Super League XVIII

The 2013 Super League season was the 18th season of rugby league football since the Super League format was introduced in 1996.[4] Fourteen teams competed for the League Leaders' Shield over 27 rounds (including the Magic Weekend), after which the highest finishing teams entered the play-offs to compete for a place in the Grand Final and a chance to win the championship and the Super League Trophy.

Super League XVIII
LeagueSuper League
Duration27 Rounds (Followed by 4 round playoffs)
Teams14
Highest attendance31,249
Magic Weekend day 2
Lowest attendance1,136
London Broncos v Catalans Dragons (28 March 2013)[1]
Average attendance9,048[1]
Broadcast partners Sky Sports
BBC Sport
SLTV
Eurosport
beIN Sports
Fox Soccer Plus
Sport Klub
2013 season
Champions Wigan Warriors
3rd Super League title
20th English title
League Leaders Huddersfield Giants
Biggest home winHull F.C. 72-10 Widnes Vikings (2 August 2013)[1]
Biggest away winHull Kingston Rovers 6-84 Wigan Warriors (1 April 2013)[1]
Man of Steel Danny Brough
Top point-scorer(s) Danny Brough (281)[2][3]
Top try-scorer(s) Josh Charnley (33)

Teams

Super League XVIII was the second year of a licensed Super League. Under this system, promotion and relegation between Super League and Championship was abolished, and 14 teams were granted licences subject to certain criteria. For the 2013 season, all fourteen teams from the previous season will compete, including the Bradford Bulls, who were given a one-year probationary licence after going into administration and taken over by the Omar Khan consortium in the 2012 season.[5]

Geographically, the vast majority of teams in Super League are based in the north of England, five teams – Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan and Widnes – to the west of the Pennines in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and seven teams to the east in Yorkshire – Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers. Catalans Dragons are the only team based in France and are outside of the UK and London Broncos are the only team to be based in a capital city (London).

The maps below indicate the locations of teams that competed in Super League XVIII.

Team Stadium Capacity City/Area
Bradford Bulls (2013 season) Provident Stadium 27,000 Bradford, West Yorkshire
Castleford Tigers (2013 season) The Wish Communications Stadium 11,750 Castleford, West Yorkshire
Catalans Dragons (2013 season) Stade Gilbert Brutus 14,000 Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Huddersfield Giants (2013 season) John Smith's Stadium 24,544 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Hull F.C. (2013 season) Kingston Communications Stadium 25,404 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Hull Kingston Rovers (2013 season) MS3 Craven Park 9,471 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
  Leeds Rhinos (2013 season) Headingley Carnegie Stadium 22,250 Leeds, West Yorkshire
London Broncos (2013 season) Twickenham Stoop 12,700 Twickenham, London
Salford City Reds (2013 season) Salford City Stadium 12,000 Salford, Greater Manchester
St Helens R.F.C. (2013 season) Langtree Park 18,000 St. Helens, Merseyside
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2013 season) Rapid Solicitors Stadium 11,000 Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Warrington Wolves (2013 season) Halliwell Jones Stadium 15,500 Warrington, Cheshire
Widnes Vikings (2013 season) The Select Security Stadium 13,500 Widnes, Cheshire, England
Wigan Warriors (2013 season) DW Stadium 25,138 Wigan, Greater Manchester
Legend
  Reigning Super League champions
  Defending Challenge Cup Champions

Rule changes

For the 2013 season, the Rugby Football League has introduced a number of rule changes, which will also apply to the 2013 RFL Championship and Championship 1 seasons. This follows trial runs of the proposed rules during Boxing Day friendlies between Leeds Rhinos and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats[6]

Rule changes include changes to the advantage rule, scrummage, marker tackle ruling, plus various changes to the out of play (ball-in-touch, touch-in-goal and dead-in-goal) rulings.[7]

