1993–94 Rugby Football League season

The 1993–94 Rugby Football League season was the 99th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August 1993 until May 1994 for a number of titles, primarily the Stones Bitter Championship.

1993–94 Rugby Football League season
League	Championship
Duration	30 Rounds
Teams	First Division: 16 Second Division: 16
Broadcast partners	Sky Sports
First Division
Champions	Wigan
Premiership winners	Wigan
Man of Steel	Jonathan Davies
Promotion and relegation
Relegated to Second Division	Hull Kingston Rovers Leigh
Second Division
Champions	Workington Town
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from Second Division	Workington Town Doncaster
← 1992–93 1994–95 →

Season summary

• Stones Bitter League Champions: Wigan (15th title)
• Silk Cut Challenge Cup Winners: Wigan (26-16 v Leeds)
• Stones Bitter Premiership Trophy Winners: Wigan (24-20 v Castleford)
  • Harry Sunderland Trophy: Sam Panapa
• Regal Trophy Winners: Castleford (33-2 v Wigan)
• 2nd Division Champions: Workington Town

The 1994 Man of Steel Award for player of the season went to Warrington's Jonathan Davies.

This season saw the highest ever away victory in the league when Keighley Cougars beat Highfield 104-4 at the Rochdale Hornets ground on 23 April.

This was the first season since the 1905–06 inaugural season of the Lancashire County Cup and Yorkshire County Cup, except for the break for World War I and World War II (Lancashire Cup only), that the Lancashire Cup and Yorkshire Cup competitions had not taken place.

Tables

First Division

Wigan, Bradford Northern and Warrington all finished the season on top of the ladder with 46 points, but Wigan's superior points differential saw them crowned League Champions for the fifth consecutive time. This earned them the right to travel to Australia at the close of the season and contest the 1994 World Club Challenge. Wigan defeated the Brisbane Broncos and confirmed their position as the dominant rugby league club of the year.

After finishing in second last and last place respectively, Hull Kingston Rovers and Leigh were demoted to the Second Division.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Wigan (C)	30	23	0	7	780	403	+377	46	Qualification for the Premiership first round
2	Bradford Northern	30	23	0	7	784	555	+229	46
3	Warrington	30	23	0	7	628	430	+198	46
4	Castleford	30	19	1	10	787	466	+321	39
5	Halifax	30	17	2	11	682	581	+101	36
6	Sheffield Eagles	30	16	2	12	704	671	+33	34
7	Leeds	30	15	2	13	673	680	−7	32
8	St Helens	30	15	1	14	704	537	+167	31
9	Hull F.C.	30	14	2	14	536	530	+6	30
10	Widnes	30	14	0	16	523	642	−119	28
11	Featherstone Rovers	30	13	1	16	651	681	−30	27
12	Salford	30	11	0	19	554	650	−96	22
13	Oldham	30	10	1	19	552	651	−99	21
14	Wakefield Trinity	30	9	1	20	458	708	−250	19
15	Hull Kingston Rovers (R)	30	9	0	21	493	782	−289	18	Relegation to Second Division
16	Leigh (R)	30	2	1	27	370	912	−542	5

Source: ^[1]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Second Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Workington Town (C, P)	30	22	2	6	760	331	+429	46	Promoted to First Division Qualified for Divisional Premiership first round
2	Doncaster (P)	30	22	1	7	729	486	+243	45
3	London Crusaders	30	21	2	7	842	522	+320	44	Qualified for Divisional Premiership first round
4	Batley	30	21	1	8	707	426	+281	43
5	Huddersfield	30	20	0	10	661	518	+143	40
6	Keighley Cougars	30	19	1	10	856	472	+384	39
7	Dewsbury	30	18	1	11	766	448	+318	37
8	Rochdale Hornets	30	18	0	12	704	532	+172	36
9	Ryedale-York	30	17	1	12	662	516	+146	35
10	Whitehaven	30	14	4	12	571	437	+134	32
11	Barrow	30	13	1	16	581	743	−162	27
12	Swinton	30	11	0	19	528	681	−153	22
13	Carlisle	30	9	0	21	540	878	−338	18
14	Hunslet	30	3	1	26	445	814	−369	7
15	Bramley	30	3	0	27	376	957	−581	6
16	Highfield	30	1	1	28	267	1234	−967	3

Source: ^[1]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Challenge Cup

Main article: 1993–94 Challenge Cup

The Silk Cut Challenge Cup Final was played between Wigan and Leeds on a Saturday afternoon, 30 April 1994 at Wembley Stadium, before a crowd of 78,348. Bonnie Tyler lead the community singing at the match.^[2] Wigan's Martin Offiah opened the scoring with a ninety-plus metre try, and went on to win the game 26–16.

Regal Trophy

Main article: 1993–94 Regal Trophy

Premiership

Main article: 1993–94 Rugby League Premiership

Statistics

The following are the top points scorers in the 1993–94 season.^[3]

Most tries Player Team Tries Mark Johnson London Crusaders 43 St John Ellis Castleford 40 Paul Newlove Bradford Northern 37 Martin Offiah Wigan 37 Stuart Cocker Workington Town 35 Nick Pinkney Keighley Cougars 31 Mark Riley London Crusaders 30 Carl Hall Bradford Northern 27 Darren Moxon Batley 27 Jason Critchley Salford 25 John Bentley Halifax 25 Ellery Hanley Leeds 25

Most goals (including drop goals) Player Team Goals Frano Botica Wigan 188 John Gallagher London Crusaders 159 Deryck Fox Bradford Northern 148 Lee Crooks Castleford 137 Jonathan Davies Warrington 132 Mark Conway Dewsbury 130 Robert Turner Doncaster 123 Mark Aston Sheffield Eagles 123 Graham Holroyd Leeds 103 Dean Marwood Workington Town 100