182. The History of Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets may not have been the most successful rugby league team but they are an exemplar of the sport’s struggles and culture.

The new ‘Rugby Reloaded’ talks to Jim Stringer and Mark Wynn, the authors of a brand new history of the club – ‘Triumph and Disaster : 150 Years of Rochdale Hornets’ about the club’s origins in Victorian England, how its fate was tied to the fortunes of the cotton industry, why the town became a colony of Fiji in the 1960s, its time as a supporter-run club, and its future in the post-Covid world.

For more on the history of the football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony