1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season

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1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season
League
St Helens
Joined the LeaguePontefract

The 1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the ninth season of rugby league football.

Season summary

The League Champions were

Halifax.[1]

Keighley and Huddersfield were demoted from the top division and replaced by Wakefield Trinity (champions) and St. Helens.

As the top two teams had finished level on points and Points Difference had not been introduced as a tie breaker yet, despite having a worse points difference,

Bradford contested a play-off with Salford
, that Bradford won 5-0.

In the Second Division,

Stockport were replaced by Pontefract, reducing the competition to 17 teams. Birkenhead Wanderers
dropped the Wanderers from their name.

The second promotion place had to be decided by a play-off as Points Difference had not yet been introduced as a tie breaker. St. Helens beat Holbeck 7-0.

There was no county league competition this season.

Internationals

On 5 April 1904, the first ever International Rugby League match took place between England and Other Nationalities. It was played at Central Park, Wigan, having originally been scheduled for New Year's Day in Oldham. England lost 3-9 in a twelve sided match, with the opposition made up of ten Welshmen and two Scots. The crowd numbered just 6,000.[2]

Teams

England Other Nationalities
Full back Full back
W.B. Little D. Smith
Three Quarters Three Quarters
F. Spottiswoode D. Thomas
G. Dickenson T.D. Llewellyn
J. Lomas D. Harris
J. Fish D.J. Lewis
Half backs Half backs
J. Baxter E. Davies
J. Morely P.J. Brady
Forwards Forwards
A. Starks [c] J. Rhapps
P. Tunney J.G. Moffatt
J. Riley G. Frater [c]
J.W. Bulmer D. Thomas
J. Ferguson H. Buckler

Division One

Championship play-off: Bradford vs Salford 5-0

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1
Bradford
 34 25 2 7 303 96 52
2 Salford 34 25 2 7 366 108 52
3 Broughton Rangers 34 21 4 9 306 142 46
4 Hunslet 34 22 1 11 250 157 45
5 Oldham 34 20 3 11 215 110 43
6 Leeds 34 19 5 10 211 145 43
7 Warrington 34 17 3 14 214 153 37
8 Hull Kingston Rovers 34 17 2 15 191 167 36
9
Halifax
 34 14 3 17 125 148 31
10 Wigan 34 11 6 17 177 174 28
11 Swinton 34 12 4 18 139 215 28
12 Batley 34 12 3 19 139 241 27
13 Hull 34 12 3 19 148 258 27
14 Widnes 34 11 5 18 126 243 27
15
Leigh
 34 10 5 19 174 250 25
16 Runcorn 34 11 2 21 151 245 24
17 Keighley 34 8 5 21 129 319 21
18 Huddersfield 34 10 0 24 160 353 20

Division two

Promotion play-off: St. Helens vs Holbeck 7-0

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Wakefield Trinity 32 27 1 4 389 57 55
2 St. Helens 32 23 3 6 328 105 49
3 Holbeck 32 24 1 7 256 120 49
4 Rochdale Hornets 32 22 2 8 319 104 46
5
York
 32 20 1 11 244 97 41
6 Brighouse Rangers 32 19 3 10 192 136 41
7 Castleford 32 18 3 11 185 194 39
8
Bramley
 32 16 4 12 181 180 36
9 Barrow 32 16 3 13 219 162 35
10
Pontefract
 32 14 6 12 174 150 34
11 Dewsbury 32 12 3 17 185 205 27
12
Millom
 32 12 2 18 185 209 26
13 Lancaster 32 8 2 22 129 291 18
14
Birkenhead
 32 7 0 25 75 334 14
15
South Shields
 32 6 1 25 140 336 13
16
Morecambe
 32 5 3 24 72 287 13
17
Normanton
 32 4 0 28 105 411 8

Challenge Cup

Main article:
1904 Challenge Cup

Halifax beat Warrington 8-3 in the final at Salford's The Willows before a paying crowd of 17,041, plus 1,000 additional guests, to become the second team to record back-to-back Cup wins. Halifax wouldn’t reach another final until 1921 nor win the Cup again until 1931.[3]

Sources

References

  1. ^ "1903-04 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-27. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  2. ^ "International". The First International Match. RL1908. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  3. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
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