2015 Super League season explained

Super League XX
League:Super League
Pixels:200px
Duration:30 Rounds
No Of Teams:12
Lowest Attendance:2,712
Salford City Reds vs Wakefield Trinity Wildcats,
(15 March)
Avg Attendance:10,019
Tv:Sky Sports
BBC Sport
Fox Sports
beIN Sports
Fox Soccer Plus
Sport Klub
Biggest Home Win:Warrington Wolves 80-0 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (11 April)
Biggest Away Win:Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 20-58 Castleford Tigers (19 July)
Season:2015 season
Season Champs:Leeds Rhinos
7th Super League
10th British title
Season Champ Name:Champions
League Leaders:Leeds Rhinos
League Leaders Name:League Leaders
Second Place:Wigan Warriors
Mvp Link:Man of Steel AwardsMan of Steel
Top Scorer: Luke Gale (247)
Top Try Scorer: Jermaine McGillvary (27)
Playoffs:Super League Play=offs (for top 8)
Super League Qualifying Play-Offs (for bottom 4 as well as top 4 of Championship
Playoffs Link:[1] [2]
Prevseason Link:Super League XIX
Prevseason Year:2014
Nextseason Link:Super League XXI
Nextseason Year:2016

The Super League XX, known as the First Utility Super League XX for sponsorship reasons,[3] was the 2015 season of Super League.

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.

Leeds Rhinos became only the 3rd team to complete the Treble after 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.[4]

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 Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers, 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.

TeamStadiumCapacityCity/Area
Castleford Tigers (2015 season)The Mend-O-Hose Jungle11,750Castleford, West Yorkshire
Catalans Dragons (2015 season)Stade Gilbert Brutus14,000Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Huddersfield Giants (2015 season)John Smith's Stadium24,544Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Hull F.C. (2015 season)Kingston Communications Stadium25,404Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Hull Kingston Rovers (2015 season)KC Lightstream Stadium12,225Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Leeds Rhinos (2015 season)Headingley Carnegie Stadium22,250Leeds, West Yorkshire
Salford Red Devils (2015 season)AJ Bell Stadium12,000Salford, Greater Manchester
St Helens R.F.C. (2015 season)Langtree Park18,000St. Helens, Merseyside
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2015 season)Rapid Solicitors Stadium11,000Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Warrington Wolves (2015 season)Halliwell Jones Stadium15,500Warrington, Cheshire
Widnes Vikings (2015 season)The Select Security Stadium13,500Widnes, Cheshire
Wigan Warriors (2015 season)DW Stadium25,138Wigan, Greater Manchester

Regular season table

The regular season sees teams play each other home and away, and one team for a third time at the Magic Weekend. After 23 games, the "Super 8's" begin and the league is split into two mini leagues. Teams finishing in the top 8 compete in the Super League Super 8s while teams finishing in the bottom four will join the top 4 teams from the Championship in The Qualifiers to determine who will play in next seasons Super League.

Super 8s

See main article: 2015 Super 8s.

Super League

The Super League Super 8's sees the top 8 Super League teams play 7 games each. Each team's points are carried over with top 4 teams entering the playoffs for the Super League Grand Final.

The Qualifiers

The Qualifiers sees the bottom 4 teams from Super League 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 gain qualification to Super League XXI in 2016. The teams finishing 4th and 5th playoff in the Million Pound Game for the final spot in next seasons Super League. The loser of the Million Pound Game along with the teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th will play in next seasons Championship

Playoffs

Super League

HomeScoreAwayMatch Information
width=17%Date and Time (Local)width=17%Venuewidth=11%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
SEMI-FINALS
SF1 Wigan Warriors32  - 8 Huddersfield Giants1 October, 20:00 BSTDW StadiumBen Thaler10,035
SF2 Leeds Rhinos20  - 13 St. Helens2 October, 20:00 BSTHeadingley Carnegie StadiumRobert Hicks17,192
GRAND FINAL
F Leeds Rhinos22  - 20 Wigan Warriors10 October, 18:00 BSTOld Trafford, ManchesterBen Thaler73,512

Million Pound Game

HomeScoreAwayMatch Information
width=17%Date and Time (Local)width=17%Venuewidth=11%Refereewidth=7%Attendance
Million Pound Game
F Wakefield Trinity Wildcats24  - 16 Bradford Bulls3 October, 14:50 BSTBelle VueR. Silverwood7,246

Player statistics

Top Try Scorers

RankPlayerClubTries
1 Jermaine McGillvary Huddersfield Giants27
2 Tom Lineham25
3 Joe Burgess23
4 Dominic Manfredi Wigan Warriors20
5 Ryan Hall Leeds Rhinos19
6= Denny Solomona Castleford Tigers18
Aaron Murphy
Justin Carney Castleford Tigers
Adam Swift St Helens
10 Joel Monaghan Warrington Wolves17

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos105
2 Luke Gale Castleford Tigers101
3 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons94
4 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants93
5 Matty Smith Wigan Warriors76

Top try assists

RankPlayerClubAssists
1 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants31
2= Luke Gale27
Leeds Rhinos
4 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons23
5 George Williams Wigan Warriors21
6= Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.20
Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves
8= Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos18
Kevin Brown Widnes Vikings
9= Leroy Cudjoe Huddersfield Giants16
Rhys Hanbury Widnes Vikings

Top points scorers

RankPlayerClubPoints
1 Luke Gale247
2 Leeds Rhinos225
3 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants208
4 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons202
5 Josh Mantellato Hull Kingston Rovers196
6 Matty Smith Wigan Warriors168
7 Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.156
8 Luke Walsh Catalans Dragons126
9 Josh Griffin Salford Red Devils116
10 Jack Owens Widnes Vikings114

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:[5]

Media

Television

2015 is the fourth year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season.[6] 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.[7]

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,[8] 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.[9] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.[10]

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:

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

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://media.therfl.co.uk/docs/Policy%20Review%20-%20September%202013.pdf
  2. Web site: Super League: Competition restructures confirmed. 31 May 2018. www.bbc.com.
  3. Web site: First Utility powers title sponsorship of Super League. Super League. 23 January 2014.
  4. Web site: Super League set to feature 12 teams from 2015. Super League. 23 January 2014.
  5. Web site: Man of Steel on SLTV. 6 October 2009. Super League. 6 October 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120825215346/http://www.superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=15588. 25 August 2012. dmy-all.
  6. Web site: Super League deal . Sky Sports. Sky Sports . 4 August 2011 . 4 August 2011.
  7. Web site: Rugby League live on Sky. Sky Sports. Sky Sports. 18 February 2012. 19 February 2012.
  8. Web site: BBC's Super League Show returns. BBC Sport. BBC Sport. 3 February 2012. 19 February 2012.
  9. Web site: BBC One - Super League Show. BBC. BBC. 19 February 2012.
  10. Web site: BBC Two - Rugby League: Super League Play-Offs - Highlights. BBC. 14 September 2013.