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1977–78 Northern Rugby Football League season

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Field	Value
title	1977–78 Northern Rugby Football League season
league	Northern Rugby Football League
season_champs	Widnes
season_champ_name	Champions
premiership_win	Bradford
premiership_win_name	Premiership
MVP	George Nicholls
MVP_link	Man of Steel Award
top_scorer	Geoff Pimblett (381)
top try scorer	Stuart Wright (33)
promote
promote_from	Second Division
relegate
relegate_to	Second Division
season3
season_champs3
season_champ_name3
prevseason_link	1976–77 Northern Rugby Football League season
prevseason_year	1976–77
nextseason_link	1978–79 Northern Rugby Football League season
nextseason_year	1978–79

The 1977–78 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 83rd season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Northern Rugby Football League Championship with Widnes claiming the title by finishing the season on top of the League.

Season summary

In June 1977, the International Rugby League Board imposed a four-year ban on international transfers. The ban was primarily put in place as a response to the growing number of English players being recruited by Australian clubs.

The League champions were Widnes for the first time. Bradford Northern's last game was cancelled as Featherstone Rovers were on strike, consequently Bradford Northern finished 2nd on percentages.

Hull FC, New Hunslet, Bramley and Dewsbury were demoted to the Second Division.

Leeds were 14-12 Challenge Cup Winners over St. Helens.

2nd Division Champions were Leigh, and they, Barrow, Rochdale Hornets and Huddersfield were promoted to the First Division.

League Tables

First Division Championship

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Widnes	30	24	2	4	613	241
2	Bradford Northern	29	21	2	6	500	291
3	St. Helens	30	22	1	7	678	384
4	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	16	3	11	495	419
5	Wigan	30	17	1	12	482	435
6	Salford	30	16	0	14	470	446
7	Featherstone Rovers	29	15	2	12	443	452
8	Leeds	30	15	1	14	512	460
9	Warrington	30	15	0	15	561	367
10	Castleford	30	13	2	15	515	583
11	Workington Town	30	11	4	15	406	519
12	Wakefield Trinity	30	12	1	17	393	450
13	Hull	30	10	3	17	358	480
14	New Hunslet	30	11	0	19	318	518
15	Bramley	30	5	4	21	281	608
16	Dewsbury	30	2	2	26	207	589

Second Division Championship

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Leigh	26	21	0	5	538	231
2	Barrow	26	21	0	5	521	234
3	Rochdale Hornets	26	21	0	5	437	200
4	Huddersfield	26	18	0	8	502	324
5	York	26	16	2	8	447	286
6	Oldham	26	17	0	9	419	325
7	Keighley	26	11	3	12	357	337
8	Swinton	26	11	1	14	369	385
9	Whitehaven	26	10	2	14	277	326
10	Huyton	26	9	2	15	250	352
11	Doncaster	26	9	0	17	304	528
12	Batley	26	5	1	20	233	496
13	Blackpool Borough	26	5	1	20	262	543
14	Halifax	26	2	0	24	182	531

	Champions		Play-offs		Promoted		Relegated

Cups

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1977–78 Challenge Cup

Leeds beat St Helens 14-12 in the final played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 13 May 1978 before a crowd of 96,000.

This was Leeds’ eleventh Cup Final win in fifteen appearances and their second in successive years.

Player's No.6 Trophy

Main article: 1977–78 Player's No.6 Trophy

The Player's No.6 Trophy winners were Warrington beating Widnes 9-4 in the final.

Premiership

Main article: 1977–78 Rugby League Premiership

Rugby League Premiership Trophy Winners were Bradford Northern beating Widnes 17-8 in the final.

County cups

Main article: 1977–78 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1977–78 Yorkshire Cup

Workington Town (from Cumbria) beat Wigan 16–13 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Castleford beat Featherstone Rovers 17–7 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

Main article: 1977–78 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy

BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were Hull Kingston Rovers beating St. Helens 26-11 in the final.

Statistics

The following are the top points scorers in the 1977–78 season. Most tries

Player	Team	Tries
Stuart Wright	Widnes	33
Keith Fielding	Salford	31
Eddie Cunningham	St. Helens	30
John Bevan	Warrington	30
Steve Fenton	Castleford	30
Green Vigo	Wigan	29
Peter Glynn	St. Helens	28
David Smith	Leeds	28
Terry Morgan	York	27
Bruce Burton	Castleford	27

Most goals (including drop goals)

Player	Team	Goals
Geoff Pimblett	St. Helens	178
Steve Hesford	Warrington	158
John Woods	Leigh	149
Iain McCorquodale	Workington Town	138
Paul Woods	Widnes	122
David Watkins	Salford	110
Keith Mumby	Bradford Northern	107
Sammy Lloyd	Castleford	104
Neil Fox	Bradford Northern	95
Willie Oulton	Leeds	80

References

Sources

References

(24 June 1977). "Ban on rugby league transfers". Reading Evening Post.
"1977–78 Season summary".
"RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour".
(27 March 1997). "Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1997". Headline.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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