100 YEARS OF RUGBY LEAGUE

That this House notes that 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the first year of the Northern Rugby Football League, the inaugural competition which was established following the meeting on 29th August 1895 at the George Hotel in Huddersfield where 21 clubs voted unanimously to break away from the Rugby Football Union and allow broken-time payments, forming the Northern Rugby Football Union; pays tribute to the initial 22 clubs who took part in the ambitious inaugural league competition where each team had to play every other on a home and away basis, a format adopted by many other sports in later years; acknowledges the changes made to the game, in particular abolishing line-outs, reducing teams to 13-a-side and introducing the play-the-ball, which helped to improve the attractiveness of the spectacle and therefore attract paying crowds; looks forward to rugby league enjoying another 100 years of success; expresses its good wishes to the Great Britain squad, who are due to take part in the Tri-Nations competition this autumn in Australia; and hopes that they will mark the centenary of rugby league by winning the Tri-Nations tournament.