The
COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the sport of
rugby league in both the northern and southern hemispheres with the two major league competitions suspended for periods and numerous other leagues and cup competitions cancelled or abandoned.
Australia and New Zealand
NRL
The
World Health Organization declared the global pandemic on 11 March, the day before the
2020 NRL season
The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League.
Teams
The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year.
; Notes
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Pre-season
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was scheduled to start. The first round of games went ahead as scheduled but the pandemic restrictions already had an effect as attendances were lower than anticipated. Between rounds 1 and 2 the
New Zealand Government
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, image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg
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, country = New Zealand
, leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
, appointed = Governor-General
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introduced quarantine restrictions which would have meant the
New Zealand Warriors having to go into a 14-day quarantine period had they returned home after their round 1 match. Instead the Warriors decide to relocate to
Kingscliff, New South Wales
Kingscliff is a coastal town just south of Tweed Heads in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and is a beach community offering a variety of holiday accommodations. Together with the villages of Chinderah and Fingal, it ...
and play their round 2 game at the
Gold Coast Titans'
Cbus Super Stadium instead of their home ground in Auckland.
The Warriors will also base themselves in New South Wales for the first three months of 2021.
Rules introduced by the
Australian Government limiting gatherings meant that round 2 games were played in empty stadia and on 23 March after round 2 the
National Rugby League (NRL) suspended the season. The Australian government allowed the NRL to restart the competition at the end of May with games initially being played
behind closed doors at a limited number of venues but later limited crowds were allowed, culminating with over 37,000 being allowed in to watch the
Grand Final. With strict bio-security rules introduced in Australia and with the travel restrictions imposed by the New Zealand government the
New Zealand Warriors had to base themselves in Australia for the rest of the season.
Melbourne Storm were also affected by the COVID-19 situation in Victoria and chose to relocate to the
Sunshine Coast, Queensland
The Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban region in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the district defined in 1967 as "the area contained in the Shires of Landsborough, Maroochy and Noosa, but excluding Bribie Island". Located north of the ce ...
for the remainder of the season.
The NRL introduced rule changes for player welfare, the most significant being the introduction of the ''
six again'' or ''six-to-go'' rule for infringements at the ruck by defending teams instead of penalties being awarded. The number of referees per game was reduced from two to one.
The length of the regular season was adjusted to 20 games and the
J. J. Giltinan Shield
The J.J. Giltinan Shield is an Australian rugby league trophy, awarded annually to the National Rugby League minor premiers. It was named after James J. Giltinan who was central to the founding of rugby league in Australia. Giltinan died in 195 ...
was won by
Penrith Panthers. The Panthers reached the Grand Final but were defeated in the final by Melbourne Storm.
State of Origin
The State of Origin series had to be moved from its traditional mid-season slot to November. Queensland won the series 2–1.
Women's rugby league
The
Women's Premiership took place as scheduled with
Brisbane Broncos winning the
Grand Final. The
State of Origin game was delayed until November and saw Queensland beat New South Wales 24–18.
France
On 13 March 2020, the
FFR announced the postponement of all rugby league in the country including the major competitions such as the
Elite One Championship,
Elite Two Championship
Elite 2 (formerly the Elite Two Championship) is the second tier semi-professional rugby league competition in France below Elite 1, but above the National Division 1. The season runs from September to April. The clubs play each other home ...
, and
Lord Derby Cup. Exactly a month later on 13 April, the FFR declared these competitions null and void, with no titles to be awarded. The 2020–21 competitions would go ahead
behind closed doors.
United Kingdom
Super League
2020 season
The
2020 Super League had already started when the global pandemic was declared with the first six rounds of the competition complete. The first effects were seen in round 7 when
Leeds Rhinos refused to travel to
Catalans Dragons for a game scheduled for 13 March as one of the Leeds players was displaying symptoms of COVID-19. Three days later the
Rugby Football League (RFL) suspended all competition at all levels. The RFL suspension was only planned to last for three weeks with 2 April marked as the date for a return to playing, in the end it was 2 August before the Super League competition resumed. In the interim period
Toronto Wolfpack withdrew from the league citing financial pressures. An application to be reinstated into Super League by Toronto was declined leading to a post-season process to decide a 12th Super League club for 2021.
When the season did resume, it was a limited number of grounds and all games were played behind locked gates. The only exception to the latter were three home games played by Catalans in Perpignan where French government COVID-19 regulations allowed crowds up to 5,000 to attend. The time lost and Toronto's withdrawal led to two other significant changes to the season format. Firstly the number of rounds of games was reduced from the planned 29 to 22 and eventually to 20. Secondly league position was decided by win percentage (number of wins divided by number of games played), a format not seen in British rugby league since the
1944–45 Wartime Emergency League.
