1972–73 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1972–73 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 78th season of rugby league football played in England. It would also be the last season whereby the British championship was decided by a play-off system until Super League III in 1998. Dewsbury were crowned champions after defeating Leeds in the Final. The 1972–73 season was also punctuated by the 1972 Rugby League World Cup which was played in France in October and November. At the end of this season the league re-formed into two divisions. The top 16 in the championship would form Division 1 and the bottom 14 Division 2.

1972–73 Northern Rugby Football League season
League	Championship
Teams	30
Champions	Dewsbury
League Leaders	Warrington
Runners-up	Leeds
Top point-scorer(s)	David Watkins 493
Top try-scorer(s)	John Atkinson 39
League reorganisation
Created Second Division	York Halifax Batley Keighley Swinton Workington Town Bradford Northern Huddersfield Hull Barrow Doncaster Hunslet Blackpool Borough Huyton
← 1971–72 1973–74 →

Rule changes

Number of tackles:

• The four-tackle rule was altered and a new limit of six tackles was introduced.^[1][2] The four-tackle rules had been blamed for making the game seem "disjointed".^[2] A scrum was formed at the end of a completed set of the tackles.^[2]

Timekeeping:

• Timekeepers were given responsibility, rather than referees, for controlling time in matches. They signalled using a hooter siren system.

Season summary

Salford's David Watkins set the record for most goals (including drop goals) in a season with 221. Also, on 19 August 1972, Watkins started his record scoring streak which lasted until 25 April 1974. He totalled 929 points from 41 tries and 403 goals in 92 consecutive matches for one club.

1972-73 also saw the Wigan club celebrate its centenary, having been formed as Wigan F.C. on 21 November 1872. During the season they played a special Centenary Celebration match against an "Australians" side.

• Challenge Cup Winners: Featherstone Rovers (33-14 v Bradford Northern)
• Player's No.6 Trophy Winners: Leeds (12-7 v Salford at Fartown Ground, Huddersfield)
• BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners: Leigh (5-0 v Widnes)

Hunslet disbanded at the end of the season, reforming as New Hunslet for the 1973–74 season.

Salford beat Swinton 25–11 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Leeds beat Dewsbury 36–9 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Championship

Final standings

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Warrington	34	27	2	5	816	400	+416	56
2	Featherstone Rovers	34	27	0	7	768	436	+332	54
3	Leeds	34	26	1	7	810	324	+486	53
4	St. Helens	34	24	2	8	623	298	+325	50
5	Wakefield Trinity	34	25	0	9	814	398	+416	50
6	Salford	34	25	0	9	723	383	+340	50
7	Castleford	34	25	0	9	704	404	+300	50
8	Dewsbury	34	23	0	11	534	354	+180	46
9	Oldham	34	20	2	12	604	349	+255	42
10	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	20	1	13	731	522	+209	41
11	Rochdale Hornets	34	20	1	13	438	426	+12	41
12	Widnes	34	19	0	15	592	458	+134	38
13	Leigh	34	18	2	14	479	390	+89	38
14	Bramley	34	18	1	15	452	453	-1	37
15	Whitehaven	34	18	1	15	408	512	-104	37
16	Wigan	34	17	1	16	577	491	+86	35
17	York	34	17	1	16	586	575	+11	35
18	Halifax	34	17	0	17	543	562	-19	34
19	Batley	34	15	0	19	537	600	-63	30
20	Keighley	34	15	0	19	451	505	-54	30
21	Swinton	34	14	1	19	441	458	-17	29
22	Workington Town	34	12	1	21	444	464	-20	25
23	Bradford Northern	34	12	0	22	582	685	-103	24
24	Huddersfield	34	10	2	22	465	598	-133	22
25	Hull	34	11	0	23	494	693	-199	22
26	Barrow	34	7	0	27	351	775	-434	14
27	Doncaster	34	6	0	28	298	911	-613	12
28	Hunslet	34	5	0	29	371	916	-545	10
29	Blackpool Borough	34	4	0	30	324	972	-648	8
30	Huyton	34	3	1	30	243	879	-636	7

