The 2015 NRL season was the 108th season of professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

in Australia and the 18th season of the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with the annual

Auckland Nines The NRL Nines is a rugby league nines competition, normally held during the NRL preseason each year. It was initially held in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2017 before going on hiatus. Returning in 2020, hosting duties moved to Perth ...

, which was followed by the Rugby League All Stars Match, returning after a one-year hiatus, and the

World Club Series The World Club Series was an annual rugby league football competition played between clubs from the NRL (Australia and New Zealand) and the Super League (England and France). The competition culminated with the World Club Challenge, a single ma ...

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

won their first premiership in only the second Grand Final to be decided in extra time and their second ever grand final.

Season launch and advertising

The season launched with a gala event at the

Queens Wharf, Auckland Queens Wharf is a concrete wharf in Auckland, New Zealand, that continues off Queen Street (the main street in central Auckland). It was previously owned and used by Ports of Auckland. In 2010 it was sold to the Auckland Regional Council and ...

on 29 January attended by a selection of the code's stars including

Shaun Johnson Shaun Johnson (born 9 September 1990) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League (NRL) and the New Zealand Kiwis at international level. He has played pr ...

and

Greg Inglis Gregory Paul Inglis (born 15 January 1987), also known by the nickname of "G.I.", is a retired Australian professional rugby league footballer. His regular playing positions were Centre, Fullback, Five-eighth and Wing. From 2011 to 2019 he pl ...

. It was the first time the event had been held outside Australia. The NRL and their longstanding ad agency MJW Haukuhodo used, for the second year running,

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

' " Let Me Entertain You" as the commercial soundtrack. The launch commercial takes members and supporters on a journey from the outback plains of Western Queensland to an inner city boot camp in Sydney and features more than fifty NRL club members and fans in a range of scenarios that include a rendition of a

Haka Haka (; plural ''haka'', in both Māori and English) are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompani ...

on a Sydney train and a focus on

' trademark Goanna post-

try celebration In Rugby football, a try celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a try. The celebration may be performed by the tryscorer (most notably), his or her teammates, the manager or coaching staff and/or the supporters of the team. Whil ...

. The second Sunday afternoon match began at 4:10pm instead of the traditional 3:10pm. This change was to allow the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

to show the match live into New South Wales and Queensland, and use it as a lead-in to their respective 6:00 pm news bulletins.

Teams

The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 9th consecutive year. The NRL's salary cap for the clubs' top 25 players will be $A6.3M for 2015.

Pre-season

The 2015 pre-season featured the second

tournament, held over a weekend at Auckland's

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

in which the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

defeated the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the final. This tournament took place on the last weekend of January, and the All Stars match was played on Friday 13 February at

Cbus Super Stadium Robina Stadium, also known by its sponsored name Cbus Super Stadium, is a rectangular football stadium in the Gold Coast suburb of Robina, Queensland. The main usage is as the home ground to the National Rugby League's Gold Coast Titans; t ...

in Robina.NRL Nines to kick off 2015 season in January
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 6 May 2014 The 2015 World Club Series took place in England with 2014 premiers the

taking on Super League champions St. Helens in the showpiece match, which South Sydney won.

Regular season

Bold – Opposition's Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

Ladder progression

*Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8. *Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round. *Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished last place on the ladder in that round. *Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

Finals series

A new record was set for overall attendance in Week 1 of the Finals with a combined total of 131,794. † Match decided in

golden point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn football matches. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where applicable, see ...

extra time.

Chart

Grand final

Regular season player statistics

The following statistics are of the conclusion of Round 26. Top 5 point scorers Top 5 try scorers Top 5 goal scorers Top 5 tacklers