For over a century, rugby union has been a symbol of Afrikaner culture and white South Africa. But why did the Afrikaners play the game of their British war-time enemies and rivals? This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes ten minutes to look at the legacy of the Boer War and the 1906 Springbok tour, and discover what made rugby so appealing to Afrikaners.

For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

With the deciding State of Origin rugby league match just two days away, Rugby Reloaded plus chats with Joe Gorman about his forthcoming book 'Heartland: How Rugby League Explains Queensland'. We talk about why Origin is so important for Queenslanders, what it says about their identity, how racism has been undermined and why the future of the game could be female. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' plus edition talks to Victor Ramalho, historian of Brazilian rugby and ESPN Brazil rugby commentator. Victor talks about how rugby lost out to soccer, its slow growth in the 20th century, its new popularity, the women's game, and the emergence of rugby league. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

The Samoan rugby league team broke its drought at the weekend with victory over Papua New Guinea, while Samoan rugby union remains at its weakest point for decades. But how did it become a powerhouse of rugby? This week's Rugby Reloaded looks back at what makes Samoan history unique and how globailsation could be the saviour of both codes. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

It's State of Origin #2 on Sunday, but 50 years ago the same intense focus would have been on a Great Britain v Australia Ashes series. This week's episode looks at why Origin overcame the Ashes and explores the history of Anglo-Australian rugby league. Discover how rugby league explains Australia's changing relationship with its former 'Mother Country'! For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

How important are 'firsts' in the history of the football codes? Does it matter if a club is the 'oldest'? Do they distract from the bigger issues in the history of how the different games emerged and evolved? For this week's ten-minute trip through the football code time tunnel I'm giving the talk I gave at last week's International Football History Conference - @footycon - on whether 'firsts' matter For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

Following Saturday's Champions League final, this week's 'Rugby Reloaded' looks at the origins of the first league of football clubs, soccer's 1888 Football League. Is a European soccer super league inevtiable? And what does the history of the Football League have to teach the rugby codes? Take ten minutes to get the historical perspective on the debate on the shape of football leagues to come. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded plus' talks to Roy Hay about his new book 'Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere' which looks at the contribution of Indigenous Australians to Aussie Rules football in the nineteenth century. It's a story of racism and resistance to racism as Aboriginal players fought their right to play football. To find about about Roy's book, go to https://cambridgescholars.com/aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

This week we take a look at how the war between union and league played out in the UK during World Wars 1 and 2 - with union’s league ban lifted, league stars shone in union. But it still wasn't a level playing field, as the Welsh league player forced to play for the England rugby union side discovered. And when the world war was over, the rugby war resumed with a vengeance. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and at www.rugbyreloaded.com

Rugby league and Aussie Rules to merge? Gridiron fusion with Aussie Rules? It could never happen - but it has, or at least been attempted. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded plus' sits down with Spencer Kassimir to explore the times when rugby league and Aussie Rules sat down to create a hybrid game, discover the World War Two game that brought together the best of the NFL and the VFL, and chat about the International rules AFL-GAA games.