2017 League 1

2017 League 1
2017 League 1
League	League 1
Duration	22 matches
Teams	16
Highest attendance	8,546 (Toronto v Doncaster; Super 8s round 7)
Lowest attendance	65 (Oxford v South Wales Ironmen; Shield round 4)
2017 Season
Champions	Toronto Wolfpack
Runners-up	Barrow Raiders
Biggest home win	92–6 Keighley Cougars v Oxford; Regular season, round 15
Biggest away win	6–82 Doncaster v Toronto Wolfpack; Regular season, round 4
Top point-scorer(s)	Craig Hall; (Toronto Wolfpack) 436
Top try-scorer(s)	Liam Kay; (Toronto Wolfpack) 27
	← 2016 2018 →

The 2017 League 1, known as the Kingstone Press League 1 for sponsorship reasons, was a professional rugby league football competition played in England, Wales and Canada, the third tier of the sport for RFL affiliated clubs.

The 2017 League 1 season was expanded to 16 teams with the first professional Canadian team Toronto Wolfpack joining the British game.

The fixture list was first issued in October 2016 when the inclusion of York City Knights in the league was in doubt so the Knights were omitted from the fixture list.^[1] York's inclusion in the league was confirmed at the beginning of December and the fixture list was re-issued to include the club.^[2]

The format of the season was a regular season of 15 games where every team played each other once. After 15 games the top eight teams played each other once more in the League 1 Super 8s. The team finishing top of the Super 8s won automatic promotion to the 2018 Championship and named league champions for 2017. The teams finishing second to fifth met in two play-off semi-finals with the semi-final winners meeting in the promotion play-off final.

The league title was won by Toronto who only dropped three points all season (a defeat to York and a draw with Keighley in the Super 8s) and had a 100% winning record at home. The other promotion place was taken by Barrow Raiders who defeated Cumbrian rivals, Whitehaven in the promotion play-off final.

The clubs finishing in the lower half of the table after the regular season played in the League 1 Shield Super 8s with the top two clubs competing in the League 1 Shield final. The shield was won by Hunslet.

Teams

Locations of the 2017 RFL League 1 teams

Toronto

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Locations of the 2017 RFL League 1 teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity*
Barrow Raiders	Barrow, Cumbria	Craven Park	7,600
Coventry Bears	Coventry, West Midlands	Butts Park Arena	4,000
Doncaster	Doncaster, South Yorkshire	Keepmoat Stadium	15,231
Gloucestershire All Golds	Cheltenham, Gloucestershire	Prince of Wales Stadium	2,000
Hemel Stags	Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire	Pennine Way	2,000
Hunslet	Leeds, West Yorkshire	South Leeds Stadium	4,000
Keighley Cougars	Keighley, West Yorkshire	Cougar Park	7,800
London Skolars	Haringey, London	New River Stadium	2,000
Newcastle Thunder	Newcastle, Tyne and Wear	Kingston Park	10,200
North Wales Crusaders	Wrexham, Wales	Queensway Stadium	2,000
Oxford	Abingdon, Oxfordshire	Tilsley Park	2,000
South Wales Ironmen	Merthyr Tydfil, Wales	The Wern	4,500 to July 2017
South Wales Ironmen	Llanelli, Wales	Stebonheath Park	3,700 from July 2017^[3]
Toronto Wolfpack	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Lamport Stadium	9,600
Whitehaven	Whitehaven, Cumbria	Recreation Ground	7,500
Workington Town	Workington, Cumbria	Zebra Claims Stadium	10,000
York City Knights	York, North Yorkshire	Bootham Crescent	8,256

*capacity for rugby league games may differ from official stadium capacity.

Regular season

The regular season was dominated by new club, Toronto, who won all 15 of its games, amassing over 900 points while only conceding 150. The Cumbrian clubs, Whitehaven and Barrow finished second and third respectively. Whitehaven put a run of 12 straight wins together while Barrow who had been second for a long time lost two games towards the end of the season. York whose existence was in doubt before the season started finished fourth with Doncaster and Newcastle behind them. The last two places in the Super 8s were contested right up until the last fixture of the season with five clubs; Workington, Keighley, North Wales Crusaders, Hunslet and London Skolars all in contention. In the end the places were taken by Keighley and Workington while North Wales lost out on points difference.

