1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season

1975–76 Rugby Football League season

Northern Rugby Football League

Champions

Salford

Runners-up

Featherstone Rovers

Premiership

St Helens

Top point-scorer(s)

David Watkins 47

Top try-scorer(s)

Maurice Richards 37

Promotion and relegation

Promoted from Second Division

Barrow

Rochdale Hornets

Workington Town

Leigh

Relegated to Second Division

Champions

< 1974–75	Seasons	1976–77 >

The 1975–76 Rugby Football League season was the eightieth season of rugby league football. The RFL Championship was won by Salford and the Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Widnes 20-5 in the final. The Rugby League Premiership Trophy winners were also St. Helens who beat Salford 15-2 in the final.

The Players No.6 Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat Hull 19-13 in the final. The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were St. Helens who beat Dewsbury 22-2 in the final. Widnes beat Salford 16–7 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Leeds beat Hull Kingston Rovers 15–11 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

Salford won their sixth, and to date last, Championship. Dewsbury, Keighley, Huddersfield and Swinton were demoted to the Second Division.

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Salford	30	22	1	7	555	350	45
2	Featherstone Rovers	30	21	2	7	526	348	44
3	Leeds	30	21	0	9	571	395	42
4	St. Helens	30	19	1	10	513	315	39
5	Wigan	30	18	3	9	514	399	39
6	Widnes	30	18	1	11	448	369	37
7	Wakefield Trinity	30	17	0	13	496	410	34
8	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	17	0	13	446	472	34
9	Castleford	30	16	1	13	589	398	33
10	Warrington	30	15	2	13	381	456	32
11	Bradford Northern	30	13	1	16	454	450	27
12	Oldham	30	11	1	18	380	490	23
13	Dewsbury	30	10	1	19	287	484	21
14	Keighley	30	7	0	23	274	468	14
15	Huddersfield	30	5	0	25	370	657	10
16	Swinton	30	3	0	27	238	581	6

Challenge Cup

In the Challenge Cup final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,982 St Helens defeated Widnes 20-5. This was St Helens’ fifth Cup Final win in eight Final appearances.^[1]

Referee: Ron Moore (Wakefield)^[2]

St Helens 20

Sub. Peter Glynn (2 tries) on for Benyon
Sub. Mel James on for Mantle
Coach: Eric Ashton^[3]

Widnes 5

Ray Dutton (2 goals)
Alan Prescott
Eric Hughes
Derek 'Mick' George
David Jenkins
David Eckersley
Reg Bowden
Nick Nelson
Keith Elwell (1 drop goal)
John Wood
John Foran
Mick Adams
Doug Laughton

Sub. Dennis O'Neill on for Prescott
Sub. Barry Sheridan on for Foran
Coach:

The winner of the Lance Todd Trophy was St. Helens full back, Geoff Pimblett.^[4]

Premiership

In 1975-76 season the RFL introduced the Premiership Trophy competition. It was played at the end of the season with the top 8 in the league qualifying to play each other in a simple 1st versus 8th, 2nd versus 7th, 3rd versus 6th, and 4th versus 5th system. The final was played on a neutral venue. The competition was played until 1997 when it was scrapped.

This was the second end of season Premiership Play-off Final and was played in front of a crowd of 18,082 at Station Road, Swinton between the number four seeds, St Helens, and the number one seeds, Salford.^[5]

Referee: M.J.Naughton (Widnes)

St Helens - 15

Substitute: Kenneth Gwilliam on for Jeff Heaton

Salford - 2

David Watkins (2 drop goals)
Keith Fielding
Maurice Richards
Chris Hesketh
Graham
Butler
Steve Nash
Mike Coulman
Raistrick
William Sheffield
Knighton
Colin Dixon
Eric Prescott

Substitute: Sam Turnbull for Knighton

St Helens second-row forward, George Nicholls, was the winner of the Harry Sunderland Trophy as Man of the Match.^[5]

Second Division Championship

2nd Division Champions were Barrow, and they, Rochdale Hornets, Workington Town and Leigh were promoted to the First Division.^[6]

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Barrow	26	20	3	3	366	213	43
2	Rochdale Hornets	26	19	3	4	347	200	41
3	Workington Town	26	18	4	4	519	228	40
4	Leigh	26	19	1	6	571	217	39
5	Hull	26	19	1	6	577	278	39
6	New Hunslet	26	15	1	10	371	308	31
7	York	26	12	1	13	447	394	25
8	Bramley	26	11	1	14	344	370	23
9	Huyton	26	10	0	16	242	373	20
10	Whitehaven	26	8	2	16	253	347	18
11	Halifax	26	7	1	18	322	460	15
12	Batley	26	6	1	19	228	432	13
13	Blackpool Borough	26	6	1	19	224	460	13
14	Doncaster	26	2	0	24	195	726	4

References

↑ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
↑ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 193. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
↑ news.bbc.co.uk (27 February 2004). "Cup heroes: Eric Ashton". BBC Sport (UK: BBC). Retrieved 6 March 2011.
↑ Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 199. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
↑ 5.0 5.1 Raymond Fletcher; David Howes (1995). Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. p. 225. ISBN 0-7472-7817-2.
↑ "1975-76 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-08.

Sources

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Salford Red Devils

Founded in 1873 Based in Salford, England

The Club	History Honours Players International representatives Coaches

Home grounds	New Barnes The Willows AJ Bell Stadium

Hall of Fame	Gus Risman Martin Offiah

League	Super League

Championships (6)	1913–14 1932–33 1936–37 1938–39 1973–74 1975–76

Challenge Cup (1)	1937–38

Other honours	4—time Rugby Football League Second Division Champions 1–time Divisional Champions 1—time BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Champions 5—time Lancashire Cup Champions 5—time Lancashire League Champions 2—time Northern Rail Cup Champions

Seasons (102)	1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1896)