1984–85 Rugby Football League season

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1984–85 Rugby Football League season
Championship
Number of teams 16
Champions HKRcolours.svg Hull Kingston Rovers
Premiership winners Saintscolours.svg St Helens
Man of Steel Bullscolours.svg Ellery Hanley
Top point-scorer(s) Saintscolours.svg Sean Day (St Helens) 362
Top try-scorer(s) Bullscolours.svg Ellery Hanley (Bradford Northern) 55
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division Swintoncolours.svg Swinton
Redscolours.svg Salford
Yorkcolours.svg York
Ramscolours.svg Dewsbury
Relegated to Second Division Barrowcolours.svg Barrow
Leigh colours.svg Leigh
Hunsletcolours.svg Hunslet
Workingtoncolours.svg Workington Town
Second Division
Champions Swintoncolours.svg Swinton
Top try-scorer(s) Haven colours.svg Vince Gribbin (Whitehaven) 27
< 1983–84 Seasons 1985–86 >

The 1984–85 Rugby Football League season was the 90th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August, 1984 until May, 1985 for the Slalom Lager Championship.

Contents

[edit] Season summary

On 21 October 1984 Peter Wood kicked a record-equalling five drop goals for Runcorn Highfield in a match against Batley. On October 28, two tries by Mal Meninga inspire St. Helens, to beat Wigan 26–18, and win the Lancashire Cup for the first time in 16 years.

The 1985 Man of Steel award went to Bradford Northern utility back, Ellery Hanley. He also became the first man to score more than 50 tries in a season since Billy Boston, and the first non-winger to reach this figure for 70 years.

The increase of the Second Division to 20 teams meant that it would have taken 38 rounds to play out a full double round robin, which was considered too many matches, so a complicated fixture formula was used to reduce it to 28. For this season, Huyton relocated and were renamed Runcorn Highfield, Cardiff City Blue Dragons relocated and were renamed Bridgend Blue Dragons, and Kent Invicta relocated and were renamed were Southend Invicta, Huddersfield were renamed Huddersfield Barracudas, and Mansfield Marksman, and Sheffield Eagles joined the Second Division.

St. Helens beat Wigan 26–18 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Hull beat Hull Kingston Rovers 29–12 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

[edit] Championship

Hull Kingston Rovers finished on top of the First Division table to claim their fifth championship.

[edit] Championship Final Standings

Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 HKRcolours.svg Hull Kingston Rovers 30 24 0 6 778 391 +387 48
2 Saintscolours.svg St. Helens 30 22 1 7 920 508 +412 45
2 Wigancolours.svg Wigan 30 21 1 8 720 459 +261 43
4 Rhinoscolours.svg Leeds 30 20 1 9 650 377 +273 41
5 Oldhamcolours.svg Oldham 30 18 1 11 563 439 +124 37
6 Hullcolours.svg Hull F.C. 30 17 1 12 733 550 +183 35
7 Widnes colours.svg Widnes 30 17 0 13 580 517 +63 34
8 Bullscolours.svg Bradford Northern 30 16 1 13 600 500 +100 33
9 Fevcolours.svg Featherstone Rovers 30 15 0 15 461 475 −14 30
10 Faxcolours.svg Halifax 30 12 2 16 513 565 −52 26
11 Wolvescolours.svg Warrington 30 13 0 17 530 620 −90 26
12 Cascolours.png Castleford 30 12 1 17 552 518 +34 25
13 Barrowcolours.svg Barrow 30 9 1 20 483 843 −360 19
14 Leigh colours.svg Leigh 30 8 2 20 549 743 −194 18
15 Hunsletcolours.svg Hunslet 30 7 1 22 463 952 −489 15
16 Workingtoncolours.svg Workington Town 30 2 1 27 297 935 −638 5
Champions Relegated

[edit] Second Division Final Standings[1]

Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Swinton 28 24 1 3 727 343 384 49
2 Salford 28 20 3 5 787 333 454 43
3 York 28 21 1 6 717 430 287 43
4 Dewsbury 28 21 1 6 539 320 219 43
5 Carlisle 28 19 0 9 547 437 110 38
6 Whitehaven 28 16 3 9 496 385 111 35
7 Batley 28 17 0 11 489 402 87 '34
8 Fulham 28 16 1 11 521 526 −5 33
9 Mansfield 28 15 0 13 525 398 127 30
10 Blackpool 28 15 0 13 486 434 52 30
11 Wakefield Trinity 28 12 2 14 450 459 −9 26
12 Rochdale Hornets 28 12 2 14 436 466 −30 26
13 Huddersfield 28 12 1 15 476 476 0 25
14 Runcorn 28 11 1 16 462 538 −76 23
15 Keighley 28 11 0 17 495 567 −72 22
16 Bramley 28 9 2 17 439 492 −53 20
17 Sheffield Eagles 28 8 0 20 424 582 -158 16
18 Doncaster 28 6 2 20 353 730 −377 14
19 Southend 28 4 0 24 347 690 −343 8
20 Bridgend 28 1 0 27 258 966 −708 2
Promoted

[edit] Challenge Cup

The 1984–85 Silk Cut Challenge Cup was won by Wigan after defeating Hull in the final.

The Final was played on 4 May at Wembley before a crowd of 97,801 and is arguably the greatest ever in Challenge Cup history.[2] Just after half-time Hull were 22 – 8 down before staging a fight back, but Wigan held on to win 28–24, ushering in an era of dominance for the club.[3]

Referee: Ron Campbell (Widnes)

Teams:
Wigan: S. Edwards; J. Ferguson, D. Stephenson, S. Donlan, H. Gill; B. Kenny, M. Ford; N. Courtney, N. Kiss, B. Case (D. Campbell), G. West (capt), B. Dunn, I. Potter (N. Du Toit).
Coaches: Colin Clarke & Alan McInnes.[4]

Hull: G. Kemble; K. James, S. Evans, J. Leuluai, D. O'Hara (G. Schofield); F. Ah Kuoi, P. Sterling; L. Crooks (capt), S. Patrick, N. Puckering (G. Divorty), J. Muggleton, P. Rose, S. Norton.
Coach: Arthur Bunting.

Wigan 28: Tries: Ferguson (2), Edwards, Kenny, Gill Goals: Gill (3), Stephenson.
Hull 24: Tries: Leuluai (2), James, Divorty, Evans. Goals: Crooks (2).

Lance Todd Trophy winner: Brett Kenny

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995–1996. London: Headline Book Publishing. 1995. p. 299. ISBN 0747278172. 
  2. ^ "5. Wigan v Hull Challenge Cup final, 4 May 1985". Great Sporting Moments: Rugby League (London: independent.co.uk). 2009-07-11. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/rugby-league/great-sporting-moments-rugby-league-1739576.html?action=Popup&ino=6. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 
  3. ^ Baker, Andrew (1995-08-20). "100 years of rugby league: From the great divide to the Super era". Independent, The (London: independent.co.uk). http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/100-years-of-rugby-league-from-the-great-divide-to-the-super-era-1597130.html. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 
  4. ^ "Gill's grin lights up 1985 final" (27 February 2004) bbc.co.uk

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