Super League XXIII

After 23 games the league table is frozen, and the teams are split up into two of Super 8s. The teams finishing in the top eight go on to contest the Super League Super 8s, to determine which teams go through to the semi-final play-offs, to compete for a place in the Super League Grand Final on 13 October. Each teams points are carried over from the previous 23 games, and each teams play each other one more time, a total of seven further games per team.

The Super League Super 8s sees the top eight teams from the Super League, play each other one more time (seven games each). Each team's points are carried over from the previous 23 games, and after seven rounds, the top four teams will then make up the play off semi-finals, with the team finishing first (St. Helens) hosting the team in fourth (Warrington Wolves), and the team finishing second (Wigan Warriors), hosting the team finishing third (Castleford Tigers). The winners of these semi-finals will then contest the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford on 13 October 2018.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Huddersfield Giants	6–13	Wigan Warriors	20 September 2018, 19:45	John Smith's Stadium*	Greg Dolan	4,197
Castleford Tigers	42–10	Wakefield Trinity	21 September 2018, 19:45	Mend-A-Hose Jungle	Gareth Hewer	7,860
Warrington Wolves	14–34	St. Helens	22 September 2018, 15:15	Halliwell Jones Stadium	Chris Kendall	10,747
Hull F.C.	20–26	Catalans Dragons	22 September 2018, 17:00	KCOM Stadium	M Griffiths	10,467

• Game moved to Huddersfield, due to Wigan Athletic's fixture with Bristol City, now being played on the same day.

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 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 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.

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.

The Qualifiers sees the bottom four teams from Super League join the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to zero and each team plays seven games each, playing every other team once. The teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the 2019 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team to determine who will take the final place to gain promotion to Super League XXIV. The loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.

2018 is the second of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.[5]

Sky Sports coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.[6]

Regular commentators will be Eddie Hemmings 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,[7] 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 month after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only.[8] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.[9]

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

BBC Coverage:

• BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (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 programme which is presented by Dave Woods with a guest summariser (usually a Super League player or coach) and also includes interviews and debate..
• BBC Radio Humberside will have full match commentary of all Hull F.C. matches.
• BBC Radio Leeds carry commentaries featuring Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield.
• BBC Radio Manchester will carry commentary of Leigh, 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 BBC Radio Manchester.

Commercial Radio Coverage:

• 102.4 Wish FM will carry commentaries of Wigan & St Helens matches.
• 107.2 Wire FM 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.