Tony Collins shows in this major work that there are reasons behind [rugby league] developing the way that it did and that they are reasons as honourable as those behind the rise of any other form of working class self-expression.
It should be compulsory reading for anyone who believes that the game more than a hundred years later is merely about competing for the same shiny suits and corporate contracts.
Book of the Week, The Independent, 15th June 1998
This year's literary outpourings are dominated again by the lustre of bygone days, pre-summer and Super League. The pick is Rugby's Great Split, by Tony Collins ... who asks why there are two forms of rugby, and ends up with a celebration of the game's traditions and passions in answering that rugby's schism in 1895 actually defined the class barriers.
Rugby league was shaped in the spirit of defiance and Collins, successfully treading between social history lessons and good storytelling, lends weight to a truth not universally acknowledged: that little has changed in a century when the game remains wedded to an expansionist theory that has never quite succeeded.
Christopher Irvine, The Times, 22nd December 1998
This book is a landmark in the history and historiography of Rugby League and of rugby in general.
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
... replete with hundreds of footnotes, a comprehensive bibliography and extensive appendices, it is primarily aimed at academic consumption. None of that should put off the ordinary reader, however, for the book is written in a lively narrative way which will engross and inform all who take an interest in the whys and hows of the evolution of both codes of rugby.
The scope of this work borders on the monumental.
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
Rugby's Great Split will undoubtedly supersede all other works on the origins of Rugby League. I have little doubt that it will become THE standard work on the early development of rugby itself.
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
A few months ago the librarian at Twickers phoned me to say that he had read Tony Collins' thesis and at last he understood why Rugby League people often took the belligerent stance they do in regard to his own game's absurd treatment of theirs. It is hard to think of a more eloquent recommendation for buying Rugby's Great Split.
Robert Gate, League Express, 4th May 1998
Tony Collins has now produced what could be classed the definitive version ... he has written a serious account of both the actual mechanics of the [1895] split and, perhaps more importantly, the social aspects. ... Rugby's Great Split is one of the finest books ever to be written about Rugby and Tony Collins deserves great credit for his work.
Sports Collector, July 1998
The author of this book has done a great service to the field with this fine book that places the split between Rugby-Football Union and the Northern Union (now called rugby league) into its historical context. General readers might mistakenly be put off by the book's apparent topic, an esoteric exploration of the 1890s rugby schism; however, this work is much broader than that and would be interesting to anyone interested in class and culture in turn-of-the-century Britain. In the tradition of the best sport history, Tony Collins rescues the rugby league's history from the hands of hagiographic club secretaries and places it firmly in the mainstream of cultural and social history. Moreover, Collins brings new light to a tale that sport historians and rugby fans most likely believe they already know.
Patrick F McDevitt, Rowan University, Historian, Fall 2000
Rugby World - colour review -..an authorative look at the historical basis on which todays rugby survives it ia an excellent contribution.
Independent on Sunday - Rugbys Great Split brilliantly records the early years when rugby and football emerged from the public schools and seduced the working calsses, prompting the class tensions which led two games played exclusivelyby gentlemen to confront professionalism. This is a fine read which intelligently probes the connections between social calss and sport which still holds sway today.
The Independent - It is the most detailed and perceptive account yet of the events around the great schism.
Financial Times - The outstanding historical work was Tony Collinss Rugbys Great Split definitive on the 1895 schism between the two rugby codes.
The Times -...Collins, successfully treading between social history lessons and good storytelling, lends weight to truth not universally acknowledged: that little has changed in a century when the game ren=mains wedded to an expansionist theory that has never quite succeeded.
The Final Hooter - feature that book won the Aberdare Book Prize
Total Rugby League - ... a truly brilliant book, and a real eye-opener. Dont be put off by the scholarly title either. Rugbys Great Split is readily accessible, you dont need a PhD to read it, and its a real must for anyone even remotely interested in this great games heritage, and wondering how we got where we are today.
Sydney League News- A ground-breaking work on the subject, this fascinating volume is probably the most important rugby league book of the year
Sports Collector- Rugbys Great Split is one of the finest books ever to be written about Rugby and Tony Collins deserves great credit for his work
St Helens Star/ Sport Journal/Yorkshire Post/Open Rugby
Bulletin of the Rugby League Collectors Federation- Tony Collins adds ...a large amount of very interesting detail which is so well presented that you can almost at times be transfered back to those exciting days of Victorian Rugby Football
Loosehead Magazine- interview with Tony Collins- Quite simply, it is the rugby league book of the year, and possibly one of the best ever written on the code
League Express- This book is a landamrk in the history and historiography of Rugby League and of rugby in general
Albion- This is a book that is grounded firmly in the seconday literature and draws on a wide variety of primary sources. Collins understands the difference between theory and empirically based conclusions. His straightforward prose shows how the sport(s) changed and draws important links between that and the changing nature of Empire, trade unionism, as well as attitudes towards local pride and masculine behaviour
The author of this book has done a great service to the field with this fine book that places the split between Rugby-Football Union and the Northern Union into its historical context.
The Historian
Praise for the previous edition:
'The outstanding historical work ... definitive on the 1895 schism between the two rugby codes.'- Financial Times
'This book is a landmark in the history and historiography of rugby league and of rugby in general.' - Rugby League Express
