Extract from Chapter 11: ‘In a league of their own’ | Rugby league after World War II
International rugby league sprang back into life in 1946, as England set sail for the Antipodes aboard an aircraft carrier, HMS Indomitable, keeping themselves fit by stoking the ship’s boilers. Attendances boomed back home, with the Challenge Cup final being sold out in 1948 – for the first time since its move to Wembley – as 91,465 saw Wigan beating Bradford. It was a golden period for Wigan, with four championships, two Challenge Cups and six Lancashire Cups between 1945 and 1952.
Top-class rugby league spread to Cumberland as Workington, featuring many Cumberland-born players, joined the senior league in 1945. Whitehaven joined them three years later. There was yet another burst of activity in South Wales, as an eight-team Welsh League began play in 1949, only to fold soon afterwards amid general apathy.
The 1948 Challenge Cup final was the first to be televised, but the broadcast could be seen only in the Midlands, where there was little interest. More finals appeared on television in the early 1950s, before the Rugby Football League pulled the plug for several years, believing that attendances were being affected. In 1954, an official crowd of 102,569 crammed into Bradford’s Odsal stadium for a Cup final replay between Halifax and Warrington; the real figure is thought to have been closer to 120,000.
In Australia, where there would be no television coverage until 1961, South Sydney had another spell of dominance in their city’s league, reaching every Grand Final from 1949 to 1955 and losing only two of them. On the international front, 1947–48 saw New Zealand, now officially nicknamed the Kiwis rather than the All Blacks, finally completing a British tour for the first time in 21 years. Another name change came a year later, as ‘England’ finally adopted the name ‘Great Britain’ when they hosted the Kangaroos.
Anglo-Australian matches were still often testy affairs – perhaps even more than before, with relations between the two countries worsening as Australia’s sense of independence grew stronger. A 1954 game between New South Wales and Great Britain was abandoned after 56 minutes, as referee Aubrey Oxford despaired of trying to control the incessant violence. Four years later, in a bruising test in Brisbane, British captain Alan Prescott played on with a broken arm sustained after just three minutes. Four other Britons suffered serious injuries, but only one (David Bolton, with a broken collar-bone) left the action, and the team hung on for a 25–18 win; the match went down in rugby league lore as ‘Prescott’s Epic’.
Top-class rugby league spread to Cumberland as Workington, featuring many Cumberland-born players, joined the senior league in 1945. Whitehaven joined them three years later. There was yet another burst of activity in South Wales, as an eight-team Welsh League began play in 1949, only to fold soon afterwards amid general apathy.
The 1948 Challenge Cup final was the first to be televised, but the broadcast could be seen only in the Midlands, where there was little interest. More finals appeared on television in the early 1950s, before the Rugby Football League pulled the plug for several years, believing that attendances were being affected. In 1954, an official crowd of 102,569 crammed into Bradford’s Odsal stadium for a Cup final replay between Halifax and Warrington; the real figure is thought to have been closer to 120,000.
In Australia, where there would be no television coverage until 1961, South Sydney had another spell of dominance in their city’s league, reaching every Grand Final from 1949 to 1955 and losing only two of them. On the international front, 1947–48 saw New Zealand, now officially nicknamed the Kiwis rather than the All Blacks, finally completing a British tour for the first time in 21 years. Another name change came a year later, as ‘England’ finally adopted the name ‘Great Britain’ when they hosted the Kangaroos.
Anglo-Australian matches were still often testy affairs – perhaps even more than before, with relations between the two countries worsening as Australia’s sense of independence grew stronger. A 1954 game between New South Wales and Great Britain was abandoned after 56 minutes, as referee Aubrey Oxford despaired of trying to control the incessant violence. Four years later, in a bruising test in Brisbane, British captain Alan Prescott played on with a broken arm sustained after just three minutes. Four other Britons suffered serious injuries, but only one (David Bolton, with a broken collar-bone) left the action, and the team hung on for a 25–18 win; the match went down in rugby league lore as ‘Prescott’s Epic’.