1907–08 Northern Rugby Football Union season

1907–08 Northern Rugby Football Union season
LeagueChampionship
Teams27
1907–08 Season
Champions Hunslet (1st title)
League Leaders Oldham
Runners-up Oldham
Top point-scorer(s)England Albert Goldthorpe ( Hunslet) (217)
Top try-scorer(s)England Jim Leytham ( Wigan) (44)
Joined League Bradford Northern
Merthyr Tydfil
Ebbw Vale
Resigned from the LeagueLiverpool City

The 1907–08 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the 13th season of rugby league football.

Season summary

League Champions were Hunslet who beat Oldham 12-2 in a replay after a 7-7 draw. It was the first time a team that did not finish top of the league won the Championship.

Challenge Cup Winners were Hunslet who defeated Hull F.C. 14-0.

Liverpool City were replaced by the two Welsh clubs, Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale, taking the competition to 27 clubs.[1]

Bradford switched to association football and were replaced by Bradford Northern.

Oldham won the Lancashire League, and Hunslet won the Yorkshire League. Oldham beat Broughton Rangers 16–9 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Hunslet beat Halifax 17–0 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

Hunslet won All Four Cups available to them; Challenge Cup, Rugby Football League Championship, Yorkshire league, and Yorkshire County Cup.

New Zealand toured England this season. On 28 December 1907, they defeated Salford 9-2 in front of 9,000 spectators.[2]

Championship

Team Pld W D L PF PA Pts Pct
1 Oldham 32 28 2 2 396 121 58 90.62
2 Hunslet 32 25 1 6 389 248 51 79.68
3 Broughton Rangers 30 23 1 6 421 191 47 78.33
4 Wigan 32 23 1 8 501 181 47 73.43
5 Halifax 34 22 1 11 483 275 45 66.17
6 Hull Kingston Rovers 32 21 0 11 460 307 42 65.62
7 Warrington 30 18 3 9 431 156 39 65.00
8 Wakefield Trinity 32 20 1 11 422 322 41 64.06
9 Salford 32 19 3 10 344 187 41 64.06
10 Batley 32 20 0 12 360 306 40 62.05
11 Keighley 32 17 1 14 320 356 35 54.68
12 Bradford Northern 32 17 0 15 313 350 34 53.12
13 Runcorn 30 15 0 15 255 219 30 50.00
14 Barrow 32 15 0 17 244 272 30 46.87
15 Huddersfield 32 14 1 17 439 330 29 45.31
16 Hull 34 15 0 19 349 323 30 44.11
17 Rochdale Hornets 30 13 0 17 232 290 26 43.33
18 Dewsbury 32 13 1 18 290 358 27 42.18
19 Leigh 30 11 1 18 279 362 23 38.33
20 Leeds 32 10 1 21 270 397 21 32.81
21 Swinton 30 9 1 20 180 316 19 31.66
22 York 30 9 0 21 284 437 18 30.00
23 Merthyr Tydfil 30 8 1 21 229 400 17 28.33
24 Widnes 30 6 4 20 179 335 16 26.66
25 St. Helens 32 7 3 22 228 500 17 26.56
26 Ebbw Vale 30 6 2 22 153 426 14 23.33
27 Bramley 32 5 1 26 188 674 11 17.18
 

Play-offs

Championship play-off

Semi-finals Championship final
      
2 Hunslet 28
3 Broughton Rangers 3
Hunslet 7 -12
Oldham 7-2
1 Oldham 12
4 Wigan 5

Challenge Cup

The final saw Hunslet's 14-0 victory over Hull F.C. in the 1908 Challenge Cup Final during the 1907–08 season at Fartown Ground, Huddersfield on Saturday 25 April 1908, in front of a crowd of 18,000, the referee was Mr. J. H. Smith of Widnes, and the Challenge Cup Trophy was presented by Mr H. Ashton (President of the Northern Union).[3][4]

Hunslet Tries: Fred Smith, Fred Farrar

Hunslet Goals: Billy Eagers, (Albert, or Walter) Goldthorpe 3

Half-time: 7-0

Attendance: 18,000 (at Fartown Ground, Huddersfield)

Teams:

Hunslet: Herbert Place, Fred Farrar, Billy Eagers, Walter Goldthorpe, Billy Batten, Albert Goldthorpe, Fred Smith, Harry Wilson, Bill Brookes, Bill Jukes, John "Jack" Randall, John Higson, Tom Walsh

Hull FC: Harry Taylor, L. Parry, G. T. Cottrell, F. J. Cook, (E. or Ned) Rogers, Harry Wallace, Billie Anderson, Tom Herridge, J. Owen, W. J. Carroll, G. Kilburn, H. Fulton, William Holder

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Hunslet squad – 1907–08 Challenge Cup Final winners

Sources

  • 1907-08 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
  • The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website

References

  1. ^ "1907-08 Season summary". Archived from the original on 2009-08-26. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  2. ^ "Salford first game". Salford City Reds Official Web Site, History page. Archived from the original on 7 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  3. ^ "RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour". Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  4. ^ "A complete history of Hull FC's Challenge Cup finals". Hull Daily Mail. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
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