Play-offs, Form 1973–74 Division 1

Form 1973–74 Division 2

Play-offs

	First round					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Championship final
	3	Leeds	45
	14	Bramley	8
						Leeds		30
						Castleford		5
	7	Castleford	24
	10	Hull Kingston Rovers	12
											Leeds		7
											St Helens		2
	4	St Helens	29
	13	Leigh	14
						St Helens		28
						Wakefield Trinity		0
	5	Wakefield Trinity	33
	12	Widnes	6
																Leeds		13
																Dewsbury		22
	1	Warrington	30
	16	Wigan	15
						Warrington		16
						Rochdale Hornets		9
	6	Salford	10
	11	Rochdale Hornets	14
											Warrington		7
											Dewsbury		12
	2	Featherstone Rovers	14
	15	Whitehaven	4
						Featherstone Rovers		7
						Dewsbury		26
	8	Dewsbury	29
	9	Oldham	14

Final

The 1973 Final was to be the last time a play-off system would be used to determine the British champions until 1998's Super League season. The match was played on 19 May 1973 at Bradford's Odsal Stadium between the previous season's champions, Leeds and first-time finalists, Dewsbury. Dewsbury had suffered a county cup record defeat 36–9 at the hands of Leeds in the Yorkshire County Cup Final earlier in the season. Also Leeds had finished 3rd on the ladder and Dewsbury 8th. However, Dewsbury opened up a 12–4 lead by the interval with tries by the hooker Mike Stephenson and Allan Agar and two goals and a drop-goal from the boot of centre Nigel Stephenson. Leeds captain Alan Hardisty was sent off for the first time in his career for a high tackle on John Bates.

A second try from Mike Stephenson on 44 minutes extended Dewsbury's lead and though Leeds hit back with tries by Graham Eccles, Phil Cookson and Les Dyl, it was not to be with Nigel Stephenson converting his own try to complete a resounding 22-13 success. Leading journalist Jack Winstanley wrote at the time: "Dewsbury's win sprung from a superb team effort that paid ample tribute to the coaching and inspiration of (coach) Tommy Smales. They bewildered a jaded Leeds outfit with a series of scissors moves and dummy passes that might have looked grossly over-elaborate had they not worked to such perfection." The Harry Sunderland Trophy for man-of-the-match went to Mike Stephenson. Greg Ashcroft, Jeff Grayshon and Alan Bates also played in the champion Dewsbury side.

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1972–73 Challenge Cup

The 1973 Challenge Cup Final was won by Featherstone Rovers who beat Bradford Northern 33–14 at Wembley Saturday 12 May 1973 before a crowd of 72,395. Featherstone Rovers' Great Britain scrum half-back, Steve Nash put in a man-of-the-match performance to win the Lance Todd Trophy. Cyril Kellett scored 8-conversions for Featherstone Rovers, the most in a Challenge Cup Final (equalled by Iestyn Harris in 1999).

League Cup

Main article: 1972–73 League Cup (rugby league)

This was the second season of the League Cup, which was known as the Players No.6 Trophy for sponsorship reasons. Leeds won the trophy by beating Salford 12-7 in the final. The match was played at Fartown, Huddersfield. The attendance was 10,102 and receipts were £4563.

References

1. Phil Clarke (2008-09-03). "Changing the law". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
2. de la Riviere, Richard, ed. (2009), "Top ten: Rugby league rules", Rugby League World, Brighouse, UK: League Publications (published August 2009), no. 340, p. 61, ISSN 1466-0105

Sources

• 1972-73 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com 2009-08-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Pain of defeat serves Dewsbury well to prevent any repeat performance - article at yorkshirepost.co.uk
• Playing at Smales pace sank champions - article at yorkshirepost.co.uk