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Yes I know all about the RFU wanting to keep it as an amatuer game and the 'broken time payments' and the decision not pay the players but this is a forum and I didn't want to type the entire history of the split into one of these forums. I'm sure there's plenty of reading material about for people to catch up on the history.
There isn't the history of the split in Australia and the rivalry here is minimal. If you lived in the UK for any period of time when you were younger you would get a better understanding of the hatred the two codes have for eachother especially in England. Even in the 1970's a rugby union club in England sacked a cleaner because she was married to a proffessional rugby league player, now that tells you something.
The 'southerners' you refer to are the posher private school boy origins of the game in England who had other means to support their players, I doubt the Welsh coal miners had it any easier than the English Northern miners and they played for the love of the game. I guess thats why there's so much love and passion for the game still in Wales. We set up our own union board the SWFU (South Wales Football Union) in 1878 which later became the WRU in 1880. The Northern Union split in 1895 was more to do with the RFU which was English based. The impact only really hit the Welsh when Jonathon Davies went to play in the Northen Union in 89 and it is still a touchy subject to some of the old boys. But I'm sure you knew all of this already.