Damo you forgot the Communists who banned RL in Romania.

And I think it was RU that wiped out RL in Italy

The Romania one is an interesting one. From what I've read, Ceaucescu used rugby union as a tool to differentiate his dictatorship from the other Soviet ones, and have contact with the West. And because RU is really not as global a sport as it thinks it is, it was easy to have some impact.

Of course, the RU authorities in the 80s ignored the fact that all of the RU players mysteriously had desk jobs in the army. Sound familiar?

We don't need compensation for what was done, from the French government or anyone else. There's no reason why modern RU club should have to pay for what their grandfathers did. Indeed, considering how many RL players were forced to move to RU, some towns would end up paying for being forced to abandon RL.

What we need instead is to redouble our efforts to get the game going again down there. But an acknowledgement that some wrong was committed from the French government to the French RFL wouldn't be unwelcome if offered.

I never realised the nazis were that taken with odds and ends of cloth....never mind destroying RL in southern France and elsewhere.....

Ceaucescu was off his head so I wouldnt take anything he ever said or did seriously.

He tried to repay Romanias foreign debts using strawberries and steel

Bloke was crackers.

First of all I never knew that Rugby League was ever played in Romania and I’m sure many can say the same. Not much has been publicised about Rugby League in Italy either. Whereas France has had much more publicity than those two put together.

Hopefully more information will come to light in regards to Italy and Romania!

Didnt something go through court a few years ago about this? Im sure they got something to say they could challenge for the assets back but chose not to follow it through. Could have dreamt it but im sure i came across some sort of article a while back

I think you need to stop eating cheese at bedtime

For many years, the rugby union authorities had suspected that the French rugby union was abusing the idea of amateurism, and in the early 1930s the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country. The arrival of a French team on the international scene allowed more variety in the touring pattern, and also for the introduction of a European Championship. The defeat of France had serious implications for rugby league in France. The Vichy regime saw that rugby league was banned (at the request of Berlin) and numerous players, clubs and officials switched codes to union. A part of the assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the Union. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_league It’s a right rabbit hole isn’t it?

For many years, the rugby union authorities had suspected that the French rugby union was abusing the idea of amateurism, and in the early 1930s the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country. The arrival of a French team on the international scene allowed more variety in the touring pattern, and also for the introduction of a European Championship. The defeat of France had serious implications for rugby league in France. The Vichy regime saw that rugby league was banned (at the request of Berlin) and numerous players, clubs and officials switched codes to union. A part of the assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the Union. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_league It’s a right rabbit hole isn’t it?

Taken from CRL

Wales and Italy will make history on Sunday in Wrexham when they face each other for the first time in a full Rugby League international (kick-off 2pm).

This is followed up on Wednesday 6th October at Parc Eirias in Colwyn Bay when the two sides meet at under 23 level (kick-off 7pm).

However it's not the first time that Italian Rugby League sides have visited our shores.

The full international side were here 12 months ago when they took on and beat Serbia 42-12 in the European Cup fifth-sixth play-off match in Maesteg in South Wales.

And ten years ago, the Italians played in the 2000 Emerging Nations World Cup in England, where they beat Canada 66-6 in Keighley and USA 40-16 in Halifax, before falling to the Great Britain Amateur side 20-14 in Dewsbury.

But it has been a full 60-year gap since an Italian and Welsh side last faced each other, seemingly at any level.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Italian Rugby League sides were frequent and welcome visitors to the United Kingdom.

Club outfits like Padua, Treviso, Venice and Turin became well-known to fans in the UK, and Italian players signed pro contracts with English clubs, often under pseudonyms, as in the years when rugby union was a so-called amateur sport there would be no way back to rugby union in their home country should they wish to return.

For example, Padua's "Tony Rossi" signed for Wigan and "Ferdi Corsi" for Rochdale when in reality they were Antonio Danielli and Fredy Saterato.

Jean Gallia's efforts in the mid-1930s to persuade his fellow countrymen in France to adopt rugby league soon attracted the attention of a trainee commercial lawyer and rugby player in Turin, Vincenzo Bertolotto. But an exhibition game suggested for Rome didn't materialise.

But after the Second World War, discontent with the policies of the Italian rugby union in refusing to strengthen their game to put it on a level with France, led to thoughts of alternatives and the Italian Rugby League was launched in 1950 after several years of talks between then RFL secretary, Bill Fallowfield, and a group of Italian rugby dissidents.

The first game in Italy, an exhibition match in Turin by two French sides, was attending by over 4,000 fans. A local resident, Dennis Chappell, once of Wakefield helped to foster the "rebels", among them one Vincenzo Bertolotto, then an elder statesman of Italian rugby at 38 years old.

