On Tuesday 27 August 1895, as a result of an emergency meeting in Manchester, prominent Lancashire rugby clubs Broughton Rangers, Leigh, Oldham, Rochdale Hornets, St Helens, Tyldesley, Warrington, Widnes and Wigan declared that they would support their Yorkshire colleagues in their proposal to form a Northern Union.

Twenty clubs agreed to resign from the Rugby Football Union, but Dewsbury felt unable to comply with the decision.

In 1954, the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France and was won by Great Britain.

Thanks to Tom Mitchell, this changed to a unanimous vote of approval for BARLA within 12 months.

[7] 1995 also saw the Great Britain side reserved to tours with England and Wales competing separately in the World Cup.

The RFL accumulated losses of £1.9 million at the end of 2001, shortly before a major restructuring of the governing body and the appointment of Richard Lewis as executive chairman in May 2002.

[9] Lewis left in 2012 to become Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

[12] They also became the first UK sporting organisation to make the top 100 employers in the Stonewall Index that measures attitudes towards lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.

Lindsay Hoyle the speaker of the House of Commons is the current president a role which is usually filled by a high-profile individual for 1–2 years with the aim of promoting the game.

Despite this, Scotland Rugby League is partnered with the RFL in attempt to aid the sport's development in Scotland,[16][b] and Wales Rugby League shares governance with the RFL over the domestic competition but has full control of the national team.

[7] Internationally, the RFL established the England national rugby league team in 1904, and Wales and Great Britain in 1907.

[17] The team dates back to 1904 when they played against a mixture of Welsh and Scottish players in Wigan.

[18] Since then, and right up until the 1950s, they regularly toured Australia and New Zealand and played both home and away matches against neighbours Wales and France.

But when it was decided that Great Britain would tour the Southern Hemisphere instead of England, France and Wales became the only regular opponents.

In the past England's main rivals have been Wales and France, with the rivalry stretching back to 1908 and 1934 respectively.

Great Britain also played in series and tours against other nations such as France, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

In 2006, the RFL announced that after the 2007 All Golds Tour[22] the Great Britain team would no longer compete on a regular basis, and that players would be able to represent England, Wales and Scotland at Test level.

It is planned that the Great Britain team will come together in future only for occasional tours, similar to the British and Irish Lions in rugby union.

The national panel meet at least three times a year at the RFL's headquarters to discuss and debate the following: Two nominated members will also sit on the youth & junior forum, a key device used to advance youth rugby league.

[23][24] The first logo used by the RFL was an oval shape, representing the ball with XIII and 13 over it and The Rugby Football League around it.

The oval on top represents the ball and the appreciation RFL has been replaced with Rugby Football League.

[26][27] In 2015, some departments including Super League, moved to offices at Quay West in Trafford Wharf, Greater Manchester.