The 2016 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 XXI for sponsor reasons, was the 21st season of 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 ...

and 122nd season of rugby league in Britain. 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 ...

which took place at

St James' Park St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England. St James' Park ...

(

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

), after which the eight highest entered the

Super League play-offs Since 1998, a play-off system has been used to determine the Super League champions. The format has changed over the years, starting with a play-off involving first five, then six teams, eight, four and currently back to six. The play-off series ...

for a place in the

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 ...

. The four lowest teams then entered the qualifying play-offs, along with the four highest teams from 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 ...

, to determine which teams will play again in Super League XXII.

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 ...

are the current champions after successfully defeating

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 ...

12–6 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

Super League XXI features twelve teams, the second year in which this number has taken part. This is also the second year since promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the competition although there has been no change in teams for 2016. 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. St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos as the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.

Table

* *Salford were penalized six points for a salary cap infringement during the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Q = Qualified for Super 8s F = Failed to qualify for the Super 8s

Super 8s

After 23 games the league table is frozen and the teams are split up into 2 of the 3 "Super 8's". Teams finishing in the top 8 go on to contest the "Super League" and will all retain a place in the competition for the next season. They will play 7 more games each, competing for a place in the Grand Final. Teams finishing in the bottom four (9-12) will be put alongside the top 4 teams from the Championship, in "The Qualifiers" Super 8 group.

Standings

Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the Victory, victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and w ...

(L) = League Leaders (Q) = Qualified for playoffs (U) = Unable to qualify for playoffs

Play-offs

The Qualifiers

The Qualifiers sees the bottom 4 teams from

table join the top 4 teams from the

. 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 2017

season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Qualif ...

" at the home of the 4th place team which will earn the winner a place in the 2017

. The loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to or remain in the

Standings

(S) = Will play in Super League in 2017 (C) = Will play in Championship in 2017

Million Pound Game

Player statistics

Top try scorers

Top goalscorers

Top try assists

Top points scorers

* Statistics correct as of 24 September 2016

Attendances

Average attendances

Top 10 attendances

* Statistics correct as of 24 July 2016

End-of-season awards

Awards are presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs in the week leading up to the

: * Man of Steel: Danny Houghton -

* Coach of the year: Lee Radford -

* Super League club of the year:

* Young player of the year: Tom Johnstone -

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 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 Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, betw ...

* Foundation of the year: * Rhino "Top Gun": Marc Sneyd -

* Metre-maker: Chris Hill -

* Top Try Scorer:

Denny Solomona Denny Solomona (born 27 September 1993) is a rugby footballer who played rugby union as a Wing (rugby union), winger for England national rugby union team, England at international level. He previously played rugby union for Sale Sharks in Pre ...

(40) -

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

* Hit Man: Danny Houghton -

Media

Television

2016 is the fifth and final year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season. The deal 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

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

(France), 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

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

. 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 Home and Away. * 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). * Talksport and Talksport 2 will carry weekly live matches throughout the UK, plus phone-in programs and a weekly magazine show hosted by

Robbie Hunter-Paul Robert Rawiri Hunter-Paul (born 3 February 1976) is a New Zealand former rugby league footballer. He has since become a business owner and television pundit, runninXtra Mile Marketing an inbound and digital marketing company. Robbie retired fr ...

. All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.

References

External links

Official SiteBBC Rugby League
{{Super League Europe