Australian rugby league. Discover how rugby league explains Australia's changing relationship with its former 'Mother Country'! For more on the history of rugby and the ot...

How important are 'firsts' in the history of the football codes? Does it matter if a club is the 'oldest'? Do they distract from the bigger issues in the history of how the different games emerged and evolved? For this week's ten-minute trip through the football code time tunnel I'm giving the talk I gave at last week's International Football History Conference - @footycon - on whether 'firsts' ma...