1993–94 Rugby Football League season

1993–94 Rugby Football League season
1993–94 Rugby Football League season
League	Championship
Duration	30 Rounds
Teams	First Division: 16; Second Division: 16
Broadcast partners	Sky Sports
First Division
Champions	Wigan
Premiership winners	Wigan
Man of Steel	Jonathan Davies
Promotion and relegation
Relegated to Second Division	Hull Kingston Rovers; Leigh
Second Division
Champions	Workington Town
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division	Workington Town; Doncaster
	← 1992–93 1994–95 →

The 1993–94 Rugby Football League season was the 99th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August 1993 until May 1994 for a number of titles, primarily the Stones Bitter Championship.

Season summary

Stones Bitter League Champions: Wigan (15th title)
Silk Cut Challenge Cup Winners: Wigan (26-16 v Leeds)
Stones Bitter Premiership Trophy Winners: Wigan (24-20 v Castleford)
- Harry Sunderland Trophy: Sam Panapa
Regal Trophy Winners: Castleford (33-2 v Wigan)
2nd Division Champions: Workington Town

The 1994 Man of Steel Award for player of the season went to Warrington's Jonathan Davies.

This season saw the highest ever away victory in the league when Keighley Cougars beat Highfield 104-4 at the Rochdale Hornets ground on 23 April.

This was the first season since the 1905–06 inaugural season of the Lancashire County Cup and Yorkshire County Cup, except for the break for World War I and World War II (Lancashire Cup only), that the Lancashire Cup and Yorkshire Cup competitions had not taken place.

Tables

First Division

Wigan, Bradford Northern and Warrington all finished the season on top of the ladder with 46 points, but Wigan's superior points differential saw them crowned League Champions for the fifth consecutive time. This earned them the right to travel to Australia at the close of the season and contest the 1994 World Club Challenge. Wigan defeated the Brisbane Broncos and confirmed their position as the dominant rugby league club of the year.

After finishing in second last and last place respectively, Hull Kingston Rovers and Leigh were demoted to the Second Division.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Wigan (C)	30	23	0	7	780	403	+377	46	Qualification for the Premiership first round
2	Bradford Northern	30	23	0	7	784	555	+229	46
3	Warrington	30	23	0	7	628	430	+198	46
4	Castleford	30	19	1	10	787	466	+321	39
5	Halifax	30	17	2	11	682	581	+101	36
6	Sheffield Eagles	30	16	2	12	704	671	+33	34
7	Leeds	30	15	2	13	673	680	−7	32
8	St Helens	30	15	1	14	704	537	+167	31
9	Hull F.C.	30	14	2	14	536	530	+6	30
10	Widnes	30	14	0	16	523	642	−119	28
11	Featherstone Rovers	30	13	1	16	651	681	−30	27
12	Salford	30	11	0	19	554	650	−96	22
13	Oldham	30	10	1	19	552	651	−99	21
14	Wakefield Trinity	30	9	1	20	458	708	−250	19
15	Hull Kingston Rovers (R)	30	9	0	21	493	782	−289	18	Relegation to Second Division
16	Leigh (R)	30	2	1	27	370	912	−542	5	Relegation to Second Division

Source: ^[1]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Second Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Workington Town (C, P)	30	22	2	6	760	331	+429	46	Promoted to First Division Qualified for Divisional Premiership first round
2	Doncaster (P)	30	22	1	7	729	486	+243	45
3	London Crusaders	30	21	2	7	842	522	+320	44	Qualified for Divisional Premiership first round
4	Batley	30	21	1	8	707	426	+281	43
5	Huddersfield	30	20	0	10	661	518	+143	40
6	Keighley Cougars	30	19	1	10	856	472	+384	39
7	Dewsbury	30	18	1	11	766	448	+318	37
8	Rochdale Hornets	30	18	0	12	704	532	+172	36
9	Ryedale-York	30	17	1	12	662	516	+146	35
10	Whitehaven	30	14	4	12	571	437	+134	32
11	Barrow	30	13	1	16	581	743	−162	27
12	Swinton	30	11	0	19	528	681	−153	22
13	Carlisle	30	9	0	21	540	878	−338	18
14	Hunslet	30	3	1	26	445	814	−369	7
15	Bramley	30	3	0	27	376	957	−581	6
16	Highfield	30	1	1	28	267	1234	−967	3

Source: ^[1]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Challenge Cup

The Silk Cut Challenge Cup Final was played between Wigan and Leeds on a Saturday afternoon, 30 April 1994 at Wembley Stadium, before a crowd of 78,348. Bonnie Tyler lead the community singing at the match.^[2] Wigan's Martin Offiah opened the scoring with a ninety-plus metre try, and went on to win the game 26–16.

League Cup

Premiership

Statistics

The following are the top points scorers in the 1993–94 season.^[3]

Most tries

Player	Team	Tries
Mark Johnson	London Crusaders	43
St John Ellis	Castleford	40
Paul Newlove	Bradford Northern	37
Martin Offiah	Wigan	37
Stuart Cocker	Workington Town	35
Nick Pinkney	Keighley Cougars	31
Mark Riley	London Crusaders	30
Carl Hall	Bradford Northern	27
Darren Moxon	Batley	27
Jason Critchley	Salford	25
John Bentley	Halifax	25
Ellery Hanley	Leeds	25

Most goals (including drop goals)

Player	Team	Goals
Frano Botica	Wigan	188
John Gallagher	London Crusaders	159
Deryck Fox	Bradford Northern	148
Lee Crooks	Castleford	137
Jonathan Davies	Warrington	132
Mark Conway	Dewsbury	130
Robert Turner	Doncaster	123
Mark Aston	Sheffield Eagles	123
Graham Holroyd	Leeds	103
Dean Marwood	Workington Town	100

References

^ ^a ^b Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David, eds. (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-96. London: Headline Publishing Group. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-7472-7817-7.
^ 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 (27 March 1997). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1997. London: Headline. pp. 163–7. ISBN 978-0-7472-7764-4.