2015 Super League season

Super League XX
LeagueSuper League
Duration30 Rounds
Teams12
Lowest attendance2,712
Salford City Reds vs Wakefield Trinity Wildcats,
(15 March)
Average attendance10,019
Broadcast partnersSky Sports
BBC Sport
Fox Sports
beIN Sports
Fox Soccer Plus
Sport Klub
2015 season
ChampionsLeeds Rhinos
7th Super League
10th British title
League LeadersLeeds Rhinos
Runners-upWigan Warriors
Biggest home winWarrington Wolves 80-0 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (11 April)
Biggest away winWakefield Trinity Wildcats 20-58 Castleford Tigers (19 July)
Man of SteelEngland Zak Hardaker
Top point-scorer(s)England Luke Gale (247)
Top try-scorer(s)England Jermaine McGillvary (27)

The Super League XX, known as the First Utility Super League XX for sponsorship reasons,[1] 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.[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 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.

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 R.F.C. (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

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.


Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 Leeds Rhinos 23 16 1 6 758 477 +281 33 Super League Super 8s
2 St Helens 23 16 0 7 598 436 +162 32
3 Wigan Warriors 23 15 1 7 589 413 +176 31
4 Huddersfield Giants 23 13 2 8 538 394 +144 28
5 Castleford Tigers 23 13 0 10 547 505 +42 26
6 Warrington Wolves 23 12 0 11 552 456 +96 24
7 Hull F.C. 23 11 0 12 452 484 −32 22
8 Catalans Dragons 23 9 2 12 561 574 −13 20
9 Widnes Vikings 23 9 1 13 518 565 −47 19 The Qualifiers
10 Hull Kingston Rovers 23 9 0 14 534 646 −112 18
11 Salford City Reds 23 8 1 14 447 617 −170 17
12 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 23 3 0 20 402 929 −527 6
Source: Rugby League Project
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;

Super 8s

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.


Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 Leeds Rhinos (L, C) 30 20 1 9 944 650 +294 41 Semi-finals
2 Wigan Warriors 30 20 1 9 798 530 +268 41
3 Huddersfield Giants 30 18 2 10 750 534 +216 38
4 St Helens 30 19 0 11 766 624 +142 38
5 Castleford Tigers 30 16 0 14 731 746 −15 32
6 Warrington Wolves 30 15 0 15 714 636 +78 30
7 Catalans Dragons 30 13 2 15 739 770 −31 28
8 Hull F.C. 30 12 0 18 620 716 −96 24
Source: Rugby League Project
(C) Champions; (L) League Leaders' Shield Winners

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

Pos Team
 Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1 Hull Kingston Rovers 7 7 0 0 234 118 +116 14 2016 Super League
2 Widnes Vikings 7 5 0 2 232 70 +162 10
3 Salford City Reds 7 5 0 2 239 203 +36 10
4 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (W) 7 3 0 4 153 170 −17 6 Million Pound Game
5 Bradford Bulls 7 3 0 4 167 240 −73 6
6 Halifax 7 2 0 5 162 186 −24 4 2016 Championship
7 Sheffield Eagles 7 2 0 5 152 267 −115 4
8 Leigh Centurions 7 1 0 6 146 231 −85 2
Source: Rugby League Project
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
(W) Million Pound Game Winner

Playoffs

Super League

# 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

Million Pound Game

# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
Million Pound Game
F Wakefield Trinity 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
England Danny McGuire Leeds Rhinos
4 Australia Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons 23
5 England George Williams Wigan Warriors 21
6= England Marc Sneyd Hull F.C. 20
England Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves
8= England Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 18
England Kevin Brown Widnes Vikings
9= England Leroy Cudjoe Huddersfield Giants 16
Australia Rhys Hanbury Widnes Vikings

Top points scorers

Rank Player Club Points
1 England Luke Gale Castleford Tigers 247
2 England Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 225
3 Scotland Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 208
4 Australia Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons 202
5 Italy Josh Mantellato Hull Kingston Rovers 196
6 England Matty Smith Wigan Warriors 168
7 England Marc Sneyd Hull F.C. 156
8 Australia Luke Walsh Catalans Dragons 126
9 England Josh Griffin Salford Red Devils 116
10 England Jack Owens Widnes Vikings 114

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. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. 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.