Changes
However, the roots of the schism were deep. The Northern clubs had come to dominate the game of rugby, with [[Yorkshire]] dominating the county championship and the majority of the England team being supplied by Northern clubs. However, the development of soccer from a private school game to a working class game had alarmed many in the rugby authorities, who were determined that rugby should not fall into the same trap. The rugby authorities were therefore determined to clamp down on professionalism within rugby.
It must be emphasized that professionalism in this sense applied to working-class people. It was accepted that middle and upper-class people would be payed paid to play, however, as they did not need the money they were still playing for pleasure and were therefore amateur. As working people would often need the money that would be lost in time off to play the game, money to then was essential to their playing the game and they were therefore seen as professional mercenary players, something unacceptable to the majority of South of England rugby clubs, but essential for the operation of many northern clubs.
As votes to accept some payment for [[broken time]] were rejected, twenty-two clubs broke away from the rugby football union to form professional rugby. The restrictions on professionalism in the new rugby authority were actually stricter than for the rugby union, with a listed profession essential to being permitted to play the game. Initially the new game was played by identical rule to rugby union, but as the ruling body remained separate, a new game developed as both sports diverged from their ancestor - just as American football and Canadian Football separated further.
