The upper-class roots of the sport in the UK. Rugby union (or "rugger") was seen (apparently, of course, as I've never been to England) by officials and leading lights in the sport in England as a rough-and-tumble pastime for the "professionals" such as lawyers, businessmen et al to play on the weekend as a distraction from their week in the office. As such, the administrators tended to be retired gin-swillers who didn't feel as though rugby players needed the cash, and it would be considered "vulgar" for players to accept payment.
Of course, in somewhere like New Zealand, rugby union had become the game for all New Zealanders (the name of a photography book by Peter Bush, as it happens) and for many players from lower socio-economic backgrounds, leaving to go on a six-week tour (or as was the case in the first half of the 20th century, a six-month tour), meant their family had to go without an income or the player's club would do some fundraising.
While I don't believe the NZRU or ARU made any grand overtures to the IRB during the 1970s and 1980s, several All Blacks proved to be interesting test cases when seeking royalties from the sales of their autobiographies. If I remember correctly, Mourie was banned for a period, as were Stu Wilson and Bernie Fraser, while the pugnacious Andy Haden took the IRB full on after they threatened a ban if he took royalties from
Boots And All.
By the time the 1987 World Cup rolled around, "shamateurism" was rife. All Blacks would appear in TV advertisements (John Kirwan advertised Jockey underwear and bananas - quite a disturbing mix looking back at it), "boot money" was an unspoken regularity in English club rugby and plenty of Antipodean players (and the South Africans in isolation, like Naas Botha) would head to France and Italy for the off-season and would return with some rugby, and a heck of a lot of money, under the belt.
Even in the early-mid 1990s, the IRB cast a very unimpressed eye over the formation of the "All Blacks Club" by the NZRU - an attempt by the union to help recompense All Blacks for their time away from their jobs. It was only when Ross Turnbull (with backing from Kerry Packer as the main broadcaster) came a'knocking around the time of the 1995 World Cup and signed up the Springboks and all bar two of the All Blacks en masse that the IRB was dragged kicking and screaming into the professional era.
In fact, it could be argued that if Jeff Wilson and Josh Kronfeld hadn't made the stand they did (by refusing to go with the rest of their team mates to the newly-formed WRC), the Southern Hemisphere unions would have been dead in the water.
There's more about it
here.
