Rugby XIII (Rugby league also named like that in some other countries) was born in England in 1895 because of a conflict between the Rugby Clubs of the North and the South of England. The South Club defended an amateur sport and the North one, originated in the labour cities, used to propose to pay a compensation to the players and assume the medical costs of the match damages. Like this arised an split up regarding the Brittany Rugby Federation (Rugby Unió) and own institutions and federations were created totally independent from the Rugby XV.

At the end of the XIX century some rules changed, as for example the reduction of the players number from 15 to 13. This suppression of 2 players by team was accepted quickly, because the new rugby discipline, with the predominance of the hand play, was spread all over the world. Nowadays it is the second sport team more popular of England after football: the finals of the Super League championship in the mythical Old Trafford stadium of Manchester or the Millennium of Cardiff Cup are carried out with all tickets sold out. In Australia and Papua Nova Guinea it is the king sport and the hobby increases day by day in the Pacific Islands. Moreover, it is in successfully expanding in Wales, Georgia, Ireland, Lebanon, Russia and Serbia, and it is starting to be known in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Scotland, USA, Japan, Morocco, the Netherlands and South Africa.

The rugby league was imported to France in 1934 by a catalonian from “Illa de Tet”, Jean Galia, who had discovered this sport the previous year in a tour of french pioneers in England, experimenting a great public success, from Perpinyà to Paris, going by Lyon, Toulouse of Llenguadoc, Bordeaux and Marseille. But in 1941 this expansion lived a sudden stop because of the prohibition decreed by the Vichy regime. The practice wasn’t taken up again until 1946 and, some years later, in 1951, a french selection full of north catalonians players got a great feat wining to the australian team in it is house twice out of three, during a memorable tour by Oceania. The entrance of the Catalans Dragons in the Super League, in 2006, together with eleven british clubs, caused in the North of Catalonia and in France a recovery of interest for the rugby XIII. It’s predicted to start up a franchise system in this competition, from 2009, with the aim of creating, in medium-term, professional teams in Tolosa de Llenguadoc, Dublin, Moscow and Paris.

In Catalonia the tradition for the rugby, not only with 13 players but also with 15, hasn’t got to be the mass phenomenon of the North of Catalonia. Anyway, we should emphasize that in 1993 a friendly team in the Montjuïc stadium between the XIII Catalan (one of the two clubs that after having merged in the Catalans Dragons) and the Huddersfield (one english professional team) attracted nearly 10.000 spectators and it was broadcasted in live by TV3.