In September 1982 the Australian rugby league Kangaroos landed in Britain. When they left at the end of November they were acclaimed as the Invincibles, the greatest rugby league touring team ever. Not since the 1905 All Black rugby union tourists had any visiting sports team had such an impact on Britain. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to Mark Flanagan about his new book 'The Invincibles: The Inside Story of the 1982 Kangaroos, the Team That Changed Rugby Forever' about the tour, its consequences and what it tells us about rugby league. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com

This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' plus talks to Ian Syson about his book 'The Game That Never Happened' which looks at the origins and struggles of soccer in Australia's four-cornered football world. Ian discusses why soccer never became the premier football code down under and how it lost out to rugby league and Aussie Rules. It's a fascinating discussion which throws up lots of questions about why and how different types of football become dominant in different places.

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

The titanic rivalry between the All Blacks and the Springboks has dominated international rugby union for one hundred years. But the origins of that rivalry were based on racism and racial exclusion. The latest 'Rugby Reloaded' goes back to 1919 to discover how the great All Black Ranji Wilson was excluded from the first tour to South Africa and how race defined the relationship between New Zealand and South Africa. For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, follow me on Twitter @collinstony and take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com

Harold Wagstaff died 80 years ago on 19 July 1939. This week's 'Rugby Reloaded' takes a ten-minute tour of his life and times to explore why he was he arguably rugby league's greatest-ever player, and also how he came to symbolise league culture in Britain and Australia. For more information about 'Ahr Waggy', go to www.HuddersfieldRLheritage.co.uk, where there are also details of the Wagstaff Heritage Trail organised by David Thorpe. There is also a new biography of Wagstaff out this week by Robert Gate and Graham Williams, called ‘A Northern Union Man’ published by London League Publications at www.llpshop.co.uk

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