The first international match was played in 1904 as England was beaten 9–3 at Central Park, Wigan by "Other Nationalities" (largely Welsh players).

[9] In 1948 the first televised rugby league match was played when Wigan's 8–3 Challenge Cup Final victory over Bradford Northern was broadcast to the Midlands.

The 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final replay between Halifax and Warrington, held at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, drew 102,575 paying spectators with an estimated 20,000 others getting in free after a section of fencing collapsed.

[10] The boom had begun to subside by the early 1960s; rugby league now had to compete against television and other new forms of entertainment and attendances began to fall.

Although the matches had provided a good test for selecting players for the full England and Great Britain sides, the crowds had been poor and the games had little attraction for the rest of the country.

The two bodies aim to work closely together in a formal relationship in 2022, when England will host the delayed European Touch Championships in Nottingham.

Outside of the World Cup, England are one of three automatic qualifiers to the Rugby League Four Nations, alongside New Zealand and Australia, finishing as losing finalists at the inaugural tournament in 2009.

Regular tests against France have seen England go undefeated since 1981,[19] with an International Origin series occasionally played against overseas players based in the Super League to provide stronger competition.

[21] In the reduced formats of the game, England took part in the defunct Rugby League World Sevens in 2002 and 2003, losing in the latter final to Parramatta Eels.

[22] The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s saw England reach the semi-final, losing to New Zealand at Bankwest Stadium, Sydney.

Two losses against the Kiwis in Auckland and Christchurch were book-ended by defeats against Tonga in Hamilton and Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby[25] The whitewash attracted criticism from the British rugby league press, with the future viability of the team called into question.

Until 2007, this was accompanied by the RLIF Awards which rewarded the best referee, coach, developing nations player, international newcomer, captain and a team of the year.

Some of the teams involved no longer play in the same league and so derby games are either arranged as pre-season friendlies or take place as part of the Challenge Cup.

It is designed to provide children with a safe environment, a firm knowledge of the laws of rugby league and a chance to practice the skills such as tackling, passing and common defensive and attacking tactics.

In the 2005/06 academic year over 1,200 teams and 20,000 players competed in the Champion Schools tournament, making it the largest rugby league competition in the world.

[6] A year later the Universities and Colleges Rugby League was formed after student pioneers fought hard to get the sport recognised in higher education.

Many continue to play after leaving university and this has led to the creation of teams in non-traditional areas such as London Skolars and Gloucestershire All Golds.

[34] An old survey from 1994 showed that back then, sixty per cent of people regularly attending rugby league lived in only four postal districts along the M62.

An example is Saddleworth Rangers which represents a largely rural area to the East of Oldham towards the Pennines; however the club's stadium contains a covered seated stand and triple figure support for home games.

The number of participants involved in the 2011–12 Carnegie Champion schools tournament was a record 30,713 players across 1819 teams making it the largest rugby league competition in the world.

[39] Expansion by the governing body, the Rugby Football League sees continual growth in the south of England, notably the London area, which now boasts three professional clubs.

The BBC covers the Rugby League Challenge Cup from the rounds in which the top clubs enter with the final attracting over 4 million viewers.

[30] The Challenge Cup final is considered by government to constitute a "listed event" which must be shown by a free-to-air channel available to at least 95% of the UK population.

Live Super League matches are broadcast often fronted by Mike Stephenson and Eddie Hemmings and are regularly rank amongst the top 10 most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports with more than 250,000 viewers.

Sky also hold the rights to show the Rugby League Four Nations live, whilst highlights are shown on BBC Sport.

The film stars Samantha Janus, Gary Olsen, Neil Morrissey, Brian Glover, Griff Rhys Jones and Tony Slattery.

The play was recently revived on stage with England rugby union star Gareth Chilcott in the Gary Olsen role.

Mick Martin's play Broken Time is the first dramatic treatment of the historic events that led to the 1895 great schism.

[53] Ellery Hanley earned the distinction of being the first black coach of any British national sporting team when he took charge of Great Britain in the home Ashes series of 1994.

[55] 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.