1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season

League| Championship
Teams| First Division: 18
Second Division: 17
First Division
Champions|  Bradford F.C. (1st title)
Runners-up|  Salford
Top point-scorer(s)|  James Lomas ( Salford) (222)
Top try-scorer(s)|  Andrew Hogg ( Broughton Rangers) (34)
Second Division
Champions|  Wakefield Trinity
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division|  Wakefield Trinity
St Helens
Joined the League| Pontefract

← 1902–03

1904–05 →

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

## Season summary[edit]

The League Champions were Bradford and the Challenge Cup Winners 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, Manningham and 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

* 1903-04 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
* The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

## References[edit]

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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