Super League XX

Super League XX
League Super League
Duration 23 Rounds (Followed by up-to 9 rounds of relevant playoffs)
Number of teams 12
Highest attendance 40,871 (Magic Weekend Day 1, 30 May)
Lowest attendance 2,712

Salford City Reds vs
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats,
15 March

Average attendance 10,019
Broadcast partners United Kingdom Sky Sports
United Kingdom BBC Sport
United Kingdom SLTV
Australia Fox Sports (Australia)
France beIN Sport
United States Fox Soccer Plus
Europe Sport Klub
2015 season
Champions Leeds Rhinos
7th Super League
10th English title
League Leaders Leeds Rhinos
Runners-up Wigan Warriors
Biggest home win Warrington Wolves 80-0 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (Saturday 11 April 2015)
Biggest away win Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 20-58 Castleford Tigers (Sunday 19 July 2015)
Man of Steel Zak Hardaker
Top point-scorer(s) Josh Mantellato (196)
Top try-scorer(s) Jermaine McGillvary (27)
< 2014 Seasons 2016 >

The 2015 Super League season, known as the First Utility Super League XX for sponsorship reasons,[1] was the 20th rugby league season since the Super League was introduced in 1996. Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the Magic Weekend, after which the eight highest entered the play-offs for a place in the Grand Final. The four lowest teams entered the Super League Qualifying Play-off, along with the four highest Championship teams, to decide which will play in Super League XXI. The regular season started in February 2015 and culminated with the grand final on 10 October.

Leeds Rhinos became only the 3rd team to complete the treble after narrowly defeating Wigan Warriors 22-20 in front of a new record attendance of 73,512 at Old Trafford to win their 7th Super League title.

Teams

Super League XX is the first year since 2008 in which there is a promotion and relegation with the Championship. Super League has been reduced to 12 teams as part of the re-structuring of Super League and the Championship.[2]

Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England: five teams, Warrington, St Helens, Salford, Wigan and Widnes, west of the Pennines in the historic county of Lancashire and six teams, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Leeds, Castleford, Hull and Hull KR, to the east in Yorkshire. Catalans Dragons, in Perpignan, France, are the only team outside the North of England. With Bradford Bulls and London Broncos being relegated last season, this leaves St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos as the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.

Team Stadium Capacity City/Area
Castleford Tigers (2015 season) The Mend-O-Hose Jungle 11,750 Castleford, West Yorkshire
Catalans Dragons (2015 season) Stade Gilbert Brutus 14,000 Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Huddersfield Giants (2015 season) John Smith's Stadium 24,544 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Hull F.C. (2015 season) Kingston Communications Stadium 25,404 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Hull Kingston Rovers (2015 season) KC Lightstream Stadium 12,225 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Leeds Rhinos (2015 season) Headingley Carnegie Stadium 22,250 Leeds, West Yorkshire
Salford Red Devils (2015 season) AJ Bell Stadium 12,000 Salford, Greater Manchester
St Helens RLFC (2015 season) Langtree Park 18,000 St Helens, Merseyside
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2015 season) Rapid Solicitors Stadium 11,000 Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Warrington Wolves (2015 season) Halliwell Jones Stadium 15,500 Warrington, Cheshire
Widnes Vikings (2015 season) The Select Security Stadium 13,500 Widnes, Cheshire
Wigan Warriors (2015 season) DW Stadium 25,138 Wigan, Greater Manchester

Standings

Regular Season

The 2015 Super League season sees teams play each other home and away, and one team for a third time at the Magic Weekend. After 23 games, the league table is frozen and the teams are split up into "Super 8's". Teams finishing in the top 8 will play 7 more games each as they compete in the Super League Super 8 group for a place in the Grand Final. Teams finishing in the bottom four will join the top 4 teams from the Championship in The Qualifiers Super 8 group and also play 7 more games each for a place in the 2016 Super League competition.

Pos Club P W D L For Ag Pts Qualification
1 Leeds Rhinos 23 16 1 6 758 477 33 Super League Super 8s
2 St Helens 23 16 0 7 598 436 32
3 Wigan Warriors 23 15 1 7 589 413 31
4 Huddersfield Giants 23 13 2 8 538 394 28
5 Castleford Tigers 23 13 0 10 547 505 26
6 Warrington Wolves 23 12 0 11 552 456 24
7 Hull FC 23 11 0 12 452 484 22
8 Catalans Dragons 23 9 2 12 561 574 20
9 Widnes Vikings 23 9 1 13 518 565 19 The Qualifiers
10 Hull KR 23 9 0 14 534 646 18
11 Salford Red Devils 23 8 1 14 447 617 17
12 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 23 3 0 20 402 929 6

Super 8's

The Super League Super 8's sees the top 8 teams from the Super League play 7 games each. Each teams points are carried over and after 7 additional games the top 4 teams will contest the play off semi-finals with the team in 1st hosting the team in 4th, and the team finishing 2nd hosting the 3rd placed team; the winners of these semi-finals will contest the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford. Teams finishing 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th after the 7 additional games will take no further part in the 2015 season but will play in Super League again in 2016.

