1980–81 Rugby Football League season | |
League: | Slalom Lager Championship |
No Of Teams: | 16 |
Season Champs: | Bradford Northern |
Season Champ Name: | Champions |
Premiership Win: | Hull Kingston Rovers |
Premiership Win Name: | Premiership winners |
Mvp: | Ken Kelly |
Mvp Link: | Man of Steel Award |
Top Scorer: | Steve Hesford 310 |
Top Try Scorer: | Terry Richardson 28 |
Promote From: | Second Division |
Relegate To: | Second Division |
Season2: | Second Division |
Season Champs2: | York |
Season Champ Name2: | Champions |
Top Try Scorer2: | John Crossley Jr. 35 |
Prevseason Link: | 1979–80 Northern Rugby Football League season |
Prevseason Year: | 1979–80 |
Nextseason Link: | 1981–82 Rugby Football League season |
Nextseason Year: | 1981–82 |
The 1980–81 Rugby Football League season was the 86th season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August 1980 until May 1981 for the Slalom Lager Championship.
For the only time in their history, Wigan competed outside the top flight of Rugby League in this season.Fulham RLFC joined the competition in Division Two, later becoming the London Crusaders, London Broncos (twice), and Harlequins Rugby League.
Bradford Northern finished on top of the First Division table to claim their second championship, and Hull Kingston Rovers won the Rugby League Premiership competition.
Warrington beat Wigan 26–10 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Leeds beat Hull Kingston Rovers 8–7 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.
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 difference" | PD | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bradford Northern | 30 | 20 | 1 | 9 | 447 | 345 | +102 | 41 | ||||||||||
2 | Warrington | 30 | 19 | 1 | 10 | 459 | 330 | +129 | 39 | ||||||||||
3 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 30 | 18 | 2 | 10 | 509 | 408 | +101 | 38 | ||||||||||
4 | Wakefield Trinity | 30 | 18 | 2 | 10 | 544 | 454 | +90 | 38 | ||||||||||
5 | Castleford | 30 | 18 | 2 | 10 | 526 | 459 | +67 | 38 | ||||||||||
6 | Widnes | 30 | 16 | 2 | 12 | 428 | 356 | +72 | 34 | ||||||||||
7 | Hull | 30 | 17 | 0 | 13 | 442 | 450 | -8 | 34 | ||||||||||
8 | St Helens | 30 | 15 | 1 | 14 | 465 | 370 | +95 | 31 | ||||||||||
9 | 30 | 14 | 1 | 15 | 416 | 414 | +2 | 29 | |||||||||||
10 | Leeds | 30 | 14 | 0 | 16 | 388 | 468 | -80 | 28 | ||||||||||
11 | Barrow | 30 | 13 | 0 | 17 | 405 | 498 | -93 | 26 | ||||||||||
12 | Featherstone Rovers | 30 | 12 | 0 | 18 | 467 | 446 | +21 | 24 | ||||||||||
13 | Halifax | 30 | 11 | 0 | 19 | 385 | 450 | -65 | 22 | ||||||||||
14 | Salford | 30 | 10 | 1 | 19 | 473 | 583 | -110 | 21 | ||||||||||
15 | Workington Town | 30 | 9 | 3 | 18 | 335 | 457 | -122 | 21 | ||||||||||
16 | Oldham | 30 | 7 | 2 | 21 | 362 | 563 | -201 | 16 | ||||||||||
Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Pts | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | York | 28 | 23 | 0 | 5 | 649 | 331 | 46 | |
2 | Wigan | 28 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 597 | 293 | 43 | |
3 | Fulham | 28 | 20 | 0 | 8 | 447 | 237 | 40 | |
4 | Whitehaven | 28 | 19 | 1 | 8 | 409 | 250 | 39 | |
5 | Huddersfield | 28 | 18 | 1 | 9 | 429 | 310 | 37 | |
6 | Swinton | 28 | 18 | 1 | 9 | 440 | 302 | 36 | |
7 | Keighley | 28 | 14 | 1 | 13 | 445 | 501 | 29 | |
8 | Hunslet | 28 | 13 | 1 | 14 | 447 | 430 | 27 | |
9 | 28 | 13 | 1 | 14 | 433 | 418 | 27 | ||
10 | Rochdale Hornets | 28 | 13 | 0 | 15 | 406 | 418 | 26 | |
11 | Batley | 28 | 12 | 0 | 16 | 386 | 432 | 24 | |
- align=center style="background:" | 12 | Dewsbury | 28 | 11 | 1 | 16 | 346 | 364 | 23 |
13 | Doncaster | 28 | 5 | 0 | 23 | 250 | 562 | 10 | |
14 | Blackpool Borough | 28 | 4 | 1 | 23 | 212 | 419 | 9 | |
15 | Huyton | 28 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 211 | 796 | 4 | |
Champions | Play-offs | Promoted | Relegated |
See main article: 1980–81 Challenge Cup. The 1980–81 State Express Challenge Cup was won by Widnes after defeating Hull Kingston Rovers 18–9 in the final.
The Final was played at Wembley before a crowd of 92,496.
See main article: 1980–81 John Player Trophy. Warrington won the John Player Trophy for the third time in their history, beating Barrow 12–5 at Central Park, Wigan.
See main article: 1980–81 Rugby League Premiership. Hull Kingston Rovers won the Premiership competition for the first time, defeating local rivals Hull 11–7 at Headingley, Leeds.
See main article: 1980 New Zealand rugby league tour of Great Britain and France. September until November also saw the appearance of the New Zealand team in England on their 1980 tour. Other than the three test series against Great Britain, The Kiwis played matches club and county sides.
The 1980 Kiwis were coached by Ces Mountford and were captained by Mark Graham.
Dane O'Hara, who would join Hull F.C. following the tour was the leading try scorer with 6. Scrum half Gordon Smith (who would join Hull Kingston Rovers in 1982) was the tours leading point scorer with 33 from 1 try and 15 goals.
game | Date | Result | Venue | Attendance | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 28 September | New Zealand def. Blackpool Borough 23–5 | 1,312 | ||
2 | 5 October | New Zealand def. Hull F.C. 33–10 | 15,945 | ||
3 | 8 October | Cumbria def. New Zealand 9–3 | 4,070 | ||
4 | 12 October | St Helens def. New Zealand 11–6 | 6,000 | ||
5 | 14 October | Bradford Northern def. New Zealand 15–10 | 4,553 | ||
6 | 18 October | drew with 14–14 | 7,031 | ||
7 | 22 October | New Zealand def. Hull Kingston Rovers 20–12 | 9,516 | ||
8 | 26 October | New Zealand def. Leeds 25–5 | 5,662 | ||
9 | 29 October | Warrington def. New Zealand 13–6 | 5,680 | ||
10 | 2 November | def. 12–8 | 10,946 | ||
11 | 5 November | New Zealand def. Great Britain U/24 18–14 | 2,397 | ||
12 | 9 November | Widnes def. New Zealand 13–7 | 6,416 | ||
13 | 11 November | New Zealand def. Leigh 22–5 | 3,166 | ||
14 | 15 November | def. 10–2 | 8,210 |
The following are the top points scorers in all competitions in the 1980–81 season.Most tries
Player | Team | Tries | |
---|---|---|---|
35 | |||
28 | |||
25 | |||
23 | |||
23 | |||
23 | |||
20 | |||
19 | |||
19 | |||
19 | |||
19 | |||
19 |
Player | Team | Goals | |
---|---|---|---|
186 | |||
158 | |||
152 | |||
150 | |||
144 | |||
142 | |||
135 | |||
131 | |||
127 | |||
126 |