The 2015 Super League season, known as the
First Utility
Shell Energy Retail Limited is the UK consumer gas, electricity and broadband operations business of Shell.
The company does not generate electricity, instead purchasing it from international markets. Originally known as First Utility, the co ...
Super League XX for sponsorship reasons, was the 20th
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 ...
season since the
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 ...
was introduced in 1996. Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the
Magic Weekend
The Magic Weekend (known as the Dacia Magic Weekend for sponsorship reasons) is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the s ...
, after which the eight highest entered the play-offs for a place in the
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 ...
. The four lowest teams entered the Super League Qualifying Play-off, along with the four highest
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
teams, to decide which will play in
Super League XXI
The 2016 Super League season, known as the First Utility Super League XXI for sponsor reasons, was the 21st season of the Super League and 122nd season of rugby league in Britain. Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the Magic Weekend ...
. The regular season started in February 2015 and culminated with the
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 ...
on 10 October.
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 ...
became only the 3rd team to complete the treble after defeating
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 ...
22-20 in front of a new record attendance of 73,512 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 ...
to win their 7th
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 ...
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
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
.
Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England: five teams,
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
,
St. Helens,
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
,
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
and
Widnes
Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...
, west of
the Pennines
The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commonl ...
in the historic county of Lancashire and six teams,
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
,
Wakefield Trinity
Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...
,
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
Castleford
Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the town centre the River Calder joins the ...
,
Hull F.C.
Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...
and
Hull Kingston Rovers
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 ...
, to the east in Yorkshire.
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 ...
, in
Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...
, France, are the only team outside the North of England. With
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
London Broncos
The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England.
The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...
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.
Standings
Regular season
The 2015 Super League season sees teams play each other home and away, and one team for a third time at the
Magic Weekend
The Magic Weekend (known as the Dacia Magic Weekend for sponsorship reasons) is an annual event organised by the Rugby Football League in which an entire round of Super League matches is played over a weekend at a single stadium to promote the s ...
. After 23 games, the league table is frozen and the teams are split up into "Super 8's". Teams finishing in the top 8 will play 7 more games each as they compete in the Super League Super 8 group for a place in the Grand Final. Teams finishing in the bottom four will join the top 4 teams from the Championship in The Qualifiers Super 8 group and also play 7 more games each for a place in the 2016 Super League competition.
Super 8s
*Super League
The Super League Super 8's sees the top 8 teams from the Super League play 7 games each. Each team's points are carried over and after 7 additional games the top 4 teams will contest the play off semi-finals with the team in 1st hosting the team in 4th, and the team finishing 2nd hosting the 3rd placed team; the winners of these semi-finals will contest the Super League Grand Final 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 ...
.
Teams finishing 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th after the 7 additional games will take no further part in the 2015 season but will play in Super League again in 2016.
*The Qualifiers
The Qualifiers Super 8's sees the bottom 4 teams from Super League table 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 will gain qualification to the 2016 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team which will earn the winner a place in the 2016 Super League; the loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.
Player statistics
Top Try Scorers
Top goalscorers
Top try assists
Top points scorers
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:
*
Man of Steel:
Zak Hardaker
Zak Alexander Hardaker (born 17 October 1991) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for the Leigh Leopards in the Super League. He has played for the England Knights, England and Great Britain at international l ...
* Coach of the year:
Brian McDermott
* Super League club of the year:
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 ...
* Young player of the year:
George Williams
* Foundation of the year:
Warrington Wolves
The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004.
Founded as Warrington Z ...
* Rhino "Top Gun":
Kevin Sinfield
Kevin Sinfield (born 12 September 1980) is the defence coach for the England national rugby union team. He is a former professional rugby league footballer, captain and director of rugby for the Leeds Rhinos. Sinfield also represented England ...
* Metre-maker:
Alex Walmsley
Alex Walmsley (born 10 April 1990) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for St Helens in the Betfred Super League, and England and Great Britain at international level.
