Super League XXIII, known as the

Betfred Betfred Group Holdings Limited is a bookmaker based in the United Kingdom, founded by Fred Done.Pronounced to rhyme with "bone". It was first established as a single betting shop in Ordsall, Salford, in 1967. Its turnover in 2004 was reported ...

Super League XXIII for sponsor reasons, was the 23rd season of the

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 ...

and 124th season of rugby league in Britain for 2018.

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club competes in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby league system. Formed in 1872, the club is a founding member of the Ru ...

were crowned champions after beating

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

12-4 to win their 22nd league Championship. Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the

Magic Weekend The Magic Weekend (also known as the Betfred 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 promot ...

. This season also saw the first Super League game played outside Europe, as

faced

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Hull play their home games at the MKM Stadium and compete in Super League, the ...

WIN Stadium Wollongong Showground, known as WIN Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Wollongong, Australia. The stadium was officially opened in 1911. From 1982 until 1998 it played host to every home match for the Illawa ...

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

on Saturday 10 February 2018, which Wigan won, 24–10. St. Helens won the League Leaders Shield for a record 6th time. However, they failed to reach the Grand Final after losing their semi final 13-18 to

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the RFL Championship, Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at DCBL Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twe ...

were relegated to 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 sys ...

, after only 3 wins in the regular season and one win in

The Qualifiers The Rugby League Super 8s are a feature of the British rugby league system. Between 2015 and 2018 they were played in the top three professional divisions. Following the completion of the regular season home-and-away fixtures in the Super Leagu ...

, while

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of British rugby le ...

were promoted after winning the

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual rugby league game that decides which Championship teams will be promoted to Super League, and which Super League teams would be relegated for the following season. Instituted in 2015 and ...

by beating

Toronto Wolfpack Toronto Wolfpack RLFC is a Canadian professional rugby league club based in Toronto, Ontario. The club is the first and only professional rugby league club in North America, and as of 2023 competes in the self sponsored Canada Cup, an invitation ...

4–2.

Teams

Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England. Five teams hail from the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, west of the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

, St. Helens,

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

, and

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses, 2021 census had a population of 62,400. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, ...

. Six teams hail from the historic county of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, east of the

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees 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 confl ...

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home fixtures at the DIY Kitchen Stadium, Belle Vue (Wakefield), Belle Vue and currently compete in the Super League, the top tier o ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Castleford Castleford is a town within the City of Wakefield district, West Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 45,106 at a 2021 population estimate. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to the north of the t ...

Hull KR Hull Kingston Rovers (often abbreviated to Hull KR) are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Craven Park, Hull, Craven Park and compete in Super League, the top tier of B ...

and

Hull FC Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Hull play their home games at the MKM Stadium and compete in Super League, the t ...

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French language, French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan language, Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. Despite being based in France the ...

, located in

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...

, France, are the only team outside the North of England. St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, and Leeds Rhinos are the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.

were promoted from the

after finishing in 2nd place in The Qualifiers for 2017 whilst

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

were relegated to the

after losing the 2017 Million Pound Game to

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

Regular season

Super 8s

Super League

The Qualifiers

Playoffs

Grand Final

Final

Wigan Warriors

Wigan finished 2nd in regular season and seven consecutive wins in the Super 8's saw them secure 2nd place in the table. A 14–0 victory over

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England. They play their home games at Wheldon Road (currently known as the Mend-A-Hose Jungle for sponsorship reasons) and compete in the Super League, t ...

in the semi-final earned Wigan a place in their 10th Grand Final. This is the first time that a team has won all 7 Super 8's games in a single season, and since this playoff format will be abandoned at the end of the 2018 season, will make this a unique historic feat achieved by Wigan.

Warrington Wolves

Warrington finished 4th to earn an away trip to League Leaders Shield winners St. Helens in the semi-finals. Warrington won 18-13 with a late try by Tom Lineham. Warrington will be contesting their 4th Grand Final.

Match details

This match was Shaun Wane's last game as Wigan coach before going to Scotland Rugby Union after 7 seasons as head coach of Wigan.

Teams

Player statistics

Top 10 try Scorers

Top 10 try assists

Top 10 goal scorers

Top 10 points scorers

• Updated to match(es) played on 28 September 2018 (Super 8s – Round 7)

Discipline

Red Cards * Liam Watts' red card was picked up whilst playing for Hull F.C. Yellow Cards * Weller Hauraki has been sin binned once for Salford, and once for Widnes * Joel Tomkins' sin bin was picked up whilst playing for Wigan Warriors * Updated to match(es) played on 22 September 2018 (Super 8s Round 6)

Attendances

Average attendances Top 10 attendances *Statistics correct as of 27 July 2018 (Round 23)

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: * Coach of the year:

Shaun Wane Shaun David Wane (born 14 September 1964) is an English professional rugby league coach and former professional rugby league footballer, who is currently the head coach of the England national rugby league team. He is also Leadership and Manage ...

(

) * Foundation of the year:

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

* Hit Man:

Paul McShane Paul McShane may refer to: * Paul McShane (footballer) (born 1986), Irish football player * Paul McShane (rugby league) (born 1989), rugby league footballer See also *Paul Shane Paul Shane (19 June 1940 – 16 May 2013) was a British actor ...

(

) (1160 tackles) * Man of Steel:

Ben Barba Benjamin Barba (born 13 June 1989) is an Australian former professional dual code rugby league & rugby union footballer who last played for St Helens in the Super League. He primarily played as a or . Barba won the Dally M Medal award for ...

( St. Helens) * Metre-maker: Bill Tupou (

) (4114 Metres) * Rhino "Top Gun": Luke Gale (

) * Super League Club of The Year:

* Top Try Scorer:

( St. Helens) (28) * Young player of the year: Jake Trueman (

)

Media

Television

2018 is the second of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

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 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, Wigan, the Leeds Rhinos ...

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 BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

will broadcast a highlights programme called the ''

Super League Show The ''Super League Show'' was a weekly television programme showing highlights from the Super League. The show was initially presented by Harry Gration, and from 2012 was presented by Tanya Arnold. Match commentary came from Dave Woods, Matt ...

'', 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 Regions, BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, as well as parts of North Yorkshire (western Craven District, Craven), Derbyshire (western High Peak, Derbyshire, High ...

, 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 channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

, while a repeat showing is shown nationally on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

on Tuesday afternoons at 1.30 p.m. The ''Super League Show'' is also available for one month 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 Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

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 Sky Sport or Sky Sports may refer to: *Sky Group **Sky Sports, a group of sports television channels available in the UK and Ireland ** Sky Sport (Germany), a group of sports television channels available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, formerl ...

(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 football. Launched in 2005 by the Irish sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to offer live and tape-delayed mainstream sports events in ...

(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 name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

(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 Sportsnet g ...

(Canada).

Radio

BBC Coverage: *

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a British digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station ...

(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 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 ...

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 Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the former county of Humberside which includes the unitary authorities of England, unitary authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolns ...

will have full match commentary of all Hull F.C. 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 BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

will carry commentary of Leigh, Wigan and Salford whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with

BBC Radio Merseyside BBC Radio Merseyside is the BBC's local radio station serving Merseyside, North and West Cheshire and West Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds, from studios on Hanover Street in Liverpool. According to RAJAR, t ...

. *

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 an Independent Local Radio station serving Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Wigan in Greater Manchester and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St Helens area of Merseyside from studios in the Orrell, Greater Manchester, Orrell ar ...

will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches. * 107.2

Wire FM Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool & The North West (Warrington) (formerly Wire FM) is 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 mer ...

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). 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