"Nuts On T'Umpire"

This is a Baines card - c.1900 - and myth is falling into pieces...! I've always been said that rugby in Home Countries was a gentlemen's game... How could this shouting crowd run after an umpire in such a trivial way... ? Possibly because it's Northern Union (*) rugby ... ;-)

By the way, let's precise that originally the team captains would consult with each other in order to resolve any dispute on the pitch. Enventually, this role was delagated to an umpire. Each time would bring their own partisan umpire allowing the team captains to concentrate on the game. Later, the referee, a thrid "neutral" official was added, this referee would be "referred to" if the umpires could not resolve a dispute. In Football Association, the referee did not take his place on the pitch until 1891, when the umpires became linesmen (now assistant referee) (source : Wikipedia). I am searching for the actual date in Football Rugby...

(*) says Wikipedia (again !): Rugby league takes its name from what was initially a breakaway faction of England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) known as the Northern Union when established in 1895. Both unions played rugby football under the same rules at first, until similar breakaway factions occurred from RFU-affiliated rugby unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, and formed associations known as rugby football leagues, introducing modified Northern Union rules to create a new form of rugby football. The Northern Union later changed its name to the Rugby Football League in 1922 and thus, over time the sport itself became known as "rugby league"

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, baines card, umpire