The Betfred Super League XXII,[2] was the year 2017 Super League season and 123rd season of rugby league in Britain.
| Super League XXII | |
|---|---|
| League | Super League |
| Duration | 30 Rounds |
| Teams | 12 |
| Highest attendance | 23,390 Wigan Warriors vs St Helens (14 April) |
| Lowest attendance | 2,678 Salford Red Devils Vs Hull F.C. (9 June) |
| Average attendance | 8,568 |
| Attendance | 1,182,437 |
| Broadcast partners | Sky Sports BBC Sport Fox League beIN Sports Fox Soccer Plus Sport Klub |
| 2017 season | |
| Champions | Leeds Rhinos 8th Super League 11th British title |
| League Leaders | Castleford Tigers |
| Runners-up | Castleford Tigers |
| Biggest home win | Castleford Tigers 66–10 Leeds Rhinos (2 March) |
| Biggest away win | Catalans Dragons 12–56 Huddersfield Giants (10 June) |
| Man of Steel |  Luke Gale[1] |
| Top try-scorer(s) | Greg Eden (38) |
| Promotion and relegation | |
| Promoted from Championship | Hull Kingston Rovers |
| Relegated to Championship | Leigh Centurions |
Super League XXII featured twelve teams, the third year in which this number has taken part. This was also the third year since promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the competition, seeing Leigh promoted and Hull KR relegated from last season.
Teams edit
Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England. Six teams hail from the historic county of Lancashire, west of the Pennines: Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan, Leigh, and Widnes. Five teams hail from the historic county of Yorkshire, east of the Pennines: Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, and Hull F.C. Catalans Dragons, located in Perpignan, France, are the only team outside the North of England. St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, and Leeds Rhinos are the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.
Leigh were promoted from the Kingstone Press Championship after finishing in 2nd place in The Qualifiers for 2016. Leigh became the first club promoted to the Super League under the Super 8s system, and the first club promoted to Super League since Widnes received a license for Super League XVII. Leigh last competed in the top flight in Super League X. Hull Kingston Rovers were relegated to the Championship after losing the 2016 Million Pound Game to Salford.
Regular season edit
Standings at end of regular season edit
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Castleford Tigers | 23 | 20 | 0 | 3 | 769 | 378 | +391 | 40 | Super League Super 8s |
| 2 |  Leeds Rhinos | 23 | 15 | 0 | 8 | 553 | 477 | +76 | 30 | |
| 3 |  Hull F.C. | 23 | 13 | 1 | 9 | 541 | 483 | +58 | 27 | |
| 4 |  Salford Red Devils | 23 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 576 | 500 | +76 | 26 | |
| 5 |  Wakefield Trinity | 23 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 572 | 509 | +63 | 26 | |
| 6 |  St. Helens | 23 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 516 | 420 | +96 | 25 | |
| 7 |  Wigan Warriors | 23 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 539 | 518 | +21 | 23 | |
| 8 |  Huddersfield Giants | 23 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 519 | 486 | +33 | 21 | |
| 9 |  Warrington Wolves | 23 | 9 | 2 | 12 | 426 | 557 | −131 | 20 | The Qualifiers |
| 10 |  Catalans Dragons | 23 | 7 | 1 | 15 | 469 | 689 | −220 | 15 | |
| 11 |  Leigh Centurions | 23 | 6 | 0 | 17 | 425 | 615 | −190 | 12 | |
| 12 |  Widnes Vikings | 23 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 359 | 632 | −273 | 11 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points difference; 3) Number of points scored;
Super 8s edit
Super League edit
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Castleford Tigers (L) | 30 | 25 | 0 | 5 | 965 | 536 | +429 | 50 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | Leeds Rhinos (C) | 30 | 20 | 0 | 10 | 749 | 623 | +126 | 40 | |
| 3 | Hull F.C. | 30 | 17 | 1 | 12 | 714 | 655 | +59 | 35 | |
| 4 | St Helens | 30 | 16 | 1 | 13 | 663 | 518 | +145 | 33 | |
| 5 | Wakefield Trinity | 30 | 16 | 0 | 14 | 714 | 679 | +35 | 32 | |
| 6 | Wigan Warriors | 30 | 14 | 3 | 13 | 691 | 668 | +23 | 31 | |
| 7 | Salford Red Devils | 30 | 14 | 0 | 16 | 680 | 728 | −48 | 28 | |
| 8 | Huddersfield Giants | 30 | 11 | 3 | 16 | 663 | 680 | −17 | 25 |
The Qualifiers edit
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warrington Wolves | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 288 | 138 | +150 | 14 | Super League XXIII |
