1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season

League

Northern Rugby Football League

Champions

Leeds

League Leaders

Leeds

Top point-scorer(s)

David Watkins 473

Top try-scorer(s)

John Atkinson 38

Mike Lamb 38

< 1970–71	Seasons	1972–73 >

The 1971–72 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 77th season of rugby league football. This season saw the entry of rugby league's first sponsors: Joshua Tetley and John Player.^[1]

Season summary

This season saw the introduction of the League Cup competition as a major secondary competition to the Challenge Cup. Due to sponsorship it was never commonly known as the League Cup. It began in this year as the Player's No.6 Trophy and finished up as the Regal Trophy before being abandoned after 1995-96 when the sport switched to summer.

Leeds won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 9-5 in the Championship Final. Leeds also finished the regular season as league leaders.

The Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Leeds 16-13 in the final.

Player's No.6 Trophy winners were Halifax who beat Wakefield Trinity 22-11 in the final.^[2]

Wigan beat Widnes 15–8 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Hull Kingston Rovers beat Castleford 11–7 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

Championship

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Leeds	34	28	2	4	58
2	Bradford Northern	34	26	2	6	54
3	St Helens	34	26	1	7	53
4	Wigan	34	25	0	9	50
5	Salford	34	25	0	9	50
6	Swinton	34	23	2	9	48
7	Featherstone Rovers	34	23	1	10	47
8	Rochdale Hornets	34	21	1	12	43
9	Wakefield Trinity	34	21	0	13	42
10	Castleford	34	20	1	13	41
11	Widnes	34	19	3	12	41
12	Dewsbury	34	18	2	14	38
13	Oldham	34	18	1	15	37
14	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	18	0	16	36
15	Warrington	34	16	3	15	35
16	Leigh	34	17	0	17	34
17	Huddersfield	34	17	0	17	34
18	Barrow	34	16	2	16	34
19	Hull	34	16	0	18	32
20	York	34	15	2	17	32
21	Halifax	34	14	0	20	28
22	Bramley	34	13	0	21	26
23	Whitehaven	34	12	0	22	24
24	Workington Town	34	11	2	21	24
25	Blackpool Borough	34	11	0	23	22
26	Keighley	34	8	0	26	16
27	Huyton	34	7	1	26	15
28	Batley	34	5	2	27	12
29	Doncaster	34	5	0	29	10
30	Hunslet	34	2	0	32	4

Play-offs

Round of 16		Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final



Leeds	40

Leigh	2
		Leeds	20

		Widnes	9
Swinton	11

Widnes	15
				Leeds	10

				Salford	0
Salford	23

Dewsbury	7
		Salford	21

		Wigan	9
Wigan	18

Oldham	8
						Leeds	(2)9

						St Helens	(3)5
St Helens	25

Hull K R	5
		St Helens	17

		Rochdale Hornets	5
Rochdale Hornets	18

Wakefield Trinity	13
				St Helens	14

				Bradford Northern	10	Third Place
Featherstone Rovers	14

Castleford	18
		Castleford	12

		Bradford Northern	22
Bradford Northern	37

Warrington	0

Final

The Championship final was played at Swinton.

Leeds scorers: John Atkinson (1 try), Terry Clawson (3 goals)

St Helens scorers: Les Greenall (1 try), John Walsh (1 goal)

Challenge Cup

The final was played between St Helens and Leeds at London's Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 89,495. The Leeds team was John Holmes, Alan Smith, Syd Hynes, Les Dyl, John Atkinson, Alan Hardisty, Keith Hepworth, Terry Clawson, Tony Fisher, Bill Ramsey, Bob Haigh, Phil Cookson, Ray Batten. Subs: John Langley. The St. Helens team was Geoff Pimblett, Les Jones, Billy Benyon, John Walsh, Frank Wilson, Ken Kelly, Jeff Heaton, Graham Rees, Les Greenall, John Stephens, John Mantle, Eric Chisnall, Kel Coslett. Subs: Alan Whittle, Kelvin Earl. After leading 12-6 at half time, St Helens beat Leeds 16-13. St Helens scorers were Les Jones (1 try), Graham Rees (1 try), and Kel Coslett (5 goals). St Helens forward Kel Coslett was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy as man-of-the-match. This was St Helens’ fourth Cup Final win in eight Final appearances.^[3]

References

↑ Baker, Andrew (1995-08-20). "100 years of rugby league: From the great divide to the Super era". Independent, The (independent.co.uk). Retrieved 2009-09-25.
↑ "1971-72 Season summary". Retrieved 2009-08-08.
↑ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

Sources

Rugby Football League seasons

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Leeds Rhinos

Founded 1870 in Leeds, West Yorkshire

The Club	International representative players Players Coaches

Home grounds	Headingley

Hall of Fame	Ellery Hanley Lewis Jones Garry Schofield

League	Super League

World Club Challenge (3)	2005 2008 2012

Championships (10)	1960-61 1968-69 1971-72 2004 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2015

Challenge Cup (12)	1909-10 1922-23 1931-32 1935-36 1940-41 1941-42 1956-57 1967-68 1976-77 1999 2014 2015

Other honours	Two-time Premiership Champions 17-time Yorkshire Cup Champions 14-time Yorkshire League Champions Two-time Regal Trophy Champions One-time BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Champions

Seasons	1895-96 1896-97 1897-98 1898-99 1899-00 1900-01 1901-02 1902-03 1903-04 1904-05 1905-06 1906-07 1907-08 1908-09 1909-10 1910-11 1911-12 1912-13 1913-14 1914-15 1915-16 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21 1921-22 1922-23 1923-24 1924-25 1925-26 1926-27 1927-28 1928-29 1929-30 1930-31 1931-32 1932-33 1933-34 1934-35 1935-36 1936-37 1937-38 1938-39 1939-40 1940-41 1941-42 1942-43 1943-44 1944-45 1945-46 1946-47 1947-48 1948-49 1949-50 1950-51 1951-52 1952-53 1953-54 1954-55 1955-56 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Culture	NRFU Founder Super League Founding Member

Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895)

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