2004–05 National Division Three North

2004-05 National Division Three North
Countries	England
Champions	Halifax
Runners-up	Macclesfield
Relegated	Bedford Athletic, Dudley Kingswinford, Rugby Lions
Attendance	39,276 (average 269 per match)
Highest attendance	700 (x2) Cleckheaton at home to Halifax on 22 January 2005 & Bradford & Bingley at home to Halifax on 16 April 2005
Lowest attendance	70 Blaydon at home to Kendal on 4 December 2004
Top point scorer	Tom Rhodes Bradford & Bingley 275 points
Top try scorer	Anzac Luteru Halifax 21 tries
← 2003-04 2005-06 →

The 2004–05 National Division Three North was the fifth season (seventeenth overall) of the fourth division (north) of the English domestic rugby union competition using the name National Division Three North. New teams to the division included Rugby Lions who were relegated from the 2003–04 National Division Two while Bedford Athletic were promoted as champions of Midlands Division 1 along with Bradford & Bingley (champions) and Cleckheaton (playoffs) who both came up from North Division 1. The season would also see the introduction of a new points system with 4 points being awarded for a win, 2 points being awarded for a draw (replacing the old system of 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw) with the addition of a bonus point being given for scoring 4 or more tries as well as a bonus point given if you manage to lose a game within 7 points of the victorious team. In terms of promotion the league champions would go straight up into National Division Two while the runners up would have a one-game playoff against the runners up from National Division Three South (at the home ground of the club with the superior league record) for the final promotion place.

Halifax would finish as runaway champions of the league, ending up 14 points clear of nearest rivals Macclesfield (even with a cancelled game against Blaydon) and gaining promotion to the 2005–06 National Division Two. Runners up Macclesfield would fail to join Halifax as they lost their playoff game away to 2004–05 National Division Three South runners up Redruth in the north-south playoff in front of a huge crowd of 4,000 at the Recreation Ground. Although Halifax won the league with plenty to spare the rest of the division was fairly closely contested with only 3 wins separating 4th placed Fylde from 12th placed Rugby Lions. In terms of relegation newly promoted Bedford Athletic went down first followed by Dudley Kingswinford. The final spot was taken by Rugby Lions suffering their third successive relegation. Rugby Lions would actually have stayed up had in not been for a five-point penalty given for them fielding too many foreign players in a home game against Bedford Athletic. All three relegated teams would drop down to Midlands Division 1 for the following season. Although Rugby Lions were punished from fielding too many overseas players, other teams benefited immensely from their foreign contingent (particularly Halifax and Bradford & Bingley) with six of the top ten try scorers hailing from outside England.

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