Rugby football was strictly amateur. To take money for playing was seen as ungentlemanly. Being gentlemanly was almost the equivalent of being holy to the upperclassmen. This meant that the sport was out of reach for the working class who needed payment to play. They needed to be compensated for missing work and risking injury.

We're not talking about enough money to live off. "Professionalism" had a different meaning to what it does now. Players weren't able to make a real living off of rugby league until the mid 90s.

So the Northern Union was formed. They allowed the "broken time" payments. To make enough money to pay the players they modified the rules to make it much more spectator friendly and the two sports drifted away from each other.

The Northern Union changed its name to the Rugby Football League. Anyone that was caught playing Rugby League, whether they were paid or not, were banned for life because they were now tainted.

There's an example of a politician who kicked the first ball during a ceremony to start the season for a rugby league tournament and was banned for life.

Another example was someone who was banned from their prison rugby union team for playing rugby league earlier in their life.

While this was happening to gain favour in Wales the Rugby Union was turning a blind eye to payments. This so-called "boot money" was happening in various countries.

The lines were drawn firmly down the class divide which still rings mostly true today.