The 2021 Super League Grand Final was the 24th official Grand Final and championship-deciding game of

Super League XXVI Super League XXVI, known as the Betfred Super League XXVI for sponsorship reasons, was the 26th season of the Super League and 127th season of rugby league in Great Britain. The 2021 season was originally scheduled to begin on 11 March 2021, ho ...

. The game was contested between

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

and St Helens at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

Background

The two finalists finished first and second in the regular season with Catalans winning 19 of their 23 games and St Helens 16 out of 21. These league positions earned both clubs the chance to go to the second (semi-final) round of the play-offs and home advantage in their semi-final matches.

Route to the final

Catalans Dragons

Catalans finished first in the regular season, to claim their first

League Leaders Shield The League Leaders' Shield is a shield awarded to the team finishing the season top of Super League in the sport of rugby league football. Currently, and for most of Super League's history, the championship is decided on the basis of a play-off se ...

since entering the competition in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. In their semi-final, they played

Hull KR Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

, the lowest ranked winning team from the elimination finals. Catalans won the match 28–10, with tries from

Benjamin Garcia Benjamin Garcia (born 5 April 1993) is a French professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward and for the Catalans Dragons in the Super League and France at international level. He spent time with the Penrith Panthers as part ...

Josh Drinkwater Joshua Drinkwater (born 15 June 1992) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Warrington Wolves in the Betfred Super League. He has previously played for the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the West ...

, Arthur Mourgue,

Fouad Yaha Fouad Yaha (born 19 August 1996) is a French professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Catalans Dragons in the Super League and France national rugby league team, France at international level. He has also featured for Hull K ...

and Joe Chan to reach their first ever grand final, and becoming the first non English team in super league era to do so.

St Helens

Reigning and defending champions St Helens finished second in the regular season and faced

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

(the highest ranked team to win an elimination final), in their semi-final. St Helens won the match 36–8, to reach the grand final for a 3rd consecutive year, a record 13th time.

Match details

Notes

References

Super League Grand Finals Rugby league in England

Super League Grand Final The Super League Grand Final is the championship-deciding game of rugby league's Super League competition. It is played between two teams who have qualified via the Super League Play-Off series. The winning team receives the Super League Trop ...

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

St Helens R.F.C. matches {{Improve categories, date=October 2021