1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season

1975–76 Rugby Football League season
League	Northern Rugby Football League
Champions	Salford
Runners-up	Featherstone Rovers
Premiership	St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s)	David Watkins 47
Top try-scorer(s)	Maurice Richards 37
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division	Barrow Rochdale Hornets Workington Town Leigh
Relegated to Second Division	Dewsbury Keighley Huddersfield Swinton
Second Division
Champions	Barrow

The 1975–76 Rugby Football League season was the 81st season of rugby league football. The Championship was won by Salford and the Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Widnes 20-5 in the final. The Rugby League Premiership Trophy winners were also St. Helens who beat Salford 15-2 in the final.

The 1975–76 Player's No.6 Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat Hull F.C. 19-13 in the final. The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were St. Helens who beat Dewsbury 22-2 in the final. Widnes beat Salford 16–7 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Leeds beat Hull Kingston Rovers 15–11 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

Salford won their sixth, and to date last, Championship. Dewsbury, Keighley, Huddersfield and Swinton were demoted to the Second Division.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Salford	30	22	1	7	555	350	45
2	Featherstone Rovers	30	21	2	7	526	348	44
3	Leeds	30	21	0	9	571	395	42
4	St. Helens	30	19	1	10	513	315	39
5	Wigan	30	18	3	9	514	399	39
6	Widnes	30	18	1	11	448	369	37
7	Wakefield Trinity	30	17	0	13	496	410	34
8	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	17	0	13	446	472	34
9	Castleford	30	16	1	13	589	398	33
10	Warrington	30	15	2	13	381	456	32
11	Bradford Northern	30	13	1	16	454	450	27
12	Oldham	30	11	1	18	380	490	23
13	Dewsbury	30	10	1	19	287	484	21
14	Keighley	30	7	0	23	274	468	14
15	Huddersfield	30	5	0	25	370	657	10
16	Swinton	30	3	0	27	238	581	6

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1975–76 Challenge Cup

In the Challenge Cup final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,982 St. Helens defeated Widnes 20-5. This was St Helens’ fifth Cup Final win in eight Final appearances.[1]

Referee: Ron Moore (Wakefield)[2]

St Helens 20 Geoff Pimblett (3 goals, 2 drop goal) Les Jones Eddie Cunningham (1 try) Derek Noonan Roy Mathias Billy Benyon Jeff Heaton (1 try) John Mantle Tony Karalius Kel Coslett George Nicholls Eric Chisnall David Hull Sub. Peter Glynn (2 tries) on for Billy Benyon Sub. Mel James on for John Mantle Coach: Eric Ashton[3]

Widnes 5 Ray Dutton (2 goals) Alan Prescott Eric Hughes Derek 'Mick' George David Jenkins David Eckersley Reg Bowden Nick Nelson Keith Elwell (1 drop goal) John Wood John Foran Mick Adams Doug Laughton Sub. Dennis O'Neill on for Alan Prescott Sub. Barry Sheridan on for John Foran Coach:

The winner of the Lance Todd Trophy was St. Helens fullback, Geoff Pimblett.[4]

Premiership

Main article: 1975–76 Rugby League Premiership

In 1975–76 season the RFL introduced the Premiership Trophy competition. It was played at the end of the season with the top 8 in the league qualifying to play each other in a simple 1st versus 8th, 2nd versus 7th, 3rd versus 6th, and 4th versus 5th system. The final was played on a neutral venue. The competition was played until 1997 when it was scrapped.

This was the second end of season Premiership Play-off Final and was played in front of a crowd of 18,082 at Station Road, Swinton between the number four seeds, St Helens, and the number one seeds, Salford.[5]

Referee: M.J.Naughton (Widnes)

St Helens - 15 Geoff Pimblett (3 goals) Les Jones Peter Glynn (1 try) Derek Noonan Roy Mathias Billy Benyon Jeff Heaton John Mantle Tony Karalius (1 try) Mel James George Nicholls Eric Chisnall (1 try) Kel Coslett Substitute: Kenneth "Ken" Gwilliam on for Jeff Heaton

Salford - 2 David Watkins (2 drop goals) Keith Fielding Maurice Richards Chris Hesketh Graham Butler Steve Nash Mike Coulman Raistrick William Sheffield Knighton Colin Dixon Eric Prescott Substitute: Sam Turnbull for Knighton

St Helens second-row forward, George Nicholls, was the winner of the Harry Sunderland Trophy as Man of the Match.[6]

Second Division Championship

2nd Division Champions were Barrow, and they, Rochdale Hornets, Workington Town and Leigh were promoted to the First Division.[7]

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Barrow	26	20	3	3	366	213	43
2	Rochdale Hornets	26	19	3	4	347	200	41
3	Workington Town	26	18	4	4	519	228	40
4	Leigh	26	19	1	6	571	217	39
5	Hull	26	19	1	6	577	278	39
6	New Hunslet	26	15	1	10	371	308	31
7	York	26	12	1	13	447	394	25
8	Bramley	26	11	1	14	344	370	23
9	Huyton	26	10	0	16	242	373	20
10	Whitehaven	26	8	2	16	253	347	18
11	Halifax	26	7	1	18	322	460	15
12	Batley	26	6	1	19	228	432	13
13	Blackpool Borough	26	6	1	19	224	460	13
14	Doncaster	26	2	0	24	195	726	4

League Cup

Main article: 1975–76 League Cup (rugby league)

References

1. "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
2. Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
3. news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport. UK: BBC. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
4. Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 199. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
5. Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 225. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
6. Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 231. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
7. "1975–76 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2009-08-08.

Sources

• 1975–76 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
• The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website