He previously played for the Batley Bulldog ...
(4092)
* Top Try Scorer:
Jermaine McGillvary
Jermaine McGillvary (born 16 May 1988) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays on the for the Huddersfield Giants in the Super League. He has played for the England Knights, England and Great Britain at international level. ...
(27)
* Outstanding Achievement Award:
* Hit Man:
Danny Houghton
Media
Television
2015 is the fourth year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season.
The deal which runs until 2016 is worth £90million.
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.
Regular commentators will be
Eddie Hemmings and
Mike Stephenson
Michael Stephenson (born 27 January 1947) is an English rugby league commentator and former player.
Stephenson was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is commonly known as "Stevo", the nickname that he is known by in rugby league ...
with summarisers including
Phil Clarke
Philip Clarke (born 16 May 1971) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Great Britain and England international representative back-rower or , he played his club rugby league in England ...
,
Brian Carney,
Barrie McDermott
Barrie "Baz" McDermott (born 22 July 1972) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s and 2000s.
A Great Britain international representative , he played his club football at Oldham ( Heritage № 970), the ...
and
Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights on Sunday nights on ''Super League - Full Time'' at 10 p.m.
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...
will broadcast a highlights programme called the ''
Super League Show
The ''Super League Show'' is the BBC's principal rugby league programme, shown on BBC One in the North of England on Monday evenings, repeated nationally on BBC Two on Tuesday lunchtimes and also on BBC iPlayer. The programme, produced by PDI ...
'', presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme, the first to the
BBC North West
BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire (western Craven), West Yorkshire (western Calderdale), Derbyshire (western High Peak), Cumbria (Barrow-in-Furness and So ...
,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
,
North East and Cumbria, and
East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35 p.m. on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
, while a repeat showing is shown nationally on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
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
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
in the UK only. End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.
Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on
Showtime Sports (Middle East),
Sky Sport (New Zealand),
TV 2 Sport (Norway),
Fox Soccer Plus
Fox Soccer Plus (formerly Setanta Sports) is an American sports channel dedicated to soccer and rugby league. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in the United ...
(United States),
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
(Australia) and
Sportsnet World
Sportsnet World is a Canadian English language discretionary digital cable and satellite specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications operating as a national sports channel complementing the Sportsne ...
(Canada).
Radio
BBC Coverage:
*
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live a ...
(National DAB Digital Radio) will carry two Super League commentaries each week on Thursday and Friday nights (both kick off 8pm); this will be through the
5 Live 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 ...
programme which is presented by
Dave Woods with a guest summariser (usually a
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 ...
player or coach) and also includes interviews and debate..
*
BBC Radio Humberside
BBC Radio Humberside is the BBC's local radio station serving East Yorkshire and North & North East Lincolnshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Queen's Gardens in Hull.
According to RAJAR, the statio ...
will have full match commentary of all Hull KR and Hull matches.
*
BBC Radio Leeds
BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of West Yorkshire.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at St Peter's Square in Leeds.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...
carry commentaries featuring Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield.
*
BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Manchester is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester.
It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford ...
will carry commentary of Wigan and Salford whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with
BBC Radio Merseyside.
*
BBC Radio Merseyside (will have commentary on St Helens and Widnes matches whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with
BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Manchester is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester.
It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford ...
.
Commercial Radio Coverage:
* 102.4
Wish FM
Wish FM was a local radio station serving Wigan in Greater Manchester and the St Helens area of Merseyside from studios in the Orrell area of Wigan.
Following its sale to Bauer Radio, the station was closed and merged with the Greatest Hits ...
will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches.
* 107.2
Wire FM
Wire FM was an Independent Local Radio station serving the Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn areas of Cheshire.
Following its sale to Bauer Radio, the station was closed and merged with the Greatest Hits Radio network in September 2020.
History
...
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
External links
Official SiteBBC Rugby League
{{2015 in Rugby League