Super League XXV

On 16 March 2020, the RFL announced that all rugby league games had been suspended initially, until at least April, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.[5] However, on 24 March, Super League clubs held a Board meeting via conference call, attended in part by senior officials of the Rugby Football League, for further discussion of how to respond to the current public health crisis. It was agreed that until further notice, all rugby league fixtures will be suspended indefinitely.[6]

On 21 April, the RFL announced that the Magic Weekend fixtures scheduled to take place at St James' Park had been postponed due to the current lockdown situation.[7]

On 26 June 2020, it was announced that the competition will resume on Sunday 2 August 2020, with two games outstanding from rounds 2–7 to be played at a single venue.[8]

The results of matches played before the suspension will count towards the league table and 15 rounds are planned post-resumption. At the end of the season the top four teams will compete in two semi-finals with the winners meeting in the Super League Grand Final. This has a provisional date at the end of November 2020.[9]

The revised fixture list was published on 16 July, with the opening fixtures played on 2 August and then the all six round 8 games to be played at Headingley, Leeds on 8 and 9 August.[10] On the same day, Toronto announced that all the club's games for the remainder of the season would be played in England.[11]

On 22 June, it was announced that The RFL and Sky Sports had reached agreement over clubs' 2020 TV revenues, which recognises the huge disruption to this season's fixture calendar, and the significant impact it has had on broadcasting schedules. The agreement is subject to the sport resuming when government and public health advice allows.[12]

On 1 April 2020, Toronto Wolfpack issued a statement regarding their first three fixtures scheduled to be played at Lamport Stadium in Canada. Due to the suspension of rugby league, and the coronavirus pandemic events, the decision to confirm these postponements had been taken, following regular consultation with the Wolfpack, and given the specific issues around international travel to and from Canada.[13]

On 20 July, the club announced that they would be taking no further part in the restarted season, citing the "financial challenges" the club would be facing, including loss of gate money, medical testing and the hire of grounds in England, but that the club hoped that they would be competing in Super League in 2021.[14] The RFL and Super League issued a statement in response to the announcement, which said that both bodies were "very disappointed" by Toronto's decision, and that discussions about Toronto's future involvement in Super League would have to be held.[15]

It was later announced that Toronto's results were to be expunged, although individual player's records would not be affected, however any Man of Steel points earned in the matches against Toronto would be erased.[16]

On 3 August 2020, The RFL issued a further statement regarding Toronto, stating that they had terminated their contract for the remainder of 2020 season.[17]

Although matches recommenced in August and the number of games was reduced from 29 to 22, a number of games were postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests among players and staff of the clubs. In response the RFL took the decision on 9 September to change the way league positions were determined. For the first time since the 1944–45 wartime emergency season league position was determined by win percentage (number of wins divided by number of games played) rather than by competition points, acknowledging that some clubs were unlikely to fulfil all their fixtures. The change was introduced immediately. The top four clubs would still qualify for the play-offs but must have played at least 15 games in order to participate in the play-offs.[18] During a meeting of Super League clubs at the beginning of November, Hull Kingston Rovers announced that due to the number of their squad affected by COVID-19 the club could not fulfil its remaining fixtures. The clubs therefore agreed to end the regular season after round 20 and extend the play-offs to include the top six clubs (rather than just the top four) as of 6 November. The clubs and the RFL also agreed to remove the requirement that teams had to have played a minimum of 15 matches to qualify for the play-offs.[19]

Both golden point extra time and the shot clock, introduced in 2019, were retained for 2020 although the shot clock timings were reduced by 5 seconds each with only 30 seconds available for the forming of scrums and 25 seconds for the taking of a goal line drop out.[35]

As part of the work to restart the season, two major rule changes were made in July 2020 to apply for the rest of the season. Scrums were removed from the game and were replaced by a play-the-ball and an Australian innovation "six again" was adopted which replaces penalties for defensive infringements at rucks with a new set of six for the attacking team.[36]

The first game to go to golden-point was the round 6 game between Wakefield and Hull F.C. on 6 March 2020. Hull won the match 27–26, thanks to a Marc Sneyd drop goal, after the scores were tied at 26-all after 80 minutes.

The second game to go to golden-point was the rearranged round 2 game between Huddersfield Giants and Leeds Rhinos on 2 August 2020. Leeds won the match 27–26, thanks to a Luke Gale drop goal, after the scores were tied at 26-all after 80 minutes.

The Third game to go to golden-point was the round 12 game between St Helens and Hull KR on 11 September 2020. St Helens won the match 21–20, thanks to a Theo Fages drop goal, after the scores were tied at 20-20 after 80 minutes.

Round 19 saw the first occasion of a game being forfeited. Salford were due to play Warrington on 30 October but on 28 October Salford announced that the club was unable to complete the fixture due to being unable to raise a team and that they would therefore to forfeit the game. Under the RFL operational rules the game was awarded to Warrington as a 24–0 win.[37]

Paul McShane was one of five candidates shortlisted for the award, the others being Aidan Sezer (Huddersfield Giants), Lachlan Coote (St Helens), Liam Farrell and Bevan French (both of Wigan Warriors).[48]