1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season

1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season
1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season
League	Northern Rugby Football League
Champions	Leeds
League Leaders	Leeds
Top point-scorer(s)	David Watkins 473
Top try-scorer(s)	John Atkinson 38; Mike Lamb 38
	← 1970–71 1972–73 →

The 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 77th season of rugby league football. This season saw the entry of rugby league's first sponsors: Joshua Tetley and John Player.^[1]

Season summary

This season saw the introduction of the League Cup competition as a major secondary competition to the Challenge Cup. Due to sponsorship it was never commonly known as the League Cup. It began in this year as the Player's No.6 Trophy and finished up as the Regal Trophy before being abandoned after 1995-96 when the sport switched to summer.

Leeds won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 9-5 in the Championship Final. Leeds also finished the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Leeds 16-13 in the final.

Championship

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PAv	Pts	Qualification
1	Leeds (L)	34	28	2	4	750	325	2.308	58	Qualification for the Championship play-offs
2	Bradford Northern	34	26	2	6	724	357	2.028	54
3	St Helens	34	26	1	7	661	297	2.226	53
4	Wigan	34	25	0	9	702	314	2.236	50
5	Salford	34	25	0	9	720	338	2.130	50
6	Swinton	34	23	2	9	554	368	1.505	48
7	Featherstone Rovers	34	23	1	10	632	372	1.699	47
8	Rochdale Hornets	34	21	1	12	429	306	1.402	43
9	Wakefield Trinity	34	21	0	13	587	414	1.418	42
10	Castleford	34	20	1	13	488	368	1.326	41
11	Widnes	34	19	3	12	476	388	1.227	41
12	Dewsbury	34	18	2	14	431	352	1.224	38
13	Oldham	34	18	1	15	573	480	1.194	37
14	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	18	0	16	432	498	0.867	36
15	Warrington	34	16	3	15	537	397	1.353	35
16	Leigh	34	17	0	17	421	407	1.034	34
17	Huddersfield	34	17	0	17	394	435	0.906	34
18	Barrow	34	16	2	16	375	508	0.738	34
19	Hull	34	16	0	18	488	495	0.986	32
20	York	34	15	2	17	465	498	0.934	32
21	Halifax	34	14	0	20	398	564	0.706	28
22	Bramley	34	13	0	21	333	542	0.614	26
23	Whitehaven	34	12	0	22	394	523	0.753	24
24	Workington Town	34	11	2	21	303	533	0.568	24
25	Blackpool Borough	34	11	0	23	351	560	0.627	22
26	Keighley	34	8	0	26	330	740	0.446	16
27	Huyton	34	7	1	26	277	610	0.454	15
28	Batley	34	5	2	27	249	628	0.396	12
29	Doncaster	34	5	0	29	234	729	0.321	10
30	Hunslet	34	2	0	32	300	662	0.453	4

Source: ^[2]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points average; 3) Number of points scored;
(L) Won League Leader's Trophy

Play-offs

Round of 16		Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final



Leeds	40

Leigh	2
		Leeds	20

		Widnes	9
Swinton	11

Widnes	15
				Leeds	10

				Salford	0
Salford	23

Dewsbury	7
		Salford	21

		Wigan	9
Wigan	18

Oldham	8
						Leeds	9

						St Helens	5
St Helens	25

Hull KR	5
		St Helens	17

		Rochdale Hornets	5
Rochdale Hornets	18

Wakefield Trinity	13
				St Helens	14

				Bradford Northern	10
Featherstone Rovers	14

Castleford	18
		Castleford	12

		Bradford Northern	22
Bradford Northern	37

Warrington	0

Final

The Championship final was played at Swinton.

20 May 1972

Leeds	9 – 5	St Helens
Tries: Atkinson Goals: Clawson (3)		Tries: Greenall Goals: Walsh

Station Road, Swinton
Attendance: 24,055
Referee: S. Shepherd (Oldham)
Player of the Match: Terry Clawson

Challenge Cup

The final was played between St. Helens and Leeds at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 13 May 1972, in front of a crowd of 89,495. After leading 12-6 at half time, St Helens beat Leeds 16-13. St Helens scorers were Les Jones (1 try), Graham Rees (1 try), and Kel Coslett (5 goals). St Helens forward Kel Coslett was the man of the match winning the Lance Todd Trophy. This was St Helens’ fourth Cup Final win in eight Final appearances.^[3]

Player's No.6 Trophy

Player's No.6 Trophy winners were Halifax who beat Wakefield Trinity 22-11 in the final.^[4]

County cups

Wigan beat Widnes 15–8 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Hull Kingston Rovers beat Castleford 11–7 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

References

^ Baker, Andrew (1995-08-20). "100 years of rugby league: From the great divide to the Super era". Independent, The. independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
^ Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-96. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-7472-7817-7.
^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
^ "1971-72 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.

Sources

Saxton, Irvin (ed.). History of Rugby League: No.77 1971–1972. League Publications.
1971-72 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com Archived 2009-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

[1] Baker, Andrew (1995-08-20). "100 years of rugby league: From the great divide to the Super era". Independent, The. independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-25.

[rothmans9596-2] Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-96. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-7472-7817-7.

[3] "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

[4] "1971-72 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.

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