The League Leaders' Shield is a trophy awarded to the team finishing the season top of

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

in the sport of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

football. This regular portion of the season precedes the playoffs for the eventual

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-offs. The winning team receives the Super League Trophy and go ...

. The trophy was first awarded in

Super League VII Super League VII (styled Tetley's Super League VII due to sponsorship from Tetley's Brewery) was the year 2002's Super League championship season, the 108th season of top-level professional rugby league in Britain, and the seventh run by the Super ...

in 2002. St Helens won the first shield in 2002, and have since won the shield on a total of 9 occasions. Wigan Warriors become only the 2nd team (along with St Helens), to retain the shield.

History

From 1907 until 1973 the Championship was awarded to the team winning a top-four play-off (excluding the 2 seasons 1962–63 and 1963–64, when the championship was awarded to the top-placed team). From 1907 to 1962 no prize was awarded to the team finishing top. From 1965 to 1973 a 'League Leaders' Trophy' was introduced to reward the team finishing top. In 1996,

was formed but continued to use the league to decide the champions until 1998, when they adopted a play-off structure for the championship. Between 1998 and 2001 no trophy was awarded for coming top of the league in the regular season, and it would not be until the 2002 season when the League Leaders' Shield was first awarded. From 2015 to 2017, League Leaders' Shield winners would participate in the short lived World Club Series. 2015 also saw the prize money increase from £50,000 to £100,000. In 2016, the League Leaders were awarded medals for the first time.

Shield winners

*^a: Shield winners decided by win percentage rather than points (C) - Team also won the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

to be crowned champions.

Winners

The Treble

The Quadruple

Notes

References

{{Super_League_Europe Rugby league competitions in the United Kingdom Rugby league trophies and awards