1978–79 Northern Rugby Football League season

Rugby league season
Relegated to Second Division
  • Barrow
  • Featherstone Rovers
  • Rochdale Hornets
  • Huddersfield

The 1978–79 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 84th season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Northern Rugby Football League's first division championship, with Hull Kingston Rovers claiming the title by finishing on top of the League.

Season summary

The 1978 Kangaroo tour took place during the first half of the season and involved matches between a number of clubs.

Hull Kingston Rovers won their third Championship this season.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Widnes who beat Wakefield Trinity 12-3 in the final.

Rugby League Premiership Trophy Winners were Leeds who beat Bradford Northern 24-2 in the final.

The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat St. Helens 13-7 in the final.

2nd Division Champions were Hull F.C., with a very unusual perfect season. New Hunslet, York and Blackpool Borough were also promoted to the First Division.[1]

Geoff 'Sammy' Lloyd of Hull F.C. equalled the club match record for scoring goals when he was successful 14 times in the match against Oldham on 10 September 1978. They were part of a club record 170 goals in a season, and a club record 369 points in a season.[2]

Widnes beat Workington Town (from Cumbria) 15–13 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Bradford Northern beat York 18–8 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

League Tables

Championship

Final Standings

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Hull Kingston Rovers 30 23 0 7 616 344 46
2 Warrington 30 22 0 8 521 340 44
3 Widnes 30 21 2 7 480 322 44
4 Leeds 30 19 1 10 555 370 39
5 St. Helens 30 16 2 12 485 379 34
6 Wigan 30 16 1 13 484 411 33
7 Castleford 30 16 1 13 498 469 33
8 Bradford Northern 30 16 0 14 523 416 32
9 Workington Town 30 13 3 14 378 345 29
10 Wakefield Trinity 30 13 1 16 382 456 27
11 Leigh 30 13 1 16 406 535 27
12 Salford 30 11 2 17 389 435 24
13 Barrow 30 9 2 19 368 536 20
14 Featherstone Rovers 30 8 1 21 501 549 17
15 Rochdale Hornets 30 8 0 22 297 565 16
16 Huddersfield 30 7 1 22 314 725 15

Second Division

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Hull 26 26 0 0 702 175 52
2 New Hunslet 26 21 1 4 454 218 43
3 York 26 17 1 8 426 343 35
4 Blackpool Borough 26 15 3 8 321 272 33
5 Halifax 26 15 2 9 312 198 32
6 Dewsbury 26 15 0 11 368 292 30
7 Keighley 26 12 2 12 357 298 26
8 Bramley 26 12 1 13 375 342 25
9 Oldham 26 10 1 15 297 435 21
10 Whitehaven 26 8 3 15 297 408 19
11 Swinton 26 7 2 17 349 452 16
12 Doncaster 26 7 0 19 259 547 14
13 Huyton 26 3 3 20 261 513 9
14 Batley 26 4 1 21 194 479 9 _
  Champions   Play-offs   Promoted   Relegated

Challenge Cup

Widnes beat Wakefield Trinity 12-3 in the State Express Challenge Cup Final played at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 5 May 1979, in front of a crowd of 94,218.[3]

This was Widnes' fifth cup final win in seven Final appearances. To date, this was Wakefield Trinity’s last appearance in a Challenge Cup Final.

The Wakefield Trinity stand-off, David Topliss, won the Lance Todd Trophy.

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Widnes squad – 1978–79 Challenge Cup Final winners
see also… 1978–79 season

League Cup

Premiership

Statistics

The following are the top points scorers in the 1978–79 season.[4]

Most tries

Player Team Tries
Steve Hartley Hull Kingston Rovers 35
Stuart Wright Widnes 28
David Barends Bradford Northern 25
Phil Lowe Hull Kingston Rovers 25
Paul Prendiville Hull F.C. 25
Keith Fielding Salford 24
David Redfearn Bradford Northern 23
Roy Mathias St. Helens 22
Graham Bray Hull F.C. 21
Keiron O'Loughlin Wigan 21
Clive Sullivan Hull Kingston Rovers 21

Most goals (including drop goals)

Player Team Goals
Sammy Lloyd Hull F.C. 172
Steve Hesford Warrington 170
Mick Burke Widnes 140
Iain McCorquodale Workington Town 114
Geoff Pimblett St. Helens 105
Graham Beale Keighley 96
John Woods Leigh 96
Jimmy Birts Halifax 86
George Fairbairn Wigan 86
Paul Norton Castleford 82

Kangaroo Tour

The months of September, October and November also saw the appearance of the Australian team in England on their 1978 Kangaroo Tour. Other than the three test Ashes series against Great Britain (won 2–1 by Australia), The Kangaroos played and won matches against 12 club and county representative sides as well as playing Wales in a non-test international.

The 1978 Kangaroos were coached by dual Manly-Warringah NSWRFL premiership coach Frank Stanton who had previously toured as a player in 1963–64. The team was captained by brilliant centre / stand-off Bob Fulton making his second tour after being a part of the 1973 squad.

The 11–10 loss to Widnes at Naughton Park on 25 October remains (as of 2017) the last time that the Kangaroos have lost to an English club or county team.

game Date Result Venue Attendance
1 30 September Australia def. Blackpool Borough 39–1 Borough Park, Blackpool 2,700
2 1 October Australia def. Cumbria Cumbria 47–7 Craven Park, Barrow-in-Furness 5,964
3 4 October Australia def. Great Britain U/24 30–8 Craven Park, Hull 6,418
4 8 October Australia def. Bradford Northern 21–11 Odsal Stadium, Bradford 15,755
5 11 October Australia def. Warrington 15–12 Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington 10,143
6 15 October  Australia def.  Wales 8–3 St Helens Rugby Ground, Swansea 4,250
7 17 October Australia def. Leeds 25–19 Headingley, Leeds 9,781
8 21 October  Australia def.  Great Britain 15–9 Central Park, Wigan 17,644
9 25 October Widnes def. Australia 11–10 Naughton Park, Widnes 12,202
10 29 October Australia def. Hull F.C. 34–2 The Boulevard, Hull 10,723
11 1 November Australia def. Salford 14–2 The Willows, Salford 6,155
12 5 November  Great Britain def.  Australia 18–14 Odsal Stadium, Bradford 26,761
13 8 November Australia def. Wigan 28–2 Central Park, Wigan 10,645
14 12 November Australia def. St Helens 26–4 Knowsley Road, St Helens 16,352
15 14 November Australia def. York 29–2 Clarence Street, York 5,155
16 18 November  Australia def.  Great Britain 23–6 Headingley, Leeds 30,604
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1978 Kangaroo Tour squad

References

  1. ^ "1978-79 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-27. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  2. ^ "Hull F.C. History". Retrieved 2009-10-23.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  4. ^ Fletcher, Raymond; Howes, David (27 March 1997). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1997. London: Headline. pp. 163–7. ISBN 978-0-7472-7764-4.

Sources

  • 1978-79 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
  • The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website
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