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On August 29, 1895 representatives of the northern clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the "Northern Rugby Football Union". The reasons stem from the roots of rugby union. In the south of the country the game was played mainly by the "upper classes" at public schools, but in the north it was played by mainly working class men such as miners etc. When they got injured or were to play a match that interfered with working hours they wanted some sort of payment to compensate but the rugby union would not agree to this saying that if you cannot afford to play the game dont play it at all! That is what caused the split. Certain rules were changed, play the ball after a tackle, scrum instead of a line out etc, and teams reduced from 15 to 13 players. jed.
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Professor1886 - Concerned at the growing dominance of the largely working-class northern clubs, the Rugby Football Union introduces strict amateur rules.
1893 - Yorkshire clubs propose allowing players to be paid six shillings 'broken-time'payments when they miss work due to matches. RFU vote down proposal. Widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players begin.
1895 - Threatened with expulsion from the RFU if they cannot prove their amateurism, 21 leading Lancashire and Yorkshire clubs meet at the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 29 August 1895. They vote unanimously to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NU) and allow broken-time payments
The RFU had been formed in 1871 by representatives of 21 clubs - all of which were located in southern England and most were within London. By the early 1890's rugby was widespread and well over half the RFU's clubs were in northern England. The working classes of the north of England and South Wales were particularly taken with rugby over soccer.
As with rugby clubs right across England, the majority of the clubs of the North were created and operated by men of the ruling classes. However, as the majority of the population in Yorkshire and Lancashire was working class, the clubs, teams and crowds quickly displayed a cross-class nature. Hull FC was formed in 1865 by a young gentlemen who had been at Rugby School and immediately took on members who were plumbers and glaziers. An ever rarer example was Leeds Athletic which was started by working men on their own initiative. It began with an advertisement in a local newspaper placed by a rail clerk.
Other clubs had religious affiliations at the start which are now long forgotten, but others such as Wakefield Trinity were marked by this for the rest of their existence. Wakefield was formed in 1873 as a sporting arm of the Holy Trinity Church Young Men's Society.
In Lancashire, rugby was started at Rochdale in 1867 by a magistrate and numerous business owners and self-employed men. Within a year they were all playing alongside new members when working class men were allowed to join as well. This club was the forerunner of the Rochdale Hornets who arrived in 1871 with an open door approach to membership. At Rochdale they were also able to insist on gate money as they played on an enclosed field. This became an increasing tendency in the North. Some clubs though, like Wigan, did not have an enclosed field and had to rely on crowd donations from collection boxes.
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