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1990–91 Rugby Football League season

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Field	Value
title	1990–91 Rugby Football League season
league	Championship
no_of_teams	First Division: 14
Second Division: 21
attendance
season	First Division
season_champs	Wigan
season_champ_name	Champions
league_leaders
league_leaders_name
second_place
premiership_win	Hull
premiership_win_name	Premiership winners
MVP	Garry Schofield
MVP_link	Man of Steel Award
relegate
relegate_to	Second Division
season2	Second Division
season_champs2	Salford
season_champ_name2	Champions
promote2
promote_from2	Second Division
relegate2
relegate_to2	New Third Division
prevseason_link	1989–90 Rugby Football League season
prevseason_year	1989–90
nextseason_link	1991–92 Rugby Football League season
nextseason_year	1991–92

Second Division: 21

The 1990–91 Rugby Football League season was the 96th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Fourteen teams competed from August, 1990 until May, 1991 for the Stones Bitter Championship, Premiership Trophy and Silk Cut Challenge Cup.

Season summary

Overview

First Division: Wigan
Second Division: Salford
Premiership: Hull F.C.
Divisional Premiership: Salford
Challenge Cup: Wigan
League Cup: Warrington

Summary

Bradford Northern player Simon Tuffs tested positive for amphetamines, and was the first time a failed drugs test involving a rugby league player had been made public since random testing had been introduced by the RFL in 1987. He received a two-year suspension, but the ban was lifted following an appeal.

Due to a fixture backlog, Wigan, who were challenging for the league championship title, were forced to play their final eight league games within 19 days, a task described as "Mission Impossible" by coach John Monie. The club managed to win seven out of eight games to retain the title.

In April 1991, clubs approved a new three division format to be used from the start of the 1991–92 season. The Championship would remain a 14 team league, while the Second Division would consist of eight teams and the new Third Division would have 14 teams.

League tables

Wigan retained their title this season, relegated were Oldham, Sheffield Eagles and Rochdale Hornets, to date this is Rochdale Hornets's last appearance in the top flight.

First Division

Second Division

Qualified for Divisional Premiership first round

Kangaroo Tour

Main article: 1990 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France

The months of October and November also saw the appearance of the Australian team in England on their 1990 Kangaroo Tour. Other than the three test Ashes series against Great Britain (won 2–1 by Australia), The Kangaroos played and won matches against 8 Championship teams (St Helens, Wakefield Trinity, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington, Castleford, Hull and Widnes), 1 Second Division side (Halifax) and one county side (Cumbria). The team was coached by 1973 tourist and 1978 tour captain Bob Fulton and was captained by Mal Meninga who was making his third Kangaroo Tour as a player.

Penrith Panthers halfback Greg Alexander (who played most of the tour as the backup fullback to Gary Belcher), was the leading point scorer on the tour with 156 from 14 tries and 50 goals. Like Terry Lamb on the 1986 tour, Alexander was selected for every match on the tour, but he did not get off the bench in the 2nd Ashes Test at Old Trafford. Cronulla-Sutherland outside back Andrew Ettingshausen was the leading try scorer with 15 including hat-tricks against St Helens in the tour opener and Wigan a week later.

Great Britain's win in the first test at Wembley was the Lions first test win on home soil over Australia since 5 November 1978. It was the Kangaroos only loss of the tour. Wembley also saw the largest ever rugby league test attendance in Great Britain with 54,569 on hand. This beat the opening test of the 1986 Tour at Old Trafford that had attracted a crowd of 50,523.

game	Date	Result	Venue	Attendance
1	7 October	Australia def. St Helens 34–4	Knowsley Road, St Helens	15,219
2	10 October	Australia def. Wakefield Trinity 36–18	Belle Vue, Wakefield	7,724
3	14 October	Australia def. Wigan 34–6	Central Park, Wigan	24,814
4	17 October	Australia def. Cumbria Cumbria 42–10	Derwent Park, Workington	6,750
5	21 October	Australia def. Leeds 22–10	Headingley, Leeds	16,037
6	27 October	def. 19–12	Wembley Stadium, London	54,569
7	31 October	Australia def. Warrington 26–6	Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington	10,200
8	4 November	Australia def. Castleford 28–8	Wheldon Road, Castleford	9,033
9	6 November	Australia def. Halifax 36–18	Thrum Hall, Halifax	8,730
10	10 November	def. 14–10	Old Trafford, Manchester	46,615
11	14 November	Australia def. Hull F.C. 34–4	The Boulevard, Hull	13,081
12	18 November	Australia def. Widnes 15–8	Naughton Park, Widnes	14,666
13	24 November	def. 14–0	Elland Road, Leeds	32,500

References

Sources

References

(1991). "Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1991-92". Queen Anne Press.
(27 February 1991). "Tuffs given two-year ban for drug-taking". The Guardian.
(17 April 1991). "Ban on Tuffs removed after appeal". The Times.
(25 April 2020). "1990-2 Mission Impossible". Wigan Warriors.
(18 April 1991). "Three divisions agreed". The Guardian.
(1995). "Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-96". Headline Publishing Group.

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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