Huddersfield 37-3 St Helens — 1914/15 Challenge Cup Final

Watersheddings, Oldham · Attendance: 8,000

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

1914/15 Challenge Cup Final: Huddersfield 37-3 St Helens, at Watersheddings, Oldham.

Sourcing caveat: Individual Huddersfield try scorers and both teams' goal-kickers/referee could not be confirmed; only the total of 9 Huddersfield tries and St Helens' single scorer (Daniels) are documented. St Helens' full line-up (added on a fourth research pass) was located on the Wikipedia article already cited above as a numbered 1-13 list, with Sam Daniels' entry itself annotated as this match's try scorer — corroborating that it is genuinely this final's team sheet. The numbers are not known to be genuine period shirt numbers (squad numbering wasn't standard until the 1930s) so are left blank here per this site's numbering convention for the era, with positions inferred from the listing order (fullback; wing; centre; centre; wing; stand-off; scrum-half; six forwards). Huddersfield's own line-up for this specific final could not be found in full — a team photograph exists captioned with player names from that season's overall trophy haul, but it isn't confirmed as this specific match's starting thirteen, so it has been left out rather than presented as this final's line-up. A follow-up pass (Aug 2026) did confirm two individual Huddersfield squad members via their own biographies rather than that photograph: the Huddersfield Rugby League Heritage site's profile of Stanley Moorhouse explicitly states he played left wing and scored a try in this specific 37-3 win over St Helens, and Douglas Clark's own Wikipedia biography explicitly states he played (as a forward) in this same 37-3 victory. These two are recorded as a partial team1_lineup below; the rest of Huddersfield's thirteen remains unconfirmed for this specific match.

Scorers

HuddersfieldNo scorers recorded.
St HelensTries: Sam Daniels

Teams

HuddersfieldSt Helens
Stanley MoorhouseLeft wingBert Roberts
Douglas ClarkForwardTom Barton

Match officials

Referee—

Match report

Huddersfield routed St Helens 37-3 at Watersheddings, Oldham on 1 May 1915, in the last Challenge Cup Final before the competition was suspended for the remainder of the First World War. It was Huddersfield's second Challenge Cup win in as many final appearances (having beaten Warrington in 1913), part of the club's celebrated “Team of All Talents” era, and their nine tries in the match set a Challenge Cup Final record for tries by one team that stood for decades. St Helens' lone response came through Sam Daniels. The build-up to the final was overshadowed by unrest within the St Helens camp, whose players reportedly refused to take the field before the final unless promised bonuses were paid by the club committee. The Rugby League Challenge Cup is rugby league's oldest and most prestigious knockout competition, first contested in 1896/97 under what was then the Northern Union. Its history has been interrupted only by the two World Wars, with four editions lost between 1915/16 and 1918/19 and one more in 1939/40; the finals played either side of those gaps, and during the Second World War itself, were sometimes contested as regional or two-legged fixtures under wartime emergency arrangements rather than the usual single showpiece match. For much of the competition's early history the final rotated around northern club and representative grounds such as Headingley, Fartown, Central Park and the Athletic Ground, Rochdale, before Wembley Stadium became the final's permanent home from 1928/29 onward (with a short break during Wembley's 2000-2007 reconstruction, when finals were staged at Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium instead). This was the 19th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Huddersfield,” the 2nd Challenge Cup title for the club.

Round by round

Round 1

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Barrow 15–8 Wakefield TrinityLittle Park—1915-02-27
Bradford Northern 2–0 BatleyBirch Lane—1915-02-27
Brighouse Rangers 0–26 SalfordLane Head—1915-02-27
Broughton Moor 6–3 WardleyWheater's—1915-02-27
Broughton Rangers 14–4 RuncornThe Cliff—1915-02-27
Featherstone Rovers 0–6 St HelensPost Office Road—1915-02-27
Halifax 6–2 BramleyThrum Hall—1915-02-27
Hull Kingston Rovers 10–0 HunsletCraven Street—1915-02-27
Hull FC 23–2 DewsburyThe Boulevard—1915-02-27
Keighley 8–5 AskamLawkholme Lane—1915-02-27
Leigh 0–3 HuddersfieldMather Lane—1915-02-27
Oldham 5–10 WiganWatersheddings—1915-02-27
Warrington 5–4 LeedsWilderspool—1915-02-27
Widnes 13–4 St Helens RecsLowerhouse Lane—1915-02-27
Wigan Highfield 0–2 SwintonTunstall Lane—1915-02-27
York 0–0 Rochdale HornetsWigginton Road—1915-02-27
Rochdale Hornets 19–2 YorkAthletic Grounds—1915-03-02

Round 2

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Bradford Northern 3–11 WiganBirch Lane—1915-03-13
Broughton Rangers 8–5 Hull Kingston RoversThe Cliff—1915-03-13
Hull FC 22–0 HalifaxThe Boulevard—1915-03-13
Keighley 22–8 BarrowLawkholme Lane—1915-03-13
Rochdale Hornets 75–13 Broughton MoorAthletic Grounds—1915-03-13
Swinton 0–5 St HelensChorley Road—1915-03-13
Warrington 2–11 SalfordWilderspool—1915-03-13
Widnes 3–29 HuddersfieldLowerhouse Lane—1915-03-13

Round 3

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Huddersfield 33–0 SalfordFartown—1915-03-27
Keighley 2–3 St HelensLawkholme Lane—1915-03-27
Rochdale Hornets 11–0 Hull FCAthletic Grounds—1915-03-27
Wigan 11–5 Broughton RangersCentral Park—1915-03-27

Semi-Finals

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Huddersfield 27–2 WiganParkside, St Helens180001915-04-10
St Helens 5–5 Rochdale HornetsWilderspool, Warrington100001915-04-10
St Helens 9–2 Rochdale HornetsCentral Park, Wigan100001915-04-24

Final

ResultVenueAttendanceDate
Huddersfield 37–3 St HelensWatersheddings, Oldham80001915-05-01

Early rounds feature amateur and community clubs alongside professional ones; team names are linked only where this site has a team page for that exact club, matching the same safety-first approach used for the Final's own results table.

Sources

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