1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season

{{Infobox rugby football league season

| title = 1979–80 Rugby Football League season

| league = Northern Rugby Football League

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| season_champs = {{leagueicon|bradford|16}} Bradford Northern

| season_champ_name = Champions

| league_leaders =

| league_leaders_name =

| second_place =

| premiership_win = {{leagueicon|widnes|16}} Widnes

| premiership_win_name= Premiership

| MVP = {{leagueicon|wigan|16}} George Fairbairn

| MVP_link = Man of Steel Award

| top_scorer = {{leagueicon|featherstone|16}} Steve Quinn (375)

| top_scorer_link =

| top try scorer = {{ubl|{{leagueicon|salford city|16}} Keith Fielding (30)|{{leagueicon|hull kr|16}} Steve Hubbard (30)}}

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| promote = {{ubl|{{leagueicon|featherstone|16}} Featherstone Rovers|{{leagueicon|halifax|16}} Halifax|{{leagueicon|oldham|16}} Oldham|{{leagueicon|barrow|16}} Barrow}}

| promote_from = Division 2

| relegate = {{ubl|{{leagueicon|wigan|16}} Wigan| {{leagueicon|hunslet|16}} Hunslet|{{leagueicon|york rlfc|16}} York|{{leagueicon|Blackpool|16}} Blackpool Borough}}

| relegate_to = Division 2

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| prevseason_link = 1978–79 Northern Rugby Football League season

| prevseason_year = 1978–79

| nextseason_link = 1980–81 Rugby Football League season

| nextseason_year = 1980–81

}}

The 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 85th season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Northern Rugby Football League's first division championship, with Bradford claiming the title by finishing on top of the League.

Season summary

Bradford Northern won their first ever Championship this season. Wigan, Hunslet (having dropped the prefix of 'New' from New Hunslet), York and Blackpool Borough were relegated.
The Challenge Cup Winners Hull Kingston Rovers who beat city rivals Hull F.C. 10-5 in the final.
2nd Division Champions were Featherstone Rovers, Halifax, Oldham and Barrow were also promoted.{{cite web|url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=400 |title=1979-80 Season summary |access-date=2009-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827102751/http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=400 |archive-date=2009-08-27 |url-status=live }}

League Tables

=Championship=

Final Standings

width=20 abbr="Position" \| !width=175 \|Team !width=20 abbr="Played" \|Pld !width=20 abbr="Won" \|W !width=20 abbr="Drawn" \|D !width=20 abbr="Lost" \|L !width=20 abbr=”Points For”\|PF !width=20 abbr=”Points Against”\|PA !width=20 abbr="Points" \|Pts
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
align=center style="background:#FFD700;"
align=center style="background:#FFD700;" \|1	Bradford Northern	30	23	0	7	448	272	46
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|2	Widnes	30	22	1	7	546	293	45
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|3	Hull	30	18	3	9	454	326	39
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|4	Salford	30	19	1	10	495	374	39
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|5	Leeds	30	19	0	11	590	390	38
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|6	Leigh	30	16	1	13	451	354	33
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|7	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	16	1	13	539	445	33
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:" \|8	St. Helens	30	15	2	13	505	410	32
align=center style="background:" \|9	Warrington	30	15	2	13	362	357	32
align=center style="background:" \|10	Wakefield Trinity	30	14	2	14	362	357	30
align=center style="background:" \|11	Castleford	30	13	2	15	466	475	28
align=center style="background:" \|12	Workington Town	30	12	2	16	348	483	26
align=center style="background:#FFCCCC;color:" \|13	Wigan	30	9	3	18	366	523	21
align=center style="background:#FFCCCC;color:" \|14	Hunslet	30	7	1	22	346	528	15
align=center style="background:#FFCCCC;color:" \|15	York	30	6	1	23	375	647	13
align=center style="background:#FFCCCC;color:" \|16	Blackpool Borough	30	5	0	25	230	613	10

