1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season


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 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

Division One

Championship play-off: Bradford vs Salford 5-0
TeamPldWDLPFPAPts
1Bradford3425273039652
2Salford34252736610852
3Broughton Rangers34214930614246
4Hunslet342211125015745
5Oldham342031121511043
6Leeds341951021114543
7Warrington341731421415337
8Hull Kingston Rovers341721519116736
9Halifax341431712514831
10Wigan341161717717428
11Swinton341241813921528
12Batley341231913924127
13Hull341231914825827
14Widnes341151812624327
15Leigh341051917425025
16Runcorn341122115124524
17Keighley34852112931921
18Huddersfield341002416035320

Division two

Promotion play-off: St. Helens vs Holbeck 7-0
TeamPldWDLPFPAPts
1Wakefield Trinity3227143895755
2St. Helens32233632810549
3Holbeck32241725612049
4Rochdale Hornets32222831910446
5York32201112449741
6Brighouse Rangers321931019213641
7Castleford321831118519439
8Bramley321641218118036
9Barrow321631321916235
10Pontefract321461217415034
11Dewsbury321231718520527
12Millom321221818520926
13Lancaster32822212929118
14Birkenhead3270257533414
15South Shields32612514033613
16Morecambe3253247228713
17Normanton3240281054118

Challenge Cup

Halifax beat Warrington 8-3 in the final at Salford before a crowd of 17,041 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.