The 1990–91
Rugby Football League
The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...
season was the 96th ever season of professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
football in Britain. Fourteen teams competed from August, 1990 until May, 1991 for the
Stones Bitter Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this sys ...
, Premiership Trophy and
Silk Cut
Silk Cut is a British brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Gallaher Group. The packaging is characterised by a distinctive stark white packet with the brand name in a purple, blue, red, silver, white or green square.
History ...
Challenge Cup
The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...
.
Season summary
Overview
*
First Division:
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
*
Second Division:
Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
*
Premiership:
Hull F.C.
*
Divisional Premiership:
Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
*
Challenge Cup
The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...
:
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
*
League Cup:
Warrington
Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...
Summary
Bradford Northern
The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league.
The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...
player Simon Tuffs tested positive for
amphetamines
Substituted amphetamines, or simply amphetamines, are a chemical class, class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative (chemistry), derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substitution reacti ...
, and was the first time a failed drugs test involving a rugby league player had been made public since random testing had been introduced by the RFL in 1987. He received a two-year suspension, but the ban was lifted following an appeal.
Due to a fixture backlog,
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
, who were challenging for the league championship title, were forced to play their final eight league games within 19 days, a task described as "Mission Impossible" by coach
John Monie. The club managed to win seven out of eight games to retain the title.
In April 1991, clubs approved a new three division format to be used from the start of the
1991–92 season. The Championship would remain a 14 team league, while the Second Division would consist of eight teams and the new Third Division would have 14 teams.
League tables
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
retained their title this season, relegated were
Oldham
Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...
,
Sheffield Eagles
The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They play home games at the Olympic Legacy Park and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league.
Sheffield's on ...
and
Rochdale Hornets
The Rochdale Hornets are a professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, competing in the League 1, the third tier of European rugby league. The Rochdale Hornets are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs tha ...
, to date this is Rochdale Hornets's last appearance in the top flight.
First Division
Second Division
Kangaroo Tour
The months of October and November also saw the appearance of the
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
team in England on their 1990
Kangaroo Tour. Other than the three test
Ashes series against
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
(won 2–1 by Australia), The Kangaroos played and won matches against 8 Championship teams (St Helens, Wakefield Trinity, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington, Castleford, Hull and Widnes), 1 Second Division side (Halifax) and one county side (
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
). The team was coached by
1973
Events January
* January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...
tourist and
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...
tour captain
Bob Fulton
Robert Fulton (1 December 1947 – 23 May 2021), also nicknamed "Bozo", was an Australian rugby league footballer, coach and later commentator. Fulton played, coached, selected for and commentated on the game with great success at the highest ...
and was captained by
Mal Meninga
Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the game's history. He enjoyed a long ca ...
who was making his third Kangaroo Tour as a player.
Penrith Panthers
The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...
halfback
Greg Alexander (who played most of the tour as the backup fullback to
Gary Belcher), was the leading point scorer on the tour with 156 from 14 tries and 50 goals. Like
Terry Lamb on the
1986 tour, Alexander was selected for every match on the tour, but he did not get off the bench in the 2nd Ashes Test at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...
.
Cronulla-Sutherland outside back
Andrew Ettingshausen
Andrew "ET" Ettingshausen (born 29 October 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks ...
was the leading try scorer with 15 including hat-tricks against St Helens in the tour opener and Wigan a week later.
Great Britain's win in the first test at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...
was the Lions first test win on home soil over Australia since 5 November 1978. It was the Kangaroos only loss of the tour. Wembley also saw the largest ever rugby league test attendance in Great Britain with 54,569 on hand. This beat the opening test of the 1986 Tour at Old Trafford that had attracted a crowd of 50,523.
References
Sources
1990–91 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rugby Football League season, 1990-91
1990 in English rugby league
1991 in English rugby league
Rugby Football League seasons