2013 Super League season

Super League XVIII
League	Super League
Duration	27 Rounds
Teams	14
Highest attendance	23,861 Wigan Warriors v St Helens (29 March)
Lowest attendance	1,136 London Broncos v Catalans Dragons (28 March) [1]
Average attendance	9,048 [1]
Broadcast partners	Sky Sports BBC Sport Eurosport beIN Sports Fox Soccer Plus Sport Klub
2013 season
Champions	Wigan Warriors 3rd Super League title 20th British title
League Leaders	Huddersfield Giants
Biggest home win	Hull F.C. 72-10 Widnes Vikings (2 August) [1]
Biggest away win	Hull Kingston Rovers 6-84 Wigan Warriors (1 April) [1]
Man of Steel	Danny Brough
Top point-scorer(s)	Danny Brough (281) [2] [3]
Top try-scorer(s)	Josh Charnley (33)
← 2012 2014 →

Super League XVIII was the official name for the 2013 Super League season. ^[4] Fourteen teams competed over 27 rounds, 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.

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.

Dragons

Broncos

Vikings

Saints

Wolves

Warriors

Reds

Hull

Hull KR

Tigers

Rhinos

Wildcats

Bulls

Giants

	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]

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.

Table

Super League XVIII

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Huddersfield Giants (L)	27	21	0	6	851	507	+344	42	Play-offs
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 (C)	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.
(C) Champions; (L) League Leaders' Shield Winners
Notes:

1. Salford deducted 2 points on 14 June 2013 for fielding 14 players during home game against Castleford ^[8]

Play-offs

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

	Qualifying/Elimination playoffs						Preliminary semifinals						Qualifying semifinals					Grand Final
	1	Huddersfield Giants	8
	4	Wigan Warriors	22
							Huddersfield Giants		76
							Hull F.C.		18
	5	St Helens R.F.C.	46										Wigan Warriors		22
	8	Hull Kingston Rovers	10										Leeds Rhinos		12			Old Trafford
																		Wigan Warriors		30
													Warrington select in club call					Warrington Wolves		16
	6	Hull F.C.	14										Warrington Wolves		30
	7	Catalans Dragons	4										Huddersfield Giants		22
							St Helens R.F.C.		10
							Leeds Rhinos		11
	2	Warrington Wolves	40
	3	Leeds Rhinos	20

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.

#	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

Player statistics

As of 29 September 2013

Top try-scorers Rank Player Club Tries 1 Josh Charnley Wigan Warriors 33 2 Joel Monaghan Warrington Wolves 25 3 Sam Tomkins Wigan Warriors 23 4 Jarrod Sammut Bradford Bulls 22 5 Justin Carney Castleford Tigers 21 6 Aaron Murphy Huddersfield Giants 20 7= Ben Crooks Hull F.C. 19 Shaun Lunt Huddersfield Giants Jermaine McGillvary Huddersfield Giants 10 Kieran Dixon London Broncos 18

Top try assists Rank Player Club Assists 1 Rangi Chase Castleford Tigers 35 2 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 32 3 Michael Dobson Hull Kingston Rovers 26 4 Rhys Hanbury Widnes Vikings 24 Richie Myler Warrington Wolves 6 Kevin Brown Huddersfield Giants 21 7= Leon Pryce Catalans Dragons 20 Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves Sam Tomkins Wigan Warriors 10 Tim Smith Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 19

Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 144 2 Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 99 3 Pat Richards Wigan Warriors 96 4 Michael Dobson Hull Kingston Rovers 84 5 Thomas Bosc Catalans Dragons 78 6 Jamie Foster Bradford Bulls 67 7 Brett Hodgson Warrington Wolves 65 8 Jack Owens Widnes Vikings 60 9 Jamie Ellis Castleford Tigers 57 10 Marc Sneyd Salford City Reds 55

Top points scorers Rank Player Club Points 1 Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants 281 2 Pat Richards Wigan Warriors 239 3 Kevin Sinfield Leeds Rhinos 202 4 Michael Dobson Hull Kingston Rovers 191 5 Thomas Bosc Catalans Dragons 167 6 Brett Hodgson Warrington Wolves 157 7 Jamie Foster Bradford Bulls 154 8 Jack Owens Widnes Vikings 152 9 Lee Smith Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 146 10 Josh Charnley Wigan Warriors 142

