The 2018 Super League season, known as the Betfred Super League XXIII for sponsor reasons, is the 23rd season of Super League and 124th season of rugby league in Britain. Twelve teams compete over 23 rounds, including the Magic Weekend, which took place at St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, after which the eight highest enter the Super League play-offs for a place in the Super League Grand Final. The four lowest teams then enter the qualifying play-offs, along with the four highest teams from the Championship, to determine which teams will play again in Super League XXIV.
Leeds Rhinos were the current champions, after beating Castleford Tigers 24-6 in last year's Final, in front of a sell out crowd of 72,827 at Old Trafford, to win a record 8th super league championship, but after a run of 10 games without a win, they must now play in The Qualifiers for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.
Super League XXIII features twelve teams, the fourth year in which this number has taken part. This is also the third year since promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the competition, seeing Hull KR promoted and Leigh Centurions relegated from last season.
This season also saw the first Super League game played outside Europe, as Wigan Warriors faced Hull at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Australia on Saturday 10 February 2018, which Wigan won, 24-10.
Video Super League XXIII
Teams
Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England. Five teams hail from the historic county of Lancashire, west of the Pennines: Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan, and Widnes. Six teams hail from the historic county of Yorkshire, east of the Pennines: Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull KR and Hull. Catalans Dragons, located in Perpignan, France, are the only team outside the North of England. St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, and Leeds Rhinos are the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.
Hull KR were promoted from the Championship after finishing in 2nd place in The Qualifiers for 2017 whilst Leigh were relegated to the Championship after losing the 2017 Million Pound Game to Catalans.
Maps Super League XXIII
Regular season results
Standings at the end of the regular season
Super 8s
Format
After 23 games the league table is frozen and the teams are split up into two of Super 8s. The teams finishing in the top eight go on to contest the Super League Super 8s to determine which teams would go through to the semi-final play-offs to compete for a place in the Grand Final. The teams retain the points scored so far and play each other one more, a total of seven further games per team.
Fixtures and results
The Super League Super 8s sees the top eight teams from the Super League play seven games each. Each teams points are carried over and after seven rounds the top four teams will contest the play off semi-finals with the team finishing first hosting the team in fourth, and the team finishing second hosting the third placed team; the winners of these semi-finals will contest the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Final standings
The Qualifiers
Format
The Qualifiers sees the bottom four teams from Super League join the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to zero and each team plays seven games each, playing every other team once. The teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the 2019 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team to determine who will take the final place to gain promotion to Super League XXIV. The loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.
Playoffs
Player statistics
Discipline
Attendances
- Statistics correct as of 27 July 2018 (Round 23)
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:
- Man of Steel:
- Coach of the year:
- Super League club of the year:
- Young player of the year:
- Foundation of the year:
- Rhino "Top Gun":
- Metre-maker:
- Top Try Scorer:
- Hit Man:
Media
Television
2018 is the second of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.
Sky Sports coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.
Regular commentators will be Eddie Hemmings 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, 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 month after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only. End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.
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:
- BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (National DAB Digital Radio) will carry two Super League commentaries each week on Thursday and Friday nights (both kick off 8pm); this will be through the 5 Live Rugby League programme which is presented by Dave Woods with a guest summariser (usually a Super League player or coach) and also includes interviews and debate..
- BBC Radio Humberside will have full match commentary of all Hull F.C. matches.
- BBC Radio Leeds carry commentaries featuring Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield.
- BBC Radio Manchester will carry commentary of Leigh, Wigan and Salford whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with BBC Radio Merseyside.
- BBC Radio Merseyside will have commentary on St Helens and Widnes matches whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with BBC Radio Manchester.
Commercial Radio Coverage:
- 102.4 Wish FM will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches.
- 107.2 Wire FM will carry commentaries on Warrington Home and Away.
- 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
External links
- Official Site
- BBC Rugby League
Source of article : Wikipedia
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