ABSTRACT
This chapter explores national identities as they are expressed in and through rugby league. It begins by discussing the need to explore the contested and power-laden nature of sporting nationalism, and subsequently contextualise the cultural presence of rugby league within England. The chapter also explores 'lived nationalism', and draws upon interviews with rugby league fans conducted in late 2015. Fans drew a distinction between their sporting preferences and wider political dynamics which had little to do with broader feelings of affiliation to British identities as opposed to Englishness, or to the 'break-up' of Britain via political devolution. The chapter draws upon interviews with fans to explore the ways in which rugby league is entangled with particular expressions of Englishness. It shows how loyalty to the game supersedes national loyalties as expressed in rugby union, some fans expressing their desire for the English union team to lose.