Results

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Toronto Wolfpack	15	15	0	0	916	157	+759	30	League 1 Super 8s
2	Whitehaven	15	13	1	1	469	236	+233	27
3	Barrow Raiders	15	12	1	2	576	264	+312	25
4	York City Knights	15	10	0	5	487	305	+182	20
5	Doncaster	15	9	2	4	449	327	+122	20
6	Newcastle Thunder	15	9	0	6	459	328	+131	18
7	Keighley Cougars	15	7	1	7	590	387	+203	15
8	Workington Town	15	7	1	7	436	370	+66	15
9	North Wales Crusaders	15	7	1	7	366	422	−56	15	League 1 Shield
10	Hunslet	15	7	0	8	418	377	+41	14
11	London Skolars	15	6	1	8	367	453	−86	13
12	Gloucestershire All Golds	15	6	0	9	310	530	−220	12
13	Oxford	15	4	0	11	275	629	−354	8
14	Coventry Bears	15	2	0	13	287	615	−328	4
15	South Wales Ironmen	15	1	0	14	212	654	−442	2
16	Hemel Stags	15	1	0	14	229	792	−563	2

Source: [1]

Super 8s

The top eight teams after the regular season went forward to the Super 8s. Points gained in the regular season were carried forward to the Super 8s during which the clubs played each other once more. The top four clubs at entry to the Super 8s played four home fixtures and three away while the bottom four clubs had three home fixtures and four away.

After all seven rounds had been played, Toronto Wolfpack were named League Champions and were automatically promoted to the Championship for 2018. Barrow Raiders, Whitehaven, York City Knights and Newcastle Thunder made the play off semi-finals. Toronto secured the automatic promotion place after round six despite having suffered their first ever league defeat in round two at York and also dropping a point at Keighley in round three. Barrow and Whitehaven met in an all-Cumbrian play-off final with Barrow winning 10–6 to secure promotion to the Championship for 2018.

Results

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Toronto Wolfpack	22	20	1	1	1164	243	+921	41	Promoted as Champions
2	Barrow Raiders	22	18	1	3	731	381	+350	37	Play-off semi-finals
3	Whitehaven	22	17	1	4	656	349	+307	35
4	York City Knights	22	12	1	9	641	460	+181	25
5	Newcastle Thunder	22	12	0	10	595	521	+74	24
6	Doncaster	22	10	3	9	593	492	+101	23	Eliminated
7	Keighley Cougars	22	10	2	10	728	565	+163	22
8	Workington Town	22	9	1	12	532	621	−89	19

Source: [2]

Play-offs

Semi-finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
Home	Score	Away	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Barrow Raiders	60–0	Newcastle Thunder	24 September, 15:00	Craven Park	G Dolan	1,090
Whitehaven	21–20^[a]	York City Knights	24 September, 15:00	Recreation Ground	J McMullen	853
Source:^[4]

^ After extra time

Final

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
Home	Score	Away	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Barrow Raiders	10–6	Whitehaven	1 October, 15:00	Craven Park	S Mikalauskas	3,128
Source:^[5]

League 1 Shield

The teams finishing in the bottom eight at the end of the regular season competed for the League 1 Shield. Points gained in the regular season were carried forward to the Shield competition. The teams played each other once more and after the completion of the seven rounds the top two teams played for the League 1 Shield. The final was contested by Hunslet and London Skolars after both teams won six of their seven games in the qualifying section. Hunlset won the trophy beating London 32–12 in the final.

Results

Final standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Hunslet	22	13	0	9	696	470	+226	26	League 1 Shield final
2	London Skolars	22	12	1	9	625	529	+96	25	League 1 Shield final
3	North Wales Crusaders	22	11	1	10	556	574	−18	23
4	Gloucestershire All Golds	22	9	0	13	478	702	−224	18
5	Oxford	22	6	1	15	393	849	−456	13
6	Coventry Bears	22	5	0	17	472	837	−365	10
7	Hemel Stags	22	3	0	19	393	1033	−640	6
8	South Wales Ironmen	22	2	1	19	299	926	−627	5

Source: [3]

Final

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
Home	Score	Away	Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Hunslet	32–12	London Skolars	24 September, 15:00	South Leeds Stadium	N Bennett	516
Source:^[6]

Awards

At the Kingstone Press Championship & League 1 awards, Toronto captain Craig Hall was named League 1 player of the year with the young player award going to Lewis Young of Newcastle Thunder while Carl Forster of Whitehaven was named coach of the year.^[7] Hall was also the league's top goal kicker and points scorer kicking 170 goals and scoring 24 tries for a total of 436 points. His Toronto teammate, Liam Kay was the top try scorer with 27.

References

^ "The 2017 season begins here". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3042. 24 October 2016. p. 13.
^ "On the plane again! York City Knights' 2017 League One fixture list confirmed". The Press. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
^ "New owners for South Wales Ironmen". Wales Rugby League. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
^ "Kingstone Press League 1 Super 8s semi-finals". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3089. 25 September 2017. p. 39.
^ "Kingstone Press League 1 Promotion final". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3090. 2 October 2017. p. 39.
^ "Kingstone Press League 1 Shield final". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3089. 25 September 2017. p. 39.
^ "Lunt picks up major prize at Kingstone Press awards evening". League Publications. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.