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1983–84 Rugby Football League season

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Field	Value
title	1983–84 Rugby Football League season
league	Slalom Lager Championship
no_of_teams	16
attendance
season_champs	Hull Kingston Rovers
season_champ_name	Champions
league_leaders
league_leaders_name
second_place
premiership_win	Hull Kingston Rovers
premiership_win_name	Premiership winners
MVP	Joe Lydon
MVP_link	Man of Steel Award
top_scorer	John Woods 355
top try scorer	Garry Schofield 38
promote
promote_from	Second Division
relegate
relegate_to	Second Division
season2	Second Division
season_champs2	Barrow
season_champ_name2	Champions
top try scorer2	Graham King 28
prevseason_link	1982–83 Rugby Football League season
prevseason_year	1982–83
nextseason_link	1984–85 Rugby Football League season
nextseason_year	1984–85

The 1983–84 Rugby Football League season was the 89th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August, 1983 until May, 1984 for the Slalom Lager Championship.

The Second Division was increased to 18 clubs with the introduction of Kent Invicta, who played their home fixtures at Maidstone, this season.

Rule changes

End of possession:

A "handover" was introduced after the sixth tackle, replacing the scrum that had previously been formed at that point. The team receiving possession would now play-the-ball to carry on play.
Scrum rules were changed which meant the non offending side had head and ball advantage, effectively making the scrum a non contest. Value of a try:
The number of points a team scored from a try increased from three to four. The aim of this change was to "incentivise scoring tries" over kicking penalty goals, which were worth two points, because the tries were more entertaining. Temporary suspension:
The 10-minute "sin bin" was introduced.

Season summary

In September 1983, the ban on international transfers between England and Australia was lifted. This resulted in a big influx of Australian players being signed by clubs on short-term contracts, most notably Test stand-off and future Australia captain Wally Lewis, who signed for Wakefield Trinity.

Slalom Lager League Champions: Hull Kingston Rovers

Hull Kingston Rovers finished on top of the First Division table to claim their fifth championship, and also the Rugby League Premiership competition, this was the first occasion the 'Championship / Premiership Double' had been achieved.

State Express Challenge Cup Winners: Widnes (19-6 v Wigan)

John Player Special Trophy Winners: Leeds (18-10 v Widnes). During the competition, Danny Wilson of Swinton scored a record 5 drop goals in the tie against Hunslet on 6 Nov 1983.

Slalom Lager Premiership Trophy Winners: Hull Kingston Rovers (18-10 v Castleford)

Barrow (from Cumbria) beat Widnes 12–8 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Hull F.C. beat Castleford 13–2 to win the Yorkshire County Cup

1983/84 Queensland Tour

At the end of the 1983 seasons in Qld and NSW, the Queensland team also toured Papua New Guinea and England. Their tour of Great Britain saw them play three matches. The first against Hull Kingston Rovers resulted in an 8–6 loss, though the Wally Lewis-led Maroons then easily won their remaining matches against Wigan (40–2) and Leeds (58–2)

League Tables

Championship

Final Standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	22	2	6	795	421	+374
2	Hull	30	22	1	7	831	401	+430
3	Warrington	30	19	2	9	622	528	+94
4	Castleford	30	18	3	9	686	438	+248
5	Widnes	30	19	1	10	656	457	+199
6	St. Helens	30	18	1	11	649	507	+142
7	Bradford Northern	30	17	2	11	519	379	+140
8	Leeds	30	15	3	12	553	514	+39
9	Wigan	30	16	0	14	533	465	+68
10	Oldham	30	15	2	13	544	480	+64
11	Leigh	30	14	0	16	623	599	+24
12	Featherstone Rovers	30	11	2	17	464	562	-98
13	Fulham	30	9	1	20	401	694	-293
14	Wakefield Trinity	30	7	0	23	415	780	-365
15	Salford	30	5	0	25	352	787	-435
16	Whitehaven	30	3	0	27	325	956	-631

Second Division

Club	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Barrow	34	32	0	2	1126	332
2	Workington Town	34	24	2	8	714	504
3	Hunslet	34	24	0	10	900	597
4	Halifax	34	23	2	9	722	539
5	Blackpool Borough	34	20	3	11	615	466
6	Swinton	34	21	0	13	764	437
7	York	34	19	2	13	743	570
8	Bramley	34	16	2	16	584	545
9	Kent Invicta	34	17	0	17	595	700
10	Huddersfield	34	15	3	16	600	545
11	Cardiff City Blue Dragons	34	15	1	18	710	717
12	Rochdale Hornets	34	13	3	18	551	667
13	Batley	34	13	0	21	477	738
14	Dewsbury	34	12	0	22	526	698
15	Carlisle	34	12	0	22	539	780
16	Huyton	34	9	2	23	431	760
17	Keighley	34	7	3	24	425	728
18	Doncaster	34	2	1	31	384	1083

	Champions		Play-offs		Promoted		Relegated

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1983–84 Challenge Cup

The 1983-84 State Express Challenge Cup was won by Widnes after defeating Wigan 19-6 in the final.

The Final was played at Wembley before a crowd of 80,116.

John Player Special Trophy

Main article: 1983–84 John Player Special Trophy

County cups

Main article: 1983–84 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1983–84 Yorkshire Cup

Premiership

Main article: 1983–84 Rugby League Premiership

References

Sources

1983-84 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com

References

(2009). "Top ten: Rugby league rules". League Publications.
(30 September 1983). "International ban lifted". The Guardian.
"RFL All Time Records".

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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