1964–65 Northern Rugby Football League season

The 1964–65 Rugby Football League season was the 70th season of rugby league football.

1964–65 Rugby Football League season
League	Championship
Champions	Halifax
League Leaders	St. Helens
Top point-scorer(s)	Len Killeen 360
Top try-scorer(s)	Trevor Lake 40
Reformed	Bradford Northern
← 1963–64 1965–66 →

Rule change

• Substitutes were introduced.^[1] They were initially only for players injured in the time up to and including half time.

Season summary

1964-65 saw the two divisions of rugby league merge back into one single league. The championship play-offs returned to decide the champions. A new top 16 play-off format was introduced rather than top four system used between 1905–06 and 1962–63. A Bottom 14 Championship was also introduced for the remaining clubs who finished below the top 16, although some clubs declined to take part.

St. Helens had finished the regular season as league leaders. Halifax won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 15-7 in the play-off final. Terry Fogerty was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.

Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hunslet 20-16 in the final.

Bradford Northern were resurrected and accepted back into the League.^[2]

St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Castleford won the Yorkshire League.

Championship

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PAv	Pts	Qualification
1	St Helens (L)	34	28	0	6	621	226	2.748	56	Qualification for the Championship play-offs
2	Wigan	34	26	0	8	626	260	2.408	52
3	Castleford	34	25	1	8	555	294	1.888	51
4	Wakefield Trinity	34	24	2	8	486	228	2.132	50
5	Warrington	34	24	1	9	416	292	1.425	49
6	Workington Town	34	23	1	10	497	326	1.525	47
7	Halifax	34	22	1	11	629	335	1.878	45
8	Hull Kingston Rovers	34	22	0	12	587	377	1.557	44
9	Oldham	34	20	1	13	444	312	1.423	41
10	Leeds	34	20	0	14	469	349	1.344	40
11	Swinton	34	19	1	14	334	250	1.336	39
12	Leigh	34	19	1	14	446	349	1.278	39
13	Hull	34	19	0	15	412	381	1.081	38
14	Hunslet	34	19	0	15	477	466	1.024	38
15	Featherstone Rovers[a]	34	18	0	16	436	463	0.942	36
16	Barrow	34	18	0	16	383	408	0.939	36
17	Bradford Northern	34	15	1	18	345	347	0.994	31	Qualification for the Bottom 14 Championship
18	Huddersfield	34	15	0	19	368	419	0.878	30
19	Widnes	34	14	2	18	348	410	0.849	30
20	Whitehaven	34	14	1	19	308	402	0.766	29
21	Dewsbury	34	13	2	19	298	407	0.732	28
22	Salford	34	11	2	21	307	420	0.731	24
23	Liverpool City	34	10	2	22	248	519	0.478	22
24	Bramley	34	10	1	23	309	456	0.678	21
25	York	34	10	0	24	347	535	0.649	20
26	Batley	34	9	1	24	263	613	0.429	19
27	Keighley	34	9	0	25	303	592	0.512	18
28	Doncaster	34	9	0	25	296	616	0.481	18
29	Rochdale Hornets	34	7	1	26	293	493	0.594	15
30	Blackpool Borough	34	6	2	26	248	554	0.448	14

Source: ^[4]
(L) Won League Leader's Trophy
Notes:

1. Due to a miscalculation, some contemporary sources incorrectly published Featherstone's final league position as 16th, but the error was discovered before the play-offs took place.^[3]

Play-offs

	Round 1					Round 2					Semi-final					Championship final
	St. Helens		23
	Barrow		7
						St. Helens		24
						Hull Kingston Rovers		6
	Hull Kingston Rovers		18
	Oldham		14
											St. Helens		10
											Wakefield Trinity		5
	Wakefield Trinity		15
	Hull F.C.		9
						Wakefield Trinity		17
						Warrington		8
	Warrington		10
	Leigh		4
																St. Helens		7
																Halifax		15
	Castleford		18
	Hunslet		7
						Castleford		11
						Workington Town		3
	Swinton		2
	Workington Town		29
											Castleford		18
											Halifax		26
	Featherstone Rovers		15
	Wigan		8
						Featherstone Rovers		6
						Halifax		31
	Halifax		28
	Leeds		11

Final

22 May 1965

Halifax	15 – 7	St Helens
Tries: Burnett (2), Jackson Goals: James (3)	[5][6]	Tries: Killeen Goals: Killeen (2)

Station Road, Swinton Attendance: 20,776 Referee: D. S. Brown (Dewsbury) Player of the Match: Terry Fogerty

Halifax	Number	St Helens
	Teams
Ronald James	1	Frank Barrow
Duncan Jackson	2	Peter Harvey
John Burnett	3	Tom van Vollenhoven
Alan Kellett	4	Keith Northey
Johnny Freeman	5	Len Killeen
Barry Robinson	6	Alex Murphy
Paul Daley	7	Wilf Smith
Ken Roberts	8	John Tembey
Dave Harrison	9	Bob Dagnall
Jack Scroby	10	Cliff Watson
Terry Fogerty	11	Ray French
Colin Dixon	12	John Mantle
Charlie Renilson	13	Doug Laughton
	Subs
Bryan Todd	14	Kel Coslett
Hugh Duffy	15	John Warlow (for Tembey)
	0
Albert Fearnley	Coach	Joe Coan

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1964–65 Challenge Cup

Captained by player-coach Eric Ashton,^[7] Wigan beat Hunslet 20–16 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,016.

This was Wigan’s seventh Cup Final win in thirteen Final appearances.

To date, this was Hunslet’s last Challenge Cup Final appearance.^[8]

County cups

Main article: 1964–65 Lancashire Cup

Main article: 1964–65 Yorkshire Cup

St Helens beat Swinton 12–4 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Leeds 18–2 to win the Yorkshire Cup.