1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season

The 1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the tenth season of rugby league football.

1904–05 Northern Rugby Football Union season
League	Championship
Teams	First Division: 18 Second Division: 14
First Division
Champions	Oldham (1st title)
Runners-up	Bradford F.C.
Top point-scorer(s)	James Lomas Salford) (146)
Top try-scorer(s)	James Dechan ( Bradford F.C.) (31)
Second Division
Champions	Dewsbury
Resigned from the League	Birkenhead Holbeck South Shields Lancaster
← 1903–04 1905–06 →

Season summary

Oldham won their first Division One Championship whilst Warrington won the Challenge Cup.

Holbeck and South Shields dropped out, reducing the competition to 15 teams.^[1]

Birkenhead resigned after 4 games, the results of which were struck out of the table. They lost all four games, conceding 93 points and scoring none.

On 4 March 1905, a record 11 tries were scored by George West (Hull Kingston Rovers) v Brookland Rovers in the Northern Union Challenge Cup. In this same match the record for most points in a match, 53 (11t, 10g) by George West (Hull Kingston Rovers) was recorded.^[2]

There was no county league competition this season.

At the end of the season, all division one and division two clubs. except Lancaster, were elected to the new single top division, the NRFU Championship.

Notable events

• At the start of this season, the Northern Union changed its rules to allow clubs to have full-time players paid by the clubs, thus making it fully professional.^[3]

Division One

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Oldham	34	25	1	8	291	158	51
2	Bradford	34	23	2	9	294	156	48
3	Broughton Rangers	34	22	2	10	295	175	46
4	Leeds	34	20	4	10	232	150	44
5	Warrington	34	20	2	12	220	150	42
6	Salford	34	19	2	13	276	204	40
7	Wigan	34	18	1	15	230	195	37
8	Hull	34	15	4	15	224	214	34
9	Hunslet	34	16	1	17	240	216	33
10	Halifax	34	15	2	17	204	155	32
11	Leigh	34	14	3	17	165	209	31
12	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	15	0	19	200	220	30
13	Swinton	34	13	2	19	155	196	28
14	Wakefield Trinity	34	13	2	19	154	211	28
15	Batley	34	12	3	19	160	228	27
16	Widnes	34	13	1	20	128	280	27
17	St. Helens	34	9	1	24	168	351	19
18	Runcorn	34	7	1	26	133	301	15

Division two

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Pts
1	Dewsbury	26	22	2	2	247	48	46
2	Barrow	26	22	0	4	286	68	44
3	York	26	18	3	5	205	76	39
4	Keighley	26	15	2	9	259	94	32
5	Huddersfield	26	14	2	10	231	143	30
6	Rochdale Hornets	26	11	4	11	154	145	26
7	Millom	26	12	0	14	139	173	24
8	Pontefract	26	10	1	15	156	175	21
9	Castleford	26	9	3	14	104	199	21
10	Normanton	26	9	1	16	105	228	19
11	Brighouse Rangers	26	8	1	17	111	169	17
12	Lancaster	26	8	1	17	106	257	17
13	Morecambe	26	7	2	17	88	272	16
14	Bramley	26	5	2	19	95	239	12

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1905 Challenge Cup

Warrington beat Hull Kingston Rovers 6–0 in the final at Leeds before a crowd of 19,638 to win the Cup at their third attempt in a final.^[2]