Discipline

Red Cards Rank Player Club [1] [2] [3] 1= Ryan Bailey Leeds Rhinos 1 Julian Bousquet Catalans Dragons Hep Cahill Widnes Vikings Ben Cross Widnes Vikings Weller Hauraki Castleford Tigers Gareth Hock Widnes Vikings Lee Jewitt Salford City Reds Justin Poore Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Luke Robinson Huddersfield Giants Danny Tickle Hull F.C. Adam Walker Hull Kingston Rovers

Yellow Cards Rank Player Club [1] [2] [3] 1 Travis Burns Hull Kingston Rovers 3 2= Kevin Brown Widnes Vikings 2 Rangi Chase Castleford Tigers Justin Carney Castleford Tigers Graeme Horne Hull Kingston Rovers Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook St Helens R.F.C. Antoni Maria Catalans Dragons Jamie Soward London Broncos Brent Webb Catalans Dragons 10= Danny Addy Bradford Bulls 1 Ryan Bailey Leeds Rhinos Damien Blanch Catalans Dragons Danny Brough Huddersfield Giants Ben Cockayne Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Jamie Cording Huddersfield Giants Jon Clarke Widnes Vikings Matthew Cook London Broncos Gil Dudson Wigan Warriors Scott Dureau Catalans Dragons Olivier Elima Catalans Dragons Jamie Ellis Castleford Tigers Blake Green Wigan Warriors Scott Grix Huddersfield Giants Weller Hauraki Castleford Tigers David Hodgson Hull Kingston Rovers Josh Hodgson Hull Kingston Rovers Brett Kearney Bradford Bulls Danny Kirmond Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Nathan Massey Castleford Tigers Charlie Martin Castleford Tigers Grant Millington Castleford Tigers Mark O'Meley Hull F.C. Mickey Paea Hull Kingston Rovers Larne Patrick Huddersfield Giants Jamie Peacock Leeds Rhinos Jay Pitts Hull F.C. Michael Simon Catalans Dragons Ukuma Ta'ai Huddersfield Giants Sam Tomkins Wigan Warriors Paul Wellens St Helens R.F.C. Ben Westwood Warrington Wolves Elliott Whitehead Bradford Bulls Lincoln Withers Hull Kingston Rovers Kirk Yeaman Hull F.C.

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: ^[9]

The winners of the 2013 awards are: ^[10]

• Man of Steel: Danny Brough (Huddersfield Giants)
• Coach of the year: Paul Anderson (Huddersfield Giants)
• Super League club of the year: St. Helens
• Young player of the year: Ben Crooks (Hull F.C.)
• Foundation of the year: Leeds Rhinos
• Rhino "Top Gun": Kevin Sinfield (Leeds Rhinos)
• Metre-maker: Jamie Peacock (Leeds Rhinos)
• Top Try Scorer: Josh Charnley (Wigan Warriors)
• Outstanding Achievement Award: Stuart Fielden (Huddersfield Giants) and Shaun Briscoe (Widnes Vikings)
• Hit Man: Danny Houghton (Hull F.C.)

Media

Television

2013 is the second year of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 70 matches per season. ^[11] 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, ^[12] although for 2013, some matches between May and August will be scheduled for Monday nights, following the introduction during the 2012 season ^[13] 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. ^[14]

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, ^[15] 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. ^[16] End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons. ^[17]

Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Māori 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. "Man of Steel on SLTV". Super League. 6 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
10. "BROUGH NAMED 2013 MAN OF STEEL". Super League. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
11. Sky Sports (4 August 2011). "Super League deal" (PDF). Sky Sports. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
12. Sky Sports (18 February 2012). "Rugby League live on Sky". Sky Sports. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
13. Super League Fans (6 February 2012). "Monday Night Super League fixtures announced". Super League Fans. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
14. "Super League play-offs usher in an epic era". Super League. 8 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
15. BBC Sport (3 February 2012). "BBC's Super League Show returns". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
16. BBC. "BBC One - Super League Show". BBC. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
17. "BBC Two - Rugby League: Super League Play-Offs - Highlights". BBC. Retrieved 14 September 2013.

External links

• Official Site
• Super League XVII at Guardian