| 2 | Widnes Vikings | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 188 | 96 | +92 | 10 | |
| 3 |  Hull Kingston Rovers (P) | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 166 | 158 | +8 | 10 | |
| 4 | Leigh Centurions (R) | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 203 | 104 | +99 | 8 | Million Pound Game |
| 5 | Catalans Dragons | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 130 | 143 | −13 | 8 | |
| 6 |  London Broncos | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 174 | 220 | −46 | 3 | 2018 Championship |
| 7 |  Featherstone Rovers | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 100 | 272 | −172 | 3 | |
| 8 |  Halifax | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 82 | 210 | −128 | 0 |
Playoffs edit
Super League edit
| # | Home | Score | Away | Match Information | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and Time (Local) | Venue | Referee | Attendance | ||||||||
| Semi-finals | |||||||||||
| SF1 | Castleford Tigers | 23–22[a] | St. Helens | 28 September 2017, 19:45 BST | Mend-A-Hose Jungle | James Child | 11,235 | ||||
| SF2 | Leeds Rhinos | 18–16 | Hull | 29 September 2017, 19:45 BST | Headingley Carnegie | Phil Bentham | 12,500 | ||||
| Source:[3] | |||||||||||
| Grand final | |||||||||||
| F | Castleford Tigers | 6–24 | Leeds Rhinos | 7 October 2017, 18:00 BST | Old Trafford | James Child | 72,827 | ||||
| Source:[4] | |||||||||||
- ^ After extra time
Million Pound Game edit
| Home | Score | Away | Match Information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date and Time | Venue | Referee | Attendance | |||||
| Leigh Centurions | 10–30 | Catalans Dragons | 30 September 2017, 15:00 | Leigh Sports Village | Ben Thaler | 6,888 | ||
Player statistics edit
Attendances edit
Average attendances edit
| Top 10 attendances edit
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Statistics correct as of 23 July 2017 (round 23)
End-of-season awards edit
Awards are presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs in the week leading up to the Super League Grand Final:[5]
- Man of Steel: Luke Gale -
Castleford Tigers - Coach of the year: Daryl Powell - Castleford Tigers
- Super League club of the year: Castleford Tigers
- Young player of the year: Oliver Gildart -
Wigan Warriors - Foundation of the year: Wigan Warriors
- Rhino "Top Gun": Marc Sneyd -
Hull F.C. (89% - 103 goals) - Metre-maker: Alex Walmsley -
St. Helens (4256 metres) - Top Try Scorer: Greg Eden (38) - Castleford Tigers
- Hit Man: Danny Houghton - Hull F.C. (1123 tackles)
- Outstanding Contribution:
Thomas Bosc -
Catalans Dragons
Chris Bridge -
Warrington Wolves
Rob Burrow -
Leeds Rhinos
Eorl Crabtree -
Huddersfield Giants
Gareth Ellis - Hull
Andy Lynch - Castleford Tigers
Leon Pryce -
Bradford Bulls
Iafeta Paleaaesina - Hull
Media edit
Television edit
2017 is the first of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.[6]
Sky Sports coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.[7]
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,[8] 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.[9] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.[10]
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).
Radio edit
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.
References edit
- ^ "Luke Gale crowned Man of Steel". Super League. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
- ^ "First Utility powers title sponsorship of Super League". Super League. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
- ^ "Betfred Super League semi-finals". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3090. 2 October 2017. p. 39.
- ^ "McGuire leads Rhinos to a stunning win". Rugby Leaguer & League Express. No. 3091. 9 October 2017. p. 16.
- ^ "Man of Steel on SLTV". Super League. 6 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
- ^ Sky Sports (31 January 2014). "Super League deal". Sky Sports. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
- ^ Sky Sports (18 February 2012). "Rugby League live on Sky". Sky Sports. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- ^ BBC Sport (3 February 2012). "BBC's Super League Show returns". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- ^ BBC. "BBC One - Super League Show". BBC. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
- ^ "BBC Two - Rugby League: Super League Play-Offs - Highlights". BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2013.