Together, they organised a six-game tour to England and Wales which included a game against a "South Wales 13" at the Brewery Field in Bridgend, future home of Celtic Crusaders. Around 2,500 attended to see South Wales win comfortably 29-11 with Ystradgynlais' Les Lewis notching a hat-trick of tries.

The Italians went on to lose all of their matches but on returning home, a Turin-based side joined the French league.

Further tours were made in 1954 and 1960 but despite heavy financial investment from the RFL, the Italian Rugby League struggled. They entertained Australian tourists in 1960, losing 15-37 in Padua and 22-67 in Treviso but by 1962 the game had died out due to pressure on players from the Italian Rugby Union threatening

Mini-revivals took place in the late 1960s and in the 1980s, but it has taken a decade of hard work to get to the position that they are in this year, where a new six-team Italian league, with teams in Padua, Florence and Rome, has been played.

Players from that league are included in this current squad and this weekend they return to Wales for the first time in 60 years.

And it also wasnt just the romanians at it.

In 1964, a number of Yugoslavian rugby clubs were playing rugby league rather than rugby union and the authorities requested that they all change to the union code.[1 It is not clear whether the objection was to professionalism in a Communist society, the style of play, or indeed to standardise rugby football in Yugoslavia,

I personally think that we should.

You only have to look at Australia on how rugby league can thrive if its left alone by interfering rugby Union fans. Mind you France did have a successful rugby league period after the war. Whatever happened to French rugby league after that is anyone’s guess - bed management or interfering forces?

Thanks for this information.



It looks like Italian Rugby League is getting back into the swing of things. Hopefully it wont be interfered with this time!

I think the problems that League had were:

1. The loss of it players and assets.
2. The continuing ban on the name 'rugby league'.

Not quite what occurred.

It was a bit more than that too...





Although that in itself is enough to ground a case for compensation.

why not?

every other group that had assets stolen during WW2 had compenations.

we are no different.

RU in france today bears the legacy of the vichy banning of RL. they benefitted directly from the banning. underpinning RU in france is the links / benefits from the vichy regime

nah they couldnt sue because they arent the same sport that was banned

because RU denied RL the use of the term rugby and instead became the game of 13, we were denied a chance to sue because its not the same name as before

something along those lines

Quote ="Damo-Leeds"For many years, the rugby union authorities had suspected that the French rugby union was abusing the idea of amateurism, and in the early 1930s the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country. The arrival of a French team on the international scene allowed more variety in the touring pattern, and also for the introduction of a European Championship. The defeat of France had serious implications for rugby league in France. The Vichy regime saw that rugby league was banned (at the request of Berlin) and numerous players, clubs and officials switched codes to union. A part of the assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the Union. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_league It’s a right rabbit hole isn’t it? '" union people used to put broken glass on RL playing fields to stop games going ahead.

Quote ="Damo-Leeds"For many years, the rugby union authorities had suspected that the French rugby union was abusing the idea of amateurism, and in the early 1930s the French Rugby Union was suspended from playing against the other nations. Looking round for an alternative, many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France, particularly in the south west of the country. The arrival of a French team on the international scene allowed more variety in the touring pattern, and also for the introduction of a European Championship. The defeat of France had serious implications for rugby league in France. The Vichy regime saw that rugby league was banned (at the request of Berlin) and numerous players, clubs and officials switched codes to union. A part of the assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to the Union. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rugby_league It’s a right rabbit hole isn’t it? '" union people used to put broken glass on RL playing fields to stop games going ahead.

Not true.

Didn't get as far as the courts, if I remember aright. I THINK it was Louis Bonnery who recommended the softly-softly approach. It wouldn't have mattered either way as they'd still have lost and the chances of getting anything out of the Petainiste dwarf currently occupying the Elysee (sp?) Palace (the only world leader who can run between Rob Burrow's legs) are nil. Incidentally I disagree with the concept of 'remnant Nazis' in relation to France, what we're dealing with is the old ultramontane anti-semetic far right who've been trying to run France since the departure of Napoleon - they'd consider the Nazis as squalid, common arrivistes!

In France yes, everywhere else poor management.

Presumably you've never heard of the Benes decrees, whereby all Germans and Hungarian citizens of Czechoslovakia were forceably deported and had their property confiscated, regardless of whether or not they had complied with the Nazi occupiers. This affected millions of people.

The millions of French citizens deported to Germany for work were not compensated either.

The confisaction of sporting assets kind of pales in comparison.

He's definitely a Gaullist rather than a Petainiste, but to be honest there wasn't a great deal of difference. Petain was an ultramontane anti-semite from an impoverished peasant background, whereas de Gaulle was an ultramontane anti-semite from an impoverished aristocratic background...

Oddly, Petain betrayed his own beliefs by marrying a divorcee, but the de Gaulles were so extreme that if they visited Petain, his wife had to go next door or they would not stay.

No, that sentence doesn't make any sense.
Could you please re-phrase it.