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.
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.
Second Division
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. Wigan's Martin Offiah opened the scoring with a ninety-plus metre try, and went on to win the game 26–16.
Regal Trophy
Premiership
Statistics The following are the top points scorers in the 1993–94 season.
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
References
Sources 1993–94 Rugby Football League season at rlhalloffame.org.uk 1993–94 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com Wigan's record Cup run at news.bbc.co.uk Great Britain Competitions 1993-1994 at hunterlink.net.au Championship 1993/94 at rugbyleagueproject.org