Super League XX


The 2015 Super League season, known as the First Utility Super League XX for sponsorship reasons, was the 20th rugby league season since the Super League was introduced in 1996. Twelve teams competed over 23 rounds, including the Magic Weekend, after which the eight highest entered the play-offs for a place in the Grand Final. The four lowest teams entered the Super League Qualifying Play-off, along with the four highest Championship teams, to decide which will play in Super League XXI. The regular season started in February 2015 and culminated with the grand final on 10 October.
Leeds Rhinos became only the 3rd team to complete the treble after defeating Wigan Warriors 22-20 in front of a new record attendance of 73,512 at Old Trafford to win their 7th Super League 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.
Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England: five teams, Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan and Widnes, west of the Pennines in the historic county of Lancashire and six teams, Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers, to the east in Yorkshire. Catalans Dragons, in Perpignan, France, are the only team outside the North of England. With Bradford Bulls and London Broncos 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. 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.
PosClubPWDLForAgPtsQualification
1 Leeds Rhinos23161675847733Super League Super 8s
2 St. Helens23160759843632Super League Super 8s
3 Wigan Warriors23151758941331Super League Super 8s
4 Huddersfield Giants23132853839428Super League Super 8s
5 Castleford Tigers231301054750526Super League Super 8s
6 Warrington Wolves231201155245624Super League Super 8s
7 Hull F.C.231101245248422Super League Super 8s
8 Catalans Dragons23921256157420Super League Super 8s
9 Widnes Vikings23911351856519The Qualifiers
10 Hull Kingston Rovers23901453464618The Qualifiers
11 Salford Red Devils23811444761717The Qualifiers
12 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats2330204029296The Qualifiers

Super 8s

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.
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.
PosClubPWDLForAgPtsQualification
1 Leeds Rhinos30201994465041Playoffs
2 Wigan Warriors30201979853041Playoffs
3 Huddersfield Giants301821075053438Playoffs
4 St. Helens301901176662438Playoffs
5 Castleford Tigers301601473174632
6 Warrington Wolves301501571463630
7 Catalans Dragons301321573977028
8 Hull F.C.301201862071624

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.
PosClubPWDLForAgPtsQualification
1 Hull Kingston Rovers770023411814Super League XXI
2 Widnes Vikings75022327010Super League XXI
3 Salford Red Devils750223920310Super League XXI
4 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats73041531706Million Pound Game
5 Bradford Bulls73041672406-
6 Halifax720516218642016 Championship
7 Sheffield Eagles720515226742016 Championship
8 Leigh Centurions710614623122016 Championship

Player statistics

Top Try Scorers

RankPlayerClubTries
1 Jermaine McGillvary Huddersfield Giants27
2 Tom Lineham Hull F.C.25
3 Joe Burgess Wigan Warriors23
4 Dominic Manfredi Wigan Warriors20
5 Ryan Hall Leeds Rhinos19
6= Denny Solomona Castleford Tigers18
6= Aaron Murphy Huddersfield Giants18
6= Justin Carney Castleford Tigers18
6= Adam Swift St Helens18
10 Joel Monaghan Warrington Wolves17

Top goalscorers

RankPlayerClubGoals
1 Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos105
2 Luke Gale Castleford Tigers101
3 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons94
4 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants93
5 Matty Smith Wigan Warriors76

Top try assists

RankPlayerClubAssists
1 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants31
2= Luke Gale Castleford Tigers27
2= Danny McGuire Leeds Rhinos27
4 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons23
5 George Williams Wigan Warriors21
6= Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.20
6= Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves20
8= Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos18
8= Kevin Brown Widnes Vikings18
9= Leroy Cudjoe Huddersfield Giants16
9= Rhys Hanbury Widnes Vikings16

Top points scorers

RankPlayerClubPoints
1 Luke Gale Castleford Tigers247
2 Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos225
3 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants208
4 Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons202
5 Josh Mantellato Hull Kingston Rovers196
6 Matty Smith Wigan Warriors168
7 Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.156
8 Luke Walsh Catalans Dragons126
9 Josh Griffin Salford Red Devils116
10 Jack Owens Widnes Vikings114

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:

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 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 with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights on Sunday nights on Super League - Full Time at 10 p.m.
BBC Sport will broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme, the first to the BBC North West, Yorkshire, North East and Cumbria, and East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35 p.m. on BBC One, while a repeat showing is shown nationally on BBC Two 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 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, Sky Sport, TV 2 Sport, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Sports and Sportsnet World.

Radio

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