| 1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season | |
| League: | Championship |
| No Of Teams: | First Division: 18 Second Division: 17 |
| Season: | First Division |
| Season Champs: | Bradford F.C. (1st title) |
| Season Champ Name: | Champions |
| Second Place: | Salford |
| Top Scorer: | James Lomas (Salford) (222) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Andrew Hogg (Broughton Rangers) (34) |
| Season2: | Second Division |
| Season Champs2: | Wakefield Trinity |
| Season Champ Name2: | Champions |
| Promote2: | Wakefield Trinity St Helens |
| Promote From2: | Second Division |
| Join3: | Pontefract |
| Join Method3: | Joined the League |
| Prevseason Link: | 1902–03 Northern Rugby Football Union season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1902–03 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1904–05 |
The 1903–04 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the ninth season of rugby league football.
The League Champions were Bradford and the Challenge Cup Winners were Halifax.[1]
Keighley and Huddersfield were demoted from the top division and replaced by Wakefield Trinity (champions) and St. Helens.
As the top two teams had finished level on points and Points Difference had not been introduced as a tie breaker yet, despite having a worse points difference, Bradford contested a play-off with Salford, that Bradford won 5-0.
In the Second Division, Manningham and Stockport were replaced by Pontefract, reducing the competition to 17 teams. Birkenhead Wanderers dropped the Wanderers from their name.
The second promotion place had to be decided by a play-off as Points Difference had not yet been introduced as a tie breaker. St. Helens beat Holbeck 7-0.
There was no county league competition this season.
On 5 April 1904, the first ever International Rugby League match took place between England and Other Nationalities. It was played at Central Park, Wigan, having originally been scheduled for New Year's Day in Oldham. England lost 3-9 in a twelve sided match, with the opposition made up of ten Welshmen and two Scots. The crowd numbered just 6,000.[2]
| England | Other Nationalities | |
|---|---|---|
| Full back | Full back | |
| W.B. Little | D. Smith | |
| Three Quarters | Three Quarters | |
| F. Spottiswoode | D. Thomas | |
| G. Dickenson | T.D. Llewellyn | |
| J. Lomas | D. Harris | |
| J. Fish | D.J. Lewis | |
| Half backs | Half backs | |
| J. Baxter | E. Davies | |
| J. Morely | P.J. Brady | |
| Forwards | Forwards | |
| A. Starks [c] | J. Rhapps | |
| P. Tunney | J.G. Moffatt | |
| J. Riley | G. Frater [c] | |
| J.W. Bulmer | D. Thomas | |
| J. Ferguson | H. Buckler |
Championship play-off: Bradford vs Salford 5-0
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bradford | 34 | 25 | 2 | 7 | 303 | 96 | 52 | |||||||||
| 2 | Salford | 34 | 25 | 2 | 7 | 366 | 108 | 52 | |||||||||
| 3 | Broughton Rangers | 34 | 21 | 4 | 9 | 306 | 142 | 46 | |||||||||
| 4 | Hunslet | 34 | 22 | 1 | 11 | 250 | 157 | 45 | |||||||||
| 5 | Oldham | 34 | 20 | 3 | 11 | 215 | 110 | 43 | |||||||||
| 6 | Leeds | 34 | 19 | 5 | 10 | 211 | 145 | 43 | |||||||||
| 7 | Warrington | 34 | 17 | 3 | 14 | 214 | 153 | 37 | |||||||||
| 8 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 34 | 17 | 2 | 15 | 191 | 167 | 36 | |||||||||
| 9 | Halifax | 34 | 14 | 3 | 17 | 125 | 148 | 31 | |||||||||
| 10 | Wigan | 34 | 11 | 6 | 17 | 177 | 174 | 28 | |||||||||
| 11 | Swinton | 34 | 12 | 4 | 18 | 139 | 215 | 28 | |||||||||
| 12 | Batley | 34 | 12 | 3 | 19 | 139 | 241 | 27 | |||||||||
| 13 | Hull | 34 | 12 | 3 | 19 | 148 | 258 | 27 | |||||||||
| 14 | Widnes | 34 | 11 | 5 | 18 | 126 | 243 | 27 | |||||||||
| 15 | Leigh | 34 | 10 | 5 | 19 | 174 | 250 | 25 | |||||||||
| 16 | Runcorn | 34 | 11 | 2 | 21 | 151 | 245 | 24 | |||||||||
| 17 | Keighley | 34 | 8 | 5 | 21 | 129 | 319 | 21 | |||||||||
| 18 | Huddersfield | 34 | 10 | 0 | 24 | 160 | 353 | 20 | |||||||||
Promotion play-off: St. Helens vs Holbeck 7-0
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wakefield Trinity | 32 | 27 | 1 | 4 | 389 | 57 | 55 | |||||||||
| 2 | St. Helens | 32 | 23 | 3 | 6 | 328 | 105 | 49 | |||||||||
| 3 | Holbeck | 32 | 24 | 1 | 7 | 256 | 120 | 49 | |||||||||
| 4 | Rochdale Hornets | 32 | 22 | 2 | 8 | 319 | 104 | 46 | |||||||||
| 5 | York | 32 | 20 | 1 | 11 | 244 | 97 | 41 | |||||||||
| 6 | Brighouse Rangers | 32 | 19 | 3 | 10 | 192 | 136 | 41 | |||||||||
| 7 | Castleford | 32 | 18 | 3 | 11 | 185 | 194 | 39 | |||||||||
| 8 | Bramley | 32 | 16 | 4 | 12 | 181 | 180 | 36 | |||||||||
| 9 | Barrow | 32 | 16 | 3 | 13 | 219 | 162 | 35 | |||||||||
| 10 | Pontefract | 32 | 14 | 6 | 12 | 174 | 150 | 34 | |||||||||
| 11 | Dewsbury | 32 | 12 | 3 | 17 | 185 | 205 | 27 | |||||||||
| 12 | Millom | 32 | 12 | 2 | 18 | 185 | 209 | 26 | |||||||||
| 13 | Lancaster | 32 | 8 | 2 | 22 | 129 | 291 | 18 | |||||||||
| 14 | Birkenhead | 32 | 7 | 0 | 25 | 75 | 334 | 14 | |||||||||
| 15 | South Shields | 32 | 6 | 1 | 25 | 140 | 336 | 13 | |||||||||
| 16 | Morecambe | 32 | 5 | 3 | 24 | 72 | 287 | 13 | |||||||||
| 17 | Normanton | 32 | 4 | 0 | 28 | 105 | 411 | 8 | |||||||||
See main article: 1904 Challenge Cup.
Halifax beat Warrington 8-3 in the final at Salford's The Willows before a paying crowd of 17,041, plus 1,000 additional guests, to become the second team to record back-to-back Cup wins. Halifax wouldn’t reach another final until 1921 nor win the Cup again until 1931.[3]