1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season
Introduction The '''1975–76 Rugby Football League season''' was the 81st season of rugby league football. The Championship was won by Salford and the Challenge Cup winners were St. Helens who beat Widnes 20-5 in the final. The Rugby League Premiership Trophy winners were also St. Helens who beat Salford 15-2 in the final.The 1975–76 Players No.6 Trophy Winners were Widnes who beat Hull F.C. 19-13 in the final. The BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were St. Helens who beat Dewsbury 22-2 in the final. Widnes beat Salford 16–7 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Leeds beat Hull Kingston Rovers 15–11 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.
Championship Salford won their sixth, and to date last, Championship. Dewsbury, Keighley, Huddersfield and Swinton were demoted to the Second Division.TeamPldWDLPFPAPts1Salford302217555350452Featherstone Rovers302127526348443Leeds302109571395424'''St. Helens'''3019110513315395Wigan301839514399396Widnes3018111448369377Wakefield Trinity3017013496410348Hull Kingston Rovers3017013446472349Castleford30161135893983310Warrington30152133814563211Bradford Northern30131164544502712Oldham30111183804902313Dewsbury30101192874842114Keighley3070232744681415Huddersfield3050253706571016Swinton3030272385816
Challenge Cup In the Challenge Cup  final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,982 St. Helens defeated Widnes 20-5.This was St Helens’ fifth Cup Final win in eight Final appearances.Referee: Ron Moore (Wakefield)'''St Helens 20'''#Geoff Pimblett (3 goals, 2 drop goal)#Les Jones#Eddie Cunningham (1 try)#Derek Noonan#Roy Mathias#Billy Benyon#Jeff Heaton (1 try)#John Mantle#Tony Karalius#Kel Coslett#George Nicholls#Eric Chisnall#David Hull*Sub. Peter Glynn (2 tries) on for Billy Benyon*Sub. Mel James on for John Mantle*Coach: Eric Ashton '''Widnes 5'''#Ray Dutton (2 goals)#Alan Prescott#Eric Hughes#Derek 'Mick' George#David Jenkins#David Eckersley#Reg Bowden#Nick Nelson#Keith Elwell (1 drop goal)#John Wood#John Foran#Mick Adams#Doug Laughton*Sub. Dennis O'Neill on for Alan Prescott*Sub. Barry Sheridan on for John Foran*Coach: The winner of the Lance Todd Trophy was St. Helens , Geoff Pimblett.
Premiership In 1975–76 season the RFL introduced the Premiership Trophy competition. It was played at the end of the season with the top 8 in the league qualifying to play each other in a simple 1st versus 8th, 2nd versus 7th, 3rd versus 6th, and 4th versus 5th system. The final was played on a neutral venue. The competition was played until 1997 when it was scrapped.This was the second end of season Premiership Play-off Final and was played in front of a crowd of 18,082 at Station Road, Swinton between the number four seeds, St Helens, and the number one seeds, Salford. '''Referee''': M.J.Naughton (Widnes)'''St Helens - 15'''#Geoff Pimblett (3 goals)#Les Jones#Peter Glynn (1 try)#Derek Noonan#Roy Mathias#Billy Benyon#Jeff Heaton#John Mantle#Tony Karalius (1 try)#Mel James#George Nicholls#Eric Chisnall (1 try)#Kel Coslett*Substitute: Kenneth "Ken" Gwilliam on for Jeff Heaton'''Salford - 2'''#David Watkins (2 drop goals)#Keith Fielding#Maurice Richards#Chris Hesketh#Graham#Butler#Steve Nash#Mike Coulman#Raistrick#William Sheffield#Knighton#Colin Dixon#Eric Prescott*Substitute: Sam Turnbull for KnightonSt Helens second-row forward, George Nicholls, was the winner of the Harry Sunderland Trophy as ''Man of the Match''.
Second Division Championship 2nd Division Champions were Barrow, and they, Rochdale Hornets, Workington Town and Leigh were promoted to the First Division. TeamPldWDLPFPAPts1Barrow262033366213432Rochdale Hornets261934347200413Workington Town261844519228404Leigh261916571217395Hull261916577278396New Hunslet2615110371308317York2612113447394258Bramley2611114344370239Huyton26100162423732010Whitehaven2682162533471811Halifax2671183224601512Batley2661192284321313Blackpool Borough2661192244601314Doncaster2620241957264
League Cup
References
Sources * 1975–76 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com* The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website