Pos Club P W D L For Ag Pts Qualification
1 Leeds Rhinos 30 20 1 9 944 650 41 Playoffs
2 Wigan Warriors 30 20 1 9 798 530 41
3 Huddersfield Giants 30 18 2 10 750 534 38
4 St Helens 30 19 0 11 766 624 38
5 Castleford Tigers 30 16 0 14 731 746 32
6 Warrington Wolves 30 15 0 15 714 636 30
7 Catalans Dragons 30 13 2 15 739 770 28
8 Hull FC 30 12 0 18 620 716 24
# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
SEMI-FINALS
SF1 Wigan Warriors 32 8 Huddersfield Giants 1 October, 20:00 BST DW Stadium Ben Thaler 10,035
SF2 Leeds Rhinos 20 13 St Helens 2 October, 20:00 BST Headingley Carnegie Stadium Robert Hicks 17,192
GRAND FINAL
F Leeds Rhinos 22 20 Wigan Warriors 10 October, 18:00 BST Old Trafford, Manchester Ben Thaler 73,512

The Qualifiers Super 8's sees the bottom 4 teams from Super League table join the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to 0 and each team plays 7 games each, playing every other team once. After 7 games each the teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the 2016 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team which will earn the winner a place in the 2016 Super League; the loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.

Pos Club P W D L For Ag Pts Qualification
1 Hull Kingston Rovers 7 7 0 0 234 118 14 Super League XXI
2 Widnes Vikings 7 5 0 2 232 70 10
3 Salford Red Devils 7 5 0 2 239 203 10
4 Wakefield Wildcats 7 3 0 4 153 170 6 Million Pound Game
5 Bradford Bulls 7 3 0 4 167 240 6
6 Halifax 7 2 0 5 162 186 4 2016 Championship
7 Sheffield Eagles 7 2 0 5 152 267 4
8 Leigh Centurions 7 1 0 6 146 231 2
# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
Million Pound Game
F Wakefield Wildcats 24 16 Bradford Bulls 3 October, 14:50 BST Belle Vue R. Silverwood 7,246

Player Statistics

Top try assists

Rank Player Club Assists
1 Scotland Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 31
2 England Luke Gale Castleford Tigers 27
3 England Danny McGuire Leeds Rhinos 26
4 Australia Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons 23
5= England George Williams Wigan Warriors 20
England Marc Sneyd Hull FC
7 England Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves 18
8 England Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 17
9= England Leroy Cudjoe Huddersfield Giants 16
Australia Todd Carney Catalans Dragons

Top points scorers

Rank Player Club Points
1 Italy Josh Mantellato Hull KR 196
2 England Luke Gale Castleford Tigers 177
3 England Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 166
4 Australia Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons 162
5 Scotland Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 160
6 England Matty Smith Wigan Warriors 157
7 England Josh Griffin Salford Red Devils 120
8 England Marc Sneyd Hull FC 116
9 England Jack Owens Widnes Vikings 114
10 England Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves 104

End of season awards

Awards are presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs in the week leading up to the Super League Grand Final:[3]

Media

Television

2015 is the fourth year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season.[4] The deal which runs until 2016 is worth £90million.

Sky Sports coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.[5]

Regular commentators will be Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights on Sunday nights on Super League - Full Time at 10 p.m.

BBC Sport will broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme, the first to the BBC North West, Yorkshire, North East and Cumbria, and East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35 p.m. on BBC One,[6] while a repeat showing is shown nationally on BBC Two on Tuesday afternoons at 1.30 p.m. The Super League Show is also available for one week after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only.[7] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.[8]

Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Sky Sport (New Zealand), TV 2 Sport (Norway), Fox Soccer Plus (United States), Fox Sports (Australia) and Sportsnet World (Canada).

Radio

BBC Coverage:

Commercial Radio Coverage:

  • 102.4 Wish FM will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches.
  • 107.2 Wire FM will carry commentaries on Warrington and Widnes matches.
  • Radio Yorkshire will launch in March carrying Super League commentaries.
  • Radio Warrington (Online Station) all Warrington home games and some away games.
  • Grand Sud FM covers every Catalans Dragons Home Match (in French).
  • Radio France Bleu Roussillon covers every Catalans Dragons Away Match (in French).

All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.

References

  1. "First Utility powers title sponsorship of Super League". Super League. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  2. "Super League set to feature 12 teams from 2015". Super League. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  3. "Man of Steel on SLTV". Super League. 6 October 2009. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  4. Sky Sports (4 August 2011). "Super League deal" (PDF). Sky Sports. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  5. Sky Sports (18 February 2012). "Rugby League live on Sky". Sky Sports. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  6. BBC Sport (3 February 2012). "BBC's Super League Show returns". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  7. BBC. "BBC One - Super League Show". BBC. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  8. "BBC Two - Rugby League: Super League Play-Offs - Highlights". BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
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