As Super League celebrates its 25th birthday, rugby league is further away from its founder’s vision than ever.

As Britain approached the end of the 1970s there was much talk about the “managed decline” of a once-great powerhouse.

As debts spiralled out of control and the creditors came knocking at the door, the future looked bleak. In the pubs and clubs of the North West, people traded stories of former glories and wondered just how they had become the “sick man” of English rugby. And then, in April 1980, the inevitable finally happened. Wigan Rugby League were relegated to the Second Division.

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