Jump to content

2018 Super League season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Super League XXIII
LeagueSuper League
Duration30 Rounds
Teams12
Highest attendance23,246
Leeds Rhinos Vs Castleford Tigers (23 March)
Lowest attendance2,248
Salford Red Devils Vs Widnes Vikings (15 June)
Average attendance8,547
Attendance1,166,425
Broadcast partnersSky Sports
BBC Sport
Fox League
beIN Sports
Fox Soccer Plus
Sport Klub
2018 season
ChampionsWigan Warriors
5th Super League Title
22nd British title
League Leaders ShieldSt. Helens
Runners-upWarrington Wolves
Biggest home winWarrington Wolves 80–10 Hull F.C. (30 August)
Biggest away winSalford Red Devils 10–60 St. Helens (26 April)
Man of SteelAustralia Ben Barba
Top point-scorer(s)England Danny Richardson (296)
Top try-scorer(s)Australia Ben Barba (28)
Promotion and relegation
Promoted from ChampionshipLondon Broncos
Relegated to ChampionshipWidnes Vikings

Super League XXIII, known as the Betfred Super League XXIII for sponsor reasons,[1] was the 23rd season of the Super League and 124th season of rugby league in Britain for 2018.

Wigan Warriors were crowned champions after beating Warrington Wolves 12-4 to win their 22nd league Championship.[2]

Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the Magic Weekend.

This season also saw the first Super League game played outside Europe, as Wigan Warriors faced Hull F.C. at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Australia on Saturday 10 February 2018, which Wigan won, 24–10.

St. Helens won the League Leaders Shield for a record 6th time. However, they failed to reach the Grand Final after losing their semi final 13-18 to Warrington Wolves.

Widnes Vikings were relegated to the Championship, after only 3 wins in the regular season and one win in The Qualifiers, while London Broncos were promoted after winning the Million Pound Game by beating Toronto Wolfpack 4–2.

Teams

[edit]

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 FC. 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.

class=notpageimage|
Locations of Super League XXIII teams
class=notpageimage|
Locations of Super League XXIII teams
class=notpageimage|
Locations of Super League XXIII teams in West Yorkshire


Team 2017 position Stadium Capacity City/Area
Castleford Tigers
(2018 season) 		1st (League Leaders/Runners-Up) The Mend-A-Hose Jungle 11,750 Castleford, West Yorkshire
Catalans Dragons
(2018 season) 		10th Stade Gilbert Brutus 14,000 Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Huddersfield Giants
(2018 season) 		8th John Smith's Stadium 24,544 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Hull
(2018 season) 		3rd KCOM Stadium 25,404 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Hull Kingston Rovers
(2018 season) 		Promoted Lightstream Stadium 12,225 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Leeds Rhinos
(2018 season) 		2nd (Champions) Headingley Carnegie Stadium 22,250 Leeds, West Yorkshire
Salford Red Devils
(2018 season) 		7th AJ Bell Stadium 12,000 Salford, Greater Manchester
St. Helens
(2018 season) 		4th Totally Wicked Stadium 18,000 St. Helens, Merseyside
Wakefield Trinity
(2018 season) 		5th Beaumont Legal Stadium 11,000 Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Warrington Wolves
(2018 season) 		9th Halliwell Jones Stadium 15,500 Warrington, Cheshire
Widnes Vikings
(2018 season) 		12th The Select Security Stadium 13,500 Widnes, Cheshire
Wigan Warriors
(2018 season) 		6th DW Stadium 25,138 Wigan, Greater Manchester

Regular season

[edit]
Main article: Super League XXIII results

Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 St. Helens 23 21 0 2 713 298 +415 42 Super League Super 8s
2 Wigan Warriors 23 16 0 7 573 345 +228 32
3 Castleford Tigers 23 15 1 7 567 480 +87 31
4 Warrington Wolves 23 14 1 8 531 410 +121 29
5 Huddersfield Giants 23 11 1 11 427 629 −202 23
6 Hull F.C. 23 11 0 12 534 544 −10 22
7 Wakefield Trinity 23 10 1 12 581 506 +75 21
8 Catalans Dragons 23 10 1 12 488 531 −43 21
9 Leeds Rhinos 23 8 2 13 441 527 −86 18 The Qualifiers
10 Hull KR 23 8 1 14 476 582 −106 17
11 Salford Red Devils 23 7 0 16 384 597 −213 14
12 Widnes Vikings 23 3 0 20 387 653 −266 6
Source: Rugby League Project

Super 8s

[edit]

