Points Scoring in 1895-96 (a la Bilko)

[Ron Doran]

Scoring: Try - 3 points. Conversion - 2 points. Drop Goal - 4 points. Penalty - 3 points. Goal from Mark - 4 points.

My word - times have changed.That would smarten the game plans somewhat if we returned to Drop goal - 4 points!

[Kittwazzer]

Yet on Saturday 16 November 1895, the first ever Wigan v Saints derby ended 0-0!

[Warriors Forever]

Be shocking if 4point drop goals came back in

[cow yeds]

They were still playing to RU rules then and still 15 a side.

[cpwigan]

They were still playing to RU rules then and still 15 a side.

Exactly, no real POTBS either just mass rolling mauls.

[ancientnloyal]

Yup, all those stats come from a book by Ian Morrison (1986) but are not entirely accurate as records were often quite poor back then, especially getting accurate accounts from south wales. One could argue that Wigan started the Northern Union as we were charged by the RFU in 1894 for 'professionalism' as we paid a player to cover his loss of earnings. I am doing a lot of work now about all this and quite some interesting news articles from the time also.

Aspull used to give us a good punch up back then

[Ron Doran]

ancientnloyal - As a matter of interest what were the Aspull team called or nickname?

[ancientnloyal]

Aspull

They were quite a good team pre- Northern Union. Beta them in a West lancashire Cup at St Helens where a writer states that: "If these two clubs cannot meet and play a fair and manly game, it will be better not to come in contact at all. A miniature prize fight is about the best description of the match" lol

The player in question was from Salford called Myles (playing for us) who was paid 30/- a week but we denied the allegations which dragged on and pushed towards the NU after Wigans suspension. anyway... bedtime.