Fixtures were often postponed and re-arranged at short notice due to the numbers of players and coaching staff testing positive for COVID-19 with teams playing several games at short-notice and/or in a short space of time. When it became apparent that no team was going to fulfil all its fixtures, exemplified by
Hull Kingston Rovers announcement at the beginning of November that they would be unable to fulfil their remaining games, the clubs and the RFL agreed to end the season after round 20 and move to the play-offs.
Having played 17 games and won 13,
Wigan Warriors won the League Leaders Shield. In the play-offs they and close rivals
St Helens reached the
Grand Final played at the
KCOM Stadium, Hull, instead of the regular venue 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 ...
due to concerns from
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
about the event likely needing to be reshedualed, which they could not accommodate. The Grand Final saw St Helens triumphed 8–4 with a try scored after the final hooter had sounded.
The RFL adopted the ''six-again'' rule introduced by the NRL and took the additional step of abolishing scrums. Scrums were replaced by a handover of possession and a new set of six tackles.
2021 season
The
2021 Super League season
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 ...
, which ordinarily would have started in late January, was delayed until March with the hope that the combination of a second full lockdown announced by the
UK Government in early January, and start of the
UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme would allow for a safer state of play when the league eventually returns. On 11 February it was confirmed that match week one would commence on Friday 26 March, with all fixtures continuing to be played behind closed doors.
Championship and League 1
2020 season
Five rounds of the Championship competition and two rounds of the League 1 competition had been played by 16 March. After consultation with the clubs, both competitions were abandoned and declared ''
null and void'' in July.
2021 season
For the 2021 competitions, the RFL announced that as a precaution against continued COVID-19 disruption both league tables will be based on win percentage.
Challenge Cup and 1895 Cup
2020 season
The Challenge Cup competition had completed the first five rounds before the suspension of the sport in March. In July the clubs met with the RFL and all the non-Super League teams remaining in the competition withdrew.
The RFL therefore remade the draw for the sixth and subsequent rounds to only include the 11 remaining Super League sides.
The final, which should have been played in July, was eventually played at an empty
Wembley Stadium on 17 October and saw Leeds Rhinos beat
Salford Red Devils 17–16.
The
1895 Cup, the cup competition solely for the Championship and League 1 clubs, was cancelled.
2021 season
For the 2021 competition, amateur clubs were excluded from the competition in an attempt to make the competition more COVID-19 secure. In addition, due to numerical reasons, only three out of eleven
League 1 could participate.
Barrow Raiders,
Keighley Cougars, and
West Wales Raiders
The West Wales Raiders were a semi-professional rugby league club based in Llanelli, Wales. They competed in League 1, the third tier of the British rugby league system, from 2018 until 2022.
The club was founded in 2015 as an amateur club. In ...
would be those teams competing. As a result of the reduced number of teams, the 2021 edition would be six rounds rather than nine.
Due to non-league team not competing in the tournament, the first two rounds of the competition were made concurrent with the
1895 Cup in an attempt to ease the fixture list. As a result of this, the winners of round 2 of the Challenge Cup would qualify for the semi-finals of the 1985 cup, as well as the last 16 of the Challenge Cup - the stage
Super League
The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...
teams enter.
The
2021 Challenge Cup Final
The 2021 Challenge Cup Final was the 120th final of rugby league's Challenge Cup knock-out competition. It took place on 17 July 2021 at Wembley Stadium between Castleford Tigers and St Helens.
Background
The 2021 Challenge Cup Final was
...
was played in front of 40,000 fans, just short of half the capacity
Wembley Stadium, as a government large crowd pilot scheme (10,000 fans being the then legal limit outside of pilot schemes).
Women's rugby league
All 2020 league competitions were cancelled before any games had been played and the 2020
Challenge Cup
The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...
competition was abandoned after a single game in the first round had been played.
Amateur rugby
The
2020 National Conference League season was postponed and later cancelled after two matchweeks.
International rugby league
2021 World Cup
The pandemic forced the organisers of the
World Cup to develop contingency plans to defer the tournaments to 2022 should it become necessary to postpone in 2021. In July 2021,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Zealand pulled due to the pandemic aimed concerns around the emergence of the
Delta variant in the tournament's hosts country
England. Specifically,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
at the time also had rising COVID-19 cases and a relatively small proportion of the population vaccinated. In contrast,
New Zealand was virtually covid free and feared reintroduction following the return of players and fans. On 5 August, the tournament was officially postponed to 2022 due to the withdrawal of Australia and New Zealand.
Continental Tournaments
Europe
Euro A was cancelled due to the teams playing in the tournament playing in the delayed World Cup instead. Euro B and D was postponed to 2021, and Euro C postponed to 2022.
Oceania
The
Oceania Cup was cancelled.
Middle East and Africa
The
Middle East-Africa Championship was cancelled.
Americas
The
Americas Championship
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
was cancelled.
Tours
The
planned tour to Great Britain by scheduled for October and November 2020 was cancelled.
References
{{COVID-19 pandemic
Rugby league
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