11 October 2019

The split between Rugby League and Rugby Union is the story of national class division

The Webb Ellis myth aimed to cement the claim of union’s leaders that rugby belonged to the public school men.

England's full back Elliot Daly (L) and England's wing Ruaridh McConnochie (R) take part in a training session during the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup, in Tokyo on October 9, 2019. (Photo by William WEST / AFP) (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Success for the England football or cricket teams can bring moments of national unity. Success for the England rugby union team in their World Cup campaign, currently nearing the end of the group stage, would bring a timely reminder of national division.

Resentment of rugby union remains strong among rugby league supporters, whose Great Britain side will play in New Zealand during the latter stages of union’s World Cup. The overlap will emphasise how the class and geographical fractures between the two rugby codes, deepened by globalisation and deindustrialisation, are representative of the social and economic fault lines of modern England.