Super League

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 St. Helens (L) 30 26 0 4 895 408 +487 52 Semi-finals
2 Wigan Warriors (C) 30 23 0 7 740 417 +323 46
3 Castleford Tigers 30 20 1 9 767 582 +185 41
4 Warrington Wolves 30 18 1 11 767 561 +206 37
5 Wakefield Trinity 30 13 1 16 747 696 +51 27
6 Huddersfield Giants 30 13 1 16 539 794 −255 27
7 Catalans Dragons 30 12 1 17 596 750 −154 25
8 Hull F.C. 30 11 0 19 615 787 −172 22
Source: Rugby League Project
(C) Champions; (L) League Leaders' Shield Winners

The Qualifiers

[edit]
Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 Salford Red Devils 7 5 0 2 218 75 +143 10 Super League XXIV
2 Leeds Rhinos 7 5 0 2 216 137 +79 10
3 Hull KR 7 5 0 2 197 162 +35 10
4 Toronto Wolfpack 7 5 0 2 136 118 +18 10 Million Pound Game
5 London Broncos (P) 7 4 0 3 161 164 −3 8
6 Toulouse Olympique 7 3 0 4 156 190 −34 6 2019 Championship
7 Widnes Vikings (R) 7 1 0 6 92 173 −81 2
8 Halifax 7 0 0 7 68 225 −157 0
Source: [1]
(P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Playoffs

[edit]
Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
Semi-finals
St. Helens 13–18 Warrington Wolves 4 October 2018, 19:45 Totally Wicked Stadium Robert Hicks 12,031
Wigan Warriors 14–0 Castleford Tigers 5 October 2018, 19:45 DW Stadium Ben Thaler 13,461

Grand Final

[edit]
Main article: 2018 Super League Grand Final

Final

[edit]
13 October 2018
6:00 pm BST
Wigan Warriors 12–4 Warrington Wolves
Tries: Manfredi (2), Davies
 Tries: Charnley
Old Trafford, Manchester
Attendance: 64,892
Referee: Robert Hicks
Player of the Match: Stefan Ratchford (Warrington)

Wigan Warriors

[edit]

Wigan finished 2nd in regular season and seven consecutive wins in the Super 8's saw them secure 2nd place in the table. A 14–0 victory over Castleford Tigers in the semi-final earned Wigan a place in their 10th Grand Final.

This is the first time that a team has won all 7 Super 8's games in a single season, and since this playoff format will be abandoned at the end of the 2018 season, will make this a unique historic feat achieved by Wigan.

Warrington Wolves

[edit]

Warrington finished 4th to earn an away trip to League Leaders Shield winners St. Helens in the semi-finals. Warrington won 18-13 with a late try by Tom Lineham. Warrington will be contesting their 4th Grand Final.

Match details

[edit]

This match was Shaun Wane's last game as Wigan coach before going to Scotland Rugby Union after 7 seasons as head coach of Wigan.

Teams

[edit]
Wigan Warriors Position Warrington Wolves
#1 Sam Tomkins Fullback #1 Stefan Ratchford
#21 Dominic Manfredi Wing #2 Tom Lineham
#4 Oliver Gildart Centre #3 Bryson Goodwin
#3 Dan Sarginson Centre #19 Toby King
#2 Tom Davies Wing #27 Josh Charnley
#6 George Williams Stand-off #6 Kevin Brown
#9 Thomas Leuluai Scrum-half #7 Tyrone Roberts
#25 Romain Navarette Prop #8 Chris Hill
#7 Sam Powell Hooker #9 Daryl Clark
#10 Ben Flower Prop #10 Mike Cooper
#40 Joe Greenwood Second-row #30 Bodene Thompson
#14 John Bateman Second-row #12 Jack Hughes
#13 Sean O'Loughlin Loose forward #34 Ben Westwood
#20 Morgan Escare Interchange #17 Joe Philbin
#19 Ryan Sutton Interchange #13 Ben Murdoch-Masila
#12 Liam Farrell Interchange #19 George King
#8 Tony Clubb Interchange #15 Declan Patton
Shaun Wane Coach Steve Price

Player statistics

[edit]

Discipline

[edit]


Attendances

[edit]
  • Statistics correct as of 27 July 2018 (Round 23)

End-of-season awards

[edit]

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

[edit]

Television

[edit]

2018 is the second of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.[4]

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 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 month 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

[edit]

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 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

[edit]
  1. ^ "First Utility powers title sponsorship of Super League". Super League. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Super League Grand Final: Wigan claim fifth title with victory over Warrington". BBC Sport. 13 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Man of Steel on SLTV". Super League. 6 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  4. ^ Sky Sports (31 January 2014). "Super League deal". Sky Sports. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  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.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2018_Super_League_season&oldid=1209990406"