| Super League XV | |
| League: | Super League |
| Pixels: | 90px |
| Duration: | 27 Rounds |
| No Of Teams: | 14 |
| Lowest Attendance: | 2,330 Harlequins vs Catalans Dragons (14 February) |
| Avg Attendance: | 9,615[1] |
| Attendance: | 990,439 |
| Tv: | Sky Sports Nine Network Orange Sport America One Sport Klub |
| Season: | 2010 season |
| Season Champs: | Wigan Warriors 2nd Super League title 19th British title |
| Season Champ Name: | Champions |
| League Leaders: | Wigan Warriors |
| League Leaders Name: | League Leaders |
| Second Place: | St. Helens |
| Mvp Link: | Man of Steel AwardsMan of Steel |
| Top Scorer: | Pat Richards (388) |
| Top Goals: | Pat Richards (136) |
| Top Try Scorer: | Pat Richards (29) |
| Prevseason Link: | Super League XIV |
| Prevseason Year: | 2009 |
| Nextseason Link: | Super League XVI |
| Nextseason Year: | 2011 |
Engage Super League XV was the official name for the 2010 Super League season.[2] Fourteen teams competed over 27 rounds. The season officially kicked off on 5 February with the Crusaders versus the Leeds Rhinos on 29 January at Crusaders' new homeground at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. Crusaders halfback Michael Witt scored the first points of the season with a penalty goal and the Rhinos came away with the first competition points, posting a 34 to 6 victory.
The season came to a conclusion with Wigan Warriors beating St. Helens 22-10 in the Super League Grand Final on 2 October[3] with two tries for Martin Gleeson.
Super League XV was the second year of a licensed Super League. Under this system, promotion and relegation between Super League and National League One was abolished, and 14 teams were granted licences subject to certain criteria. All twelve teams from Super League XIII were given places, as well as former Super League team Salford City Reds and Crusaders.
Geographically, the vast majority of teams in Super League are based in the north of England, four teams – Warrington, St. Helens, Salford and Wigan – to the west of the Pennines in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and seven teams to the east in Yorkshire – Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers. Catalans Dragons are the only team based in France and are outside of the United Kingdom. Crusaders are the only team in Wales, and Harlequins are the only team to be based in a capital city (London).
| Reigning champions |
The RFL announced two new rule interpretations intended to increase player safety in the tackle:[4]
The 'club trained player rule' entered its third year and made a planned adjustment:[5]
See main article: 2010 Super League season results.
January
February
April
May
August
September
October
The play-offs commence following the conclusion of 27 round regular season. To decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams, Super League adopts the unique Super League play-off system. The finals will conclude with the 2010 Super League Grand Final.
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=17% | Date and Time (Local) | width=17% | Venue | width=11% | Referee | width=7% | Crowd | |
| QUALIFYING AND ELIMINATION FINALS | ||||||||
| St Helens R.F.C. | 28 - 12 | Warrington Wolves | 10 September, 8:00pm | GPW Recruitment Stadium | Richard Silverwood (Dewsbury) | 14,632 | ||
| Huddersfield Giants | 18 - 12 | Crusaders | 11 September, 3:45pm | Galpharm Stadium | Ben Thaler(Wakefield) | 5,869 | ||
| Hull | 4 - 21 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 11 September, 6:00pm | KC Stadium | Phil Bentham (Warrington) | 17,699 | ||
| Wigan Warriors | 26 - 27 | Leeds Rhinos | 12 September, 6:45pm | DW Stadium | Thierry Alibert (Toulouse) | 14,987 | ||
| PRELIMINARY SEMI-FINALS | ||||||||
| Wigan Warriors | 42 - 18 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 17 September, 8:00pm | DW Stadium | R Silverwood | 11,133 | ||
| Warrington Wolves | 22 - 34 | Huddersfield Giants | 18 September, 6:15pm | Halliwell Jones Stadium | P Bentham | 8,050 | ||
| SEMI-FINALS | ||||||||
| St Helens R.F.C. | 42 - 22 | Huddersfield Giants | 24 September, 8:00pm | GPW Recruitment Stadium | P Bentham | 13,510 | ||
| Leeds Rhinos | 6 - 26 | Wigan Warriors | 25 September, 5:15pm | Headingley Stadium | R Silverwood | 13,693 | ||
| GRAND FINAL | ||||||||
| St Helens R.F.C. | 10 - 22 | Wigan Warriors | 2 October, 6:00pm | Old Trafford, Manchester | R Silverwood | 71,526 | ||
Awards have been presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs:[9]
The following table lists all incidents that were reviewed by the Rugby Football League during Super League XV, which were later deemed "guilty" and resulted in disciplinary action. The offenses were graded, depending on severity, in alphabetical order, "A" being less severe than "B".
2010 was the second of a three-year broadcasting agreement between the RFL and BSkyB for Sky Sports to screen matches exclusively live within the United Kingdom.[12] The deal for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 season was worth in excess of £50 million.[13] [14]
Sky Sports' continued coverage in the UK sees two live matches broadcast each week - one on Friday at 7:30pm and another at 6pm on Saturday. Regular commentators are Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Highlights are shown on Boots N' All which is shown on Sky Sports and is rebroadcast on the Internet.
BBC Sport broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, usually presented by Harry Gration. The BBC have elected to broadcast this only to the North West, Yorkshire and North Midlands, North East and Cumbria, and East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on a Sunday. A national repeat is broadcast overnight during the week, the BBC Director of Sport, Richard Moseley, commented that this move was in response to the growing popularity and awareness of the sport, and the large number of requests from people who want to watch it elsewhere in the UK. End of season play-offs are shown across the whole country in a highlights package. Super League Show is available for streaming or downloaded using the BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Orange Sport TV in France shows every Catalans Dragons home match live and also some other matches which are broadcast in the UK live on Sky.
Internationally Super League is shown live on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Sky Sport (New Zealand), NTV+ (Russia), SportKlub (Eastern Europe).
2010 was the second year of a three-year deal in which the Nine Network in Australia show up to 70 live games from Super League over the season.[15] [16]
In the United States America One show live Super League games from 2010.[17]
Channel Nine started coverage of 2010 matches from 7 March at midnight (leading into Monday morning) due to coverage of the Winter Olympics they could not show the earlier matches.
Super League XV is covered extensively by BBC Local Radio:
The competition is also covered on commercial radio coverage:
All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.
ESPN3 has worldwide broadband rights.
Starting from 9 April 2009, all of the matches shown on Sky Sports are also available live online via Livestation everywhere in the world excluding the US, Puerto Rico, UK, Ireland, France, Monaco, Australia and New Zealand.[18]
In the United Kingdom, BBC London 94.9, BBC Radio Wales and Radio Warrington cover Harlequins, Crusaders (home games) and Warrington (home games) respectively.