Season statistics

Table
As of 8 September 2013
Super League XVIII
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Huddersfield Giants 27 21 0 6 851 507 +344 42
2 Warrington Wolves 27 20 1 6 836 461 +375 41
3 Leeds Rhinos 27 18 1 8 712 507 +205 37
4 Wigan Warriors 27 17 1 9 816 460 +356 35
5 St. Helens 27 15 1 11 678 536 +142 31
6 Hull F.C. 27 13 2 12 652 563 +89 28
7 Catalans Dragons 27 13 2 12 619 604 +15 28
8 Hull Kingston Rovers 27 13 0 14 642 760 −118 26
9 Bradford Bulls 27 10 2 15 640 658 −18 22
10 Widnes Vikings 27 10 2 15 695 841 −146 22
11 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 27 10 1 16 660 749 −89 21
12 Castleford Tigers 27 9 2 16 702 881 −179 20
13 London Broncos 27 5 2 20 487 946 −459 12
14 Salford City Reds 27 6 1 20 436 953 −517 11[lower-alpha 1]
Source: superleague.co.uk and BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference. Competition points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
Notes:
  1. Salford deducted 2 points on 14 June 2013 for fielding 14 players during home game against Castleford[8]

Results
Main article: 2013 Super League season results

The regular league season sees the 14 teams play each other twice (one home, one away) plus an additional match, as part of the Magic Weekend, over 27 matches. The team who finishes 1st at the end of the regular season win the League Leaders' Shield.

Play-offs
See also: 2013 Super League season results - Play-offs

The play-offs commenced following the conclusion of the 27-round regular season. To decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams, Super League uses its unique play-off system. The finals concluded with the 2013 Super League Grand Final.[9]

# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
QUALIFYING AND ELIMINATION FINALS
Q1 Huddersfield Giants 8 – 22 Wigan Warriors 12 September, 20:00 BST John Smith's Stadium Phil Bentham 8,000
Q2 Warrington Wolves 40 – 20 Leeds Rhinos 14 September, 15:00 BST Halliwell Jones Stadium James Child 8,695
E1 St Helens R.F.C. 46 – 10 Hull Kingston Rovers 14 September, 17:00 BST Langtree Park Richard Silverwood 9,926
E2 Hull F.C. 14 – 4 Catalans Dragons 13 September, 20:00 BST KC Stadium Ben Thaler 4,970
PRELIMINARY SEMI-FINALS
P1 Huddersfield Giants 76 – 18 Hull F.C. 19 September, 20:00 BST John Smith's Stadium Richard Silverwod 5,547
P2 Leeds Rhinos 11 – 10 St Helens R.F.C. 20 September, 20:00 BST Headingley Carnegie Stadium Phil Bentham 12,189
SEMI-FINALS
SF1 Wigan Warriors 22 – 12 Leeds Rhinos 27 September, 20:00 BST DW Stadium Phil Bentham 14,600
SF2 Warrington Wolves 30 – 22 Huddersfield Giants 26 September, 20:00 BST Halliwell Jones Stadium Richard Silverwood 10,042
GRAND FINAL
F Wigan Warriors 30 – 16 Warrington Wolves 5 October, 18:00 BST Old Trafford, Manchester Richard Silverwood 66,281
2013 Super League play-offs bracket
  Qualifying / Elimination play-offs Preliminary semi-finals Qualifying semi-finals Grand Final
                                         
  QPO1:    
1   Huddersfield Giants 8  
4   Wigan Warriors 22     PSF1:    
              Huddersfield Giants 76    
EPO1:           Hull F.C. 18       QSF1:  
5   St Helens R.F.C. 46             Wigan Warriors 22  
8   Hull Kingston Rovers 10             Leeds Rhinos 12     GF: Old Trafford
          Wigan Warriors 30
  EPO2:       QSF2: Warrington select in club call       Warrington Wolves 16
6   Hull F.C. 14           Warrington Wolves 30  
7   Catalans Dragons 4     PSF2:           Huddersfield Giants 22  
        Leeds Rhinos 11    
QPO2:           St Helens R.F.C. 10    
2   Warrington Wolves 40    
3   Leeds Rhinos 20    
   
Key:          Losing team progressing      Winning team progressing      Winning team's progression chosen

Week 1. Qualifying/Elimination play-offs: Fixtures decided by regular reason finishing positions. Higher ranked teams play lower ranked teams. Higher ranked teams receive home ground advantage.
Week 2. Preliminary semi-finals: Fixtures decided by regular season finishing positions. Higher ranked teams play lower ranked teams. Higher ranked teams receive home ground advantage.
Week 3. Qualifying semi-finals: Winners of Qualifying play-offs play winners of Qualifying semi-finals. Fixtures decided by Club Call. Winners of Qualifying play-offs receive home ground advantage.

