The 2003 Super League Grand Final was the 6th official Grand Final conclusive and premiership-deciding match of

Super League VIII Tetley's Super League VIII was the official name for the year 2003's Super League championship season, the 109th season of top-level professional rugby league held in Britain, and the eighth championship run by Super League. The season culminat ...

. Held on Saturday 18 October 2003 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 ...

, Manchester, the game was played between

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

and

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

. The match was refereed Karl Kirkpatrick and watched by a crowd of 65,537, with Bradford winning 25 - 12.

Background

Route to the Final

Bradford Bulls

Bradford finished top of the table so qualified straight to the play-off semi-final. They were drawn at home to

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 ...

and won 30–14 to qualify for the grand final.

Wigan Warriors

Wigan finished third in the table so had to play their way through three rounds of play-off matches. In the elimination play-off they beat Warrington 25–12, the semi-final saw them beat St Helens 40–24 and then in the elimination final they beat Leeds Rhinos 23–22 to set up the final against Bradford.

Match details

World Club Challenge

Having won the championship, the Bradford Bulls were to play

2003 NRL season The 2003 NRL premiership was the 96th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the sixth run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen teams competed, with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles returning in place of their failed joint ...

premiers, the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

in the following February's

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

References

2003 Super League Grand Final at rlphotos.com
{{2003 in rugby league Super League Grand Finals Wigan Warriors matches Bradford Bulls matches

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 ...