UK Elite Teams By Season : 2003

For this season, the Huddersfield Giants came in at the Salford City Reds expense. By the end of the season, Halifax RLFC were going down and Salford were coming back.

The League: The Bradford Bulls were too good and with 44 points were the winners. Leeds Rhinos (41), Wigan Warriors (40), and St Helens (31 points) were the other best teams. The London Broncos and Warrington Wolves would join them in the finals competition.

The Challenge Cup: Picking up the action in the quarter finals, Widnes Vikings 28-38 Bradford, Swinton Lions 12-70 Wigan, Leeds 41-18 Hull Sharks, Salford 6-54 Saints. Salford and Swinton the two none SL teams that got this far.

The semi-finals arrived with Leeds getting past Saints 33-26 and Wigan falling to Bradford 22-36. The cup final was close, Bradford taking it 22-20 over Leeds in front of 71,000 fans.

Braford score in the Grand Final (BBC)

The Finals: 

The two first round knock out matches were played, with Wigan eliminating Warrington 25-12 and Saints doing the same to London 24-6. The twp winners played each other in another eliminator game, Wigan proving too strong with a 40-24 victory. Then Bradford easily accounted for Leeds 30-14 to go straight into the grand final.



The final knock out game was between Leeds and Wigan, the latter just getting to the final courtesy of a 23-22 triumph. The grand final had Bradford going for the treble against Wigan. They achieved that with a 25-12 win.

Summary: As Bradford did the treble they were absolutely the team of the year with a maximum 60 points. Leeds (46), Wigan (44) and St Helens (34) made up the top four and were clearly the best sides by some distance.

	Rk	Team	Rnd	Fnl	CC	Total
	1	Bradford	20	20	20	60
	2	Leeds	18	12	16	46
	3	Wigan	16	16	12	44
	4	St Helens	14	8	12	34
	5	Hull FC	10		6	16
	6	London	12	4		16
	7	Warrington	11	4		15
	8	Widnes	8		6	14
	9	Castleford	9			9
	10	Huddersfield	7			7
	11	Wakefield	6			6
	11	Salford			6	6
	11	Swinton			6	6
	14	Halifax	5			5
		Total	136	64	84	284

The 2002 season can be seen by clicking here.
The 2004 season by be viewed by clicking here.