St Helens’s title win was a great spectacle, but this season’s real legacy might be securing the sport’s long-term futureThe final few seconds of the Super League Grand Final will for ever stand as one of the most memorable moments in rugby league history. But the legacy of 2020 and the long-term impact this season will have on the sport runs far deeper.It was undoubtedly the most dramatic Grand Final in history and perhaps it was only right that a season that hung precariously in the balance for so long throughout the summer was settled by such fine margins. The Saints secured back-to-back titles when Jack Welsby reacted quickest to Tommy Makinson’s drop goal hitting a post with the scores...
If a rugby league club suffers its town can often suffer with it and the coronavirus crisis is hitting the sport hardThis is going to sound like the setup to a surreal joke, but nevertheless: last week, a young man from St Helens called Harry Roberts was lying in bed when he looked up and saw the comedian Johnny Vegas standing at his bedroom window, bearing a box of face masks.As it turned out, Roberts – a 19-year-old St Helens fan who suffers from cerebral palsy and quadriplegia – had been the unwitting beneficiary of a visit from the Steve Prescott Foundation, the charity set up by the late Saints player, which over the last decade has become one of...
Hull KR’s win over Hull left the club who once dominated Super League contemplating the unthinkableIn 1974 Manchester United – six years on from winning the European Cup – were said to be too good to go down, a statement of hubris that turned out to be wildly wrongheaded. Folk from Leeds and Manchester are not too fond of being compared but 45 years on, across the other side of the Pennines, another sporting dynasty is likewise in grave danger of enduring the unthinkable.Leeds Rhinos, Super League champions eight times in 14 seasons between 2004 and 2017, are bottom of the table with 10 games remaining and at serious risk of relegation. “We’ve got a 10‑game shootout with a number...
Can Castleford challenge again? How will Leeds fare without McGuire and Burrow? And can Widnes survive? Our guide to what to expectLast season 1st (lost Grand Final) Coach Daryl Powell Captain Michael Shenton Related: Super League 2018 kicks off with some clubs unsure what they’re playing for Related: Mikolaj Oledzki: 'A rugby league player from Poland? This isn't really heard of' Related: Wigan coach Shaun Wane is feeling upbeat before a make or break season Continue reading...
The season begins on Thursday but a decision is still to be made on how many clubs will be in Super League 2019While only 61 days will have passed since England’s World Cup final defeat by Australia when Warrington and Leeds get the 2018 Super League season under way on Thursday there is a familiar feeling that it cannot come soon enough after another frustrating winter in rugby league.Not for the first time the sport’s domestic calendar begins with more questions than answers but this year it should have been different. England’s first appearance in the World Cup final for 22 years left many optimistic about the future, even if the nature of that defeat by the all-conquering Kangaroos had...