=Second Division=

width=20 abbr="Position" \| !width=175 \|Team !width=20 abbr="Played" \|Pld !width=20 abbr="Won" \|W !width=20 abbr="Drawn" \|D !width=20 abbr="Lost" \|L !width=20 abbr=”Points For”\|PF !width=20 abbr=”Points Against”\|PA !width=20 abbr="Points" \|Pts
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
align=center style="background:#e1e1ff;color:"
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|1	Featherstone Rovers	26	21	2	3	724	280	44
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|2	Halifax	26	19	3	4	463	213	41
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|3	Oldham	26	19	3	4	513	276	41
align=center style="background:#ccffcc;color:" \|4	Barrow	26	18	1	7	582	280	37
align=center style="background:" \|5	Whitehaven	26	15	1	10	397	276	31
align=center style="background:" \|6	Dewsbury	26	13	2	11	408	343	28
align=center style="background:" \|7	Rochdale Hornets	26	9	5	12	315	373	23
align=center style="background:" \|8	Swinton	26	11	1	14	331	436	23
align=center style="background:" \|9	Batley	26	10	2	14	232	370	22
align=center style="background:" \|10	Bramley	26	10	1	15	330	451	21
align=center style="background:" \|11	Keighley	26	10	0	16	342	396	20
align=center style="background:" \|12	Huddersfield	26	10	0	16	363	423	20
align=center style="background:" \|13	Huyton	\|26	5	0	21	209	555	10
align=center style="background:" \|14	Doncaster	26	1	1	24	196	733	3

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%"

|bgcolor="#FFD700" width="20" |

|Champions

|bgcolor="#e1e1ff" width="20" |

|Play-offs

|bgcolor="#ccffcc" width="20" |

|Promoted

|bgcolor="#FFCCCC" width="20" |

|Relegated

Cups

=Challenge Cup=

The 1980 State Express Challenge Cup culminated in the first Hull Cup final derby, with a heavy entourage of supporters from the East and West of the city making the trip to London.{{cite news

| last = Demsteader

| first = Christine

| title = Rugby League's home from home

| work = BBC Sport

| place =UK

| publisher = BBC

| date = 2000-10-01

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/in_depth/2000/wembley/944481.stm

| access-date = 2009-12-04}} Hull Kingston Rovers defeated Hull 10-5 at Wembley before a crowd of 95,000.{{cite web|url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecuppage.php?areaid=65|title=RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour|access-date=2009-08-07}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}

This was Hull Kingston Rovers’ first, and to date, only Cup Final Win in six Final appearances.

The Hull Kingston Rovers’ Prop, Brian Lockwood, won the Lance Todd Trophy.

=John Player Trophy=

The John Player Trophy Winners were Bradford Northern who beat Widnes 6-0 in the final.

=County cups=

Widnes beat Workington Town (from Cumbria) 11–0 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Leeds beat Halifax 15–6 to win the Yorkshire Cup.

=Floodlit Trophy=

BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were Hull F.C. who beat city rivals Hull Kingston Rovers 13-3 in the final.

=Premiership=

Rugby League Premiership Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat Bradford Northern 19-5 in the final.

Statistics

The following are the top points scorers in the 1979–80 season.{{cite book|last1=Fletcher|first1=Raymond|last2=Howes|first2=David|title=Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1997|date=27 March 1997 |publisher=Headline|location=London|isbn=978-0-7472-7764-4|pages=163–7}}

Most tries

Player ! Team ! Tries
class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
Keith Fielding	Salford	30
Steve Hubbard	Hull Kingston Rovers	30
Geoff Munro	Oldham	29
Ian Ball	Barrow	27
Keith Bentley	Widnes	27
Peter Glynn	St. Helens	27
Roy Mathias	St. Helens	27
John Bevan	Warrington	26
David Redfearn	Bradford Northern	26
David Smith	Leeds	24

Most goals (including drop goals)

Player ! Team ! Goals
class="wikitable" style="text-align:centre;"
Steve Quinn	Featherstone Rovers	163
Steve Hubbard	Hull Kingston Rovers	138
Steve Rule	Salford	134
Steve Hesford	Warrington	128
Mick Burke	Widnes	127
Ian Ball	Barrow	119
Steve Diamond	Wakefield Trinity	116
Eric Fitzsimons	Oldham	108
Mick Parrish	Hunslet	98
Jimmy Birts	Halifax	97

References

Sources

[http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=400 1979-80 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090403144113/http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php?areaid=65 The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website]

Category:1979 in English rugby league

Category:1980 in English rugby league

Category:Northern Rugby Football League seasons