1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season

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

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

Season summary

The League Champions were Bradford and the Challenge Cup Winners were Halifax.

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

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.

Teams

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

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

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

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.

Sources

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