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1987–88 Rugby Football League season

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Field	Value
title	1987–88 Rugby Football League season
league	Stones Bitter Championship
season	1987–88 Season
season_champs	Widnes
season_champ_name	Champions
premiership_win	Widnes
premiership_win_name	Premiership
MVP	Martin Offiah
MVP_link	Man of Steel Award
top_scorer	John Woods 351
top try scorer	Martin Offiah 44
promote
promote_from	Second Division
relegate
relegate_to	Second Division
season2	Second Division
season_champs2	Oldham
season_champ_name2	Champions
top_scorer2	Kevin Pape (Carlisle) 23
season3
season_champs3
season_champ_name3
prevseason_link	1986–87 Rugby Football League season
prevseason_year	1986–87
nextseason_link	1988–89 Rugby Football League season
nextseason_year	1988–89

The 1987–88 Rugby Football League season was the 93rd season of rugby league football in Britain.

Season summary

During the summer of 1987, freedom of contract was introduced, replacing the retain and transfer system used in previous seasons. Players could now negotiate a move to another club at the end of their contract, with the new club paying compensation to the player's former club. An independent tribunal was created to rule on transfers where the two clubs were unable to agree on a fee. The first case decided by the new tribunal was on 27 August 1987, setting a £40,000 fee for Ged Byrne's transfer from Salford to Wigan.

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

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

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.

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

At the end of the season players from the League were selected to go on the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour.

League Tables

Championship final Standings

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

	Champions		Play-offs		Relegated

Second Division

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

	Promoted

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1988 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.{{cite web |access-date = 2009-08-07 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090901032258/http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php |archive-date = 2009-09-01 |url-status = dead

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

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

John Player Special Trophy

Main article: 1987–88 John Player Special Trophy

County cups

Main article: 1987–88 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1987–88 Yorkshire Cup

Premiership

Main article: 1987–88 Rugby League Premiership

Main article: 1987–88 Rugby League Divisional Premiership

References

Sources

References

(27 June 1987). "Freedon from the murkier depths". The Guardian.
(28 August 1987). "Sport In Brief". The Guardian.
"1987-88 Season summary".

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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