Player statistics
As of 29 September 2013

Discipline

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:[10]

The winners of the 2013 awards are:[11]

Media

Television

2013 is the second year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season.[12] The deal which runs until 2016 is worth £90million.

Sky Sports coverage in the UK see two live matches broadcast each week – one on Friday night, which kicks-off at 8:00 pm and another usually on Saturday evenings at 5:45 pm,[13] although for 2013, some matches between May and August will be scheduled for Monday nights, following the introduction during the 2012 season[14] at 8:00 pm, filling the gap vacated by the summer break of Premier League football. The Monday night fixtures switched to Thursday nights from August 2013 following the resumption of the football season and also applies to the play-off fixtures.[15]

Regular commentators were Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Shaun McRae, Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights this season in a new show on Sunday Nights called Super League - Full Time, usually airing at 10pm.

BBC Sport broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme. The first is only to the BBC North West, Yorkshire & North Midlands, North East & Cumbria, and East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35pm on BBC One,[16] while a repeat showing is shown nationally on BBC Two on Tuesday afternoons at 1.30pm. The Super League Show is also available for one week after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only.[17] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.[18]

Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Maori Television (New Zealand), TV 2 Sport (Norway), NTV+ (Russia), Fox Soccer Plus (United States), Eurosport (Australia) or Sportsnet World (Canada).

Radio

BBC Coverage:

  • BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (National DAB Digital Radio) normally carry one Super League commentary a week on Friday Nights.
  • BBC Manchester will carry commentary of Wigan and Salford whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with BBC Merseyside.
  • BBC Humberside will have full match commentary of all Hull KR and Hull matches.
  • BBC Leeds carry commentaries featuring Bradford, Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield.
  • BBC Merseyside (AM/DAB only) will have commentary on St Helens and Widnes matches whilst sharing commentary of Warrington with BBC Manchester.
  • BBC London 94.9 airs all London Broncos games home & away, mainly via online streaming only.

Commercial Radio Coverage:

  • 102.4 Wish FM will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches.
  • 107.2 Wire FM will carry commentaries on Warrington & Widnes Matches.
  • BCB 106.6 (Bradford Community Broadcasting) have full match commentary of Bradford Bulls home and away.
  • Yorkshire Radio increases its coverage to air 50 games in the 2012 season.
  • 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.

Internet

ESPN3 has worldwide broadband rights.

Starting from Thursday 9 April 2009, all of the matches shown on Sky Sports will also be available live online via Livestation everywhere in the world excluding the US, Puerto Rico, UK, Ireland, France, Monaco, Australia and New Zealand. List of Super League games available on Livestation.com

References
  1. "Vital Statistics". Sky Sports. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  2. "Stats - Player Stats". Super League. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  3. "Rugby League Stats". Love Rugby League. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  4. "engage extends Super League deal". engagesl.com (Engage Mutual Assurance). Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  5. "Bradford Bulls: RFL grants club Super League licence". 12 September 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  6. "RFL implements rule changes for 2013 season". BBC Sport. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  7. "Rule changes for 2013 confirmed". RFL. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  8. "Salford City Reds deducted two points for fielding 14 players". BBC Sport. 14 June 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  9. "Play-offs". Super League. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  10. "Man of Steel on SLTV". Super League. 6 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  11. "BROUGH NAMED 2013 MAN OF STEEL". Super League. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  12. Sky Sports (4 August 2011). "Super League deal" (PDF). Sky Sports. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  13. Sky Sports (18 February 2012). "Rugby League live on Sky". Sky Sports. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  14. Super League Fans (6 February 2012). "Monday Night Super League fixtures announced". Super League Fans. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  15. "Super League play-offs usher in an epic era". Super League. 8 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  16. BBC Sport (3 February 2012). "BBC's Super League Show returns". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  17. BBC. "BBC One - Super League Show". BBC. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  18. "BBC Two - Rugby League: Super League Play-Offs - Highlights". BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
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