1987–88 Rugby Football League season

1987–88 Rugby Football League season
Northern Rugby League
1987–88 Season
Champions Widnes
Premiership Widnes
Man of Steel Martin Offiah
Top point-scorer(s) John Woods (Warrington) 351
Top try-scorer(s) Martin Offiah (Widnes) 44
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division Oldham
Featherstone Rovers
Wakefield Trinity
Relegated to Second Division Leigh
Swinton
Hunslet
Second Division
Champions Oldham
Top point-scorer(s) Kevin Pape (Carlisle) 23
< 1986–87 Seasons 1988–89 >

The 1987–88 Rugby Football League season was the eighty-fifth season of rugby league football in Britain.

Contents

Season summary

The League Champions were Widnes for the second time in their history, exactly ten years after their first. Leigh, Swinton and Hunslet were relegated.

During the season, defending champions Wigan hosted NSWRL champions, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the 1987 World Club Challenge match.

The Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Halifax 32-12 in the final.

John Player Special Trophy winners were St. Helens who beat Leeds 15-14 in the final.

Premiership Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat St. Helens 38-14 in the final.

2nd Division Champions were Oldham. Featherstone Rovers and Wakefield Trinity were also promoted. Blackpool Borough changed their name to Springfield Borough.

Wigan were World Club Champions for the first time when they beat Manly-Warringah 8-2 at Central Park, Wigan on 7 Oct 1987 before a crowd of 36,895 [1]

Wigan beat Warrington 28–16 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Bradford Northern beat Castleford 12–12 (replay 11–2) to win the Yorkshire Cup.

League Tables

Championship Final Standings

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Widnes 26 20 0 6 641 311 40
2 St Helens 26 18 0 8 672 337 36
3 Wigan 26 17 2 7 621 327 36
4 Bradford Northern 26 18 0 8 528 304 36
5 Leeds 26 15 3 8 577 450 33
6 Warrington 26 14 2 10 531 416 30
7 Castleford 26 13 0 13 505 559 26
8 Halifax 26 12 0 14 499 437 24
9 Hull Kingston Rovers 26 11 1 14 420 480 23
10 Hull 26 11 0 15 364 595 22
11 Salford 26 10 0 16 368 561 20
12 Leigh 26 9 0 17 416 559 18
13 Swinton 26 4 2 20 390 780 10
14 Hunslet 26 4 2 20 363 779 10
  Champions   Play-offs   Relegated

Second Division

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts
1 Oldham 28 23 1 4 771 335 47
2 Featherstone Rovers 28 21 2 5 712 353 44
3 Wakefield Trinity 28 20 1 7 666 315 41
4 Springfield Borough 28 18 0 10 448 356 36
5 Sheffield Eagles 28 16 1 11 490 429 33
6 York 28 15 1 12 558 526 31
7 Mansfield Marksman 28 15 1 12 439 412 31
8 Keighley 28 15 0 13 497 428 30
9 Barrow 28 14 2 12 382 397 30
10 Workington Town 28 15 0 13 380 441 30
11 Carlisle 28 14 1 13 388 444 29
12 Runcorn Highfield 28 14 0 14 420 469 28
13 Whitehaven 28 10 1 17 417 452 21
14 Bramley 28 10 1 17 400 600 21
15 Dewsbury 28 10 0 18 417 519 20
16 Doncaster 28 9 2 17 406 512 20
17 Fulham RLFC 28 10 0 18 382 559 20
18 Rochdale Hornets 28 10 0 18 322 514 20
19 Huddersfield Barracudas 28 7 1 20 383 597 15
20 Batley 28 6 1 21 305 523 13
  Promoted

Challenge Cup

Wigan had reached the final by beating Bradford Northern 2-0 in Round One at home on 30 Jan; Leeds 30-14 in Round Two at home on 14 Feb; Widnes 10-1 in the Quarter Final at home on 27 Feb and Salford 34-4 in the semi-final played at Bolton on 12 Mar.

Wigan beat Halifax 32-12 in the final played at Wembley before a crowd of 94,273.[2]

Referee
Fred Lindop (Wakefield)

Teams
Wigan
Joe Lydon; Tony Iro; Kevin Iro; Dean Bell; Henderson Gill; Shaun Edwards; Andy Gregory; Brian Case; Nicky Kiss; Adrian Shelford; Andy Goodway; Ian Potter; Ellery Hanley; Subs: Ged Byrne and Shaun Wane

Wigan's scorers were K.Iro (2 tries), T.Iro (1 try), Lydon (1 try, 1 goal), Gill (1 try), Bell (1 try), Hanley (1 try) and Gregory (1 goal).

Halifax
Graham Eadie; David Robinson; Chris Anderson; Ian Wilkinson; Colin Whitfield; Bob Grogan; Steve Robinson; Neil James; Seamus McCallion; Keith Neller; Les Holliday; Paul Dixon; John Pendlebury; Subs: Mick Scott and Dick Fairbank.

Halifax's scorers were C.Anderson (1 try), N James (1 try) and C Whitfield (4 goals).

This was Wigan’s ninth Cup Final Win in eighteen Final appearances. It was the start of their record breaking eight Cup Final wins in a row.

The Wigan Scrum Half, Andy Gregory, won the Lance Todd Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance.

References

  1. ^ "1987-88 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-25. http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=407. Retrieved 2009-08-08. 
  2. ^ [http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php? areaid=65 "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour"]. Archived from the original on 2009-09-26. http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php? areaid=65. Retrieved 2009- 08-07. 

Sources

Rugby Football League era
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