1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season

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]

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

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.

Player's No.6 Trophy winners were Halifax who beat Wakefield Trinity 22-11 in the final.[2]

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.

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Leeds	34	28	2	4	58
2	Bradford Northern	34	26	2	6	54
3	St. Helens	34	26	1	7	53
4	Wigan	34	25	0	9	50
5	Salford	34	25	0	9	50
6	Swinton	34	23	2	9	48
7	Featherstone Rovers	34	23	1	10	47
8	Rochdale Hornets	34	21	1	12	43
9	Wakefield Trinity	34	21	0	13	42
10	Castleford	34	20	1	13	41
11	Widnes	34	19	3	12	41
12	Dewsbury	34	18	2	14	38
13	Oldham	34	18	1	15	37
14	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	18	0	16	36
15	Warrington	34	16	3	15	35
16	Leigh	34	17	0	17	34
17	Huddersfield	34	17	0	17	34
18	Barrow	34	16	2	16	34
19	Hull	34	16	0	18	32
20	York	34	15	2	17	32
21	Halifax	34	14	0	20	28
22	Bramley	34	13	0	21	26
23	Whitehaven	34	12	0	22	24
24	Workington Town	34	11	2	21	24
25	Blackpool Borough	34	11	0	23	22
26	Keighley	34	8	0	26	16
27	Huyton	34	7	1	26	15
28	Batley	34	5	2	27	12
29	Doncaster	34	5	0	29	10
30	Hunslet	34	2	0	32	4

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	(2)9
													St Helens	(3)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			Third place
	Featherstone Rovers	14
	Castleford	18
					Castleford	12
					Bradford Northern	22
	Bradford Northern	37
	Warrington	0

Final

The Championship final was played at Swinton.

Leeds scorers: John Atkinson (1 try), Terry Clawson (3 goals)

St Helens scorers: Les Greenall (1 try), John Walsh (1 goal)

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1971–72 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]

League Cup

Main article: 1971–72 League Cup (rugby league)

References

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.
2. "1971-72 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
3. "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

• 1971-72 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
• The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website