List
Teams that have been declared champions based on league position, and hence not by playoffs, are denoted in bold.
The following is a list of teams that finished in first place of the top division in each year of British rugby league. From 1895 until 1996 this was the Rugby Football League Championship First Division. From 1996 this has been Super League. Since 2003, teams finishing first in regular season have been awarded the League Leaders' Shield.
Since its inception the league has had multiple different ways of organising its structure and the ultimate winner of the competition. Due to these structural changes, primarily involving the periodic inclusion and non-inclusion of a playoff system, the team that finished first in regular season have not always been champions. The longest era of the league winners also being crowned champions was between 1973 and 1997. Between 1973 and 1997 a distinct Play-off competition, the Rugby League Premiership, was held which preceded the return to the play off and grand final format.
A list of each seasons champions can be found at List of British rugby league champions.
Teams that have been declared champions based on league position, and hence not by playoffs, are denoted in bold.
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system.
The Rugby Football League Championship, is the second highest division of rugby league in Britain after the Super League.
The Rugby League Premiership was a competition for British rugby league clubs between 1973 and 1995. As the Super League Premiership the competition continued until 1997.
The League Leaders' Shield is a trophy awarded to the team finishing the season top of Super League in the sport of rugby league football.
Morley Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club based in Morley, West Yorkshire. England. The club are famous for playing in a maroon kit and thus are nicknamed "The Maroons". They currently play in North 1 East, a level six league in the English rugby union league system, following their relegation at the end of the 2017-18 season.
The Welsh Premier Division, known for sponsorship reasons as the Indigo Group Premiership, is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for the 1990–91 season.
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals series. Synonymous with a championship game in North American sports, grand finals have become a significant part of Australian culture. The earliest leagues to feature a grand final were in Australian rules football, followed soon after by rugby league. Currently the largest grand finals are in the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL). Their popularity influenced other competitions such as soccer's A-League Men and A-League Women, the National Basketball League, Suncorp Super Netball and European rugby league's Super League to adopt grand finals as well. Most grand finals involve a prestigious award for the player voted best on field.
A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues.
The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League.
Men's Rugby union in England consists of 106 leagues, which includes professional leagues at the highest level, down to amateur regional leagues. Promotion and relegation are in place throughout the system.
Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club is an English professional rugby union club based in West London. The club's first team were the champions of the RFU Championship in 2021/22 but were considered ineligible for promotion to Premiership Rugby as their home ground's capacity is too small. They were promoted to the league after they won National League 1 in 2014–15.
The Scottish Premiership is the highest level of amateur league competition for Scottish rugby union clubs. First held in 1973, it is the top division of the Scottish League Championship. The most recent (2024) champions are the Currie Chieftains, who are also the youngest club to win the competition. The most successful club is Hawick, who have won the competition thirteen times.
The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. This format is also known as the Argus finals system. It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league standings in a single elimination tournament. While the first round of the playoffs involve the pairing of the first- and fourth-place teams in one contest and the second- and third-place teams in the other, a variant of the Shaughnessy playoffs would pair the first- and third-place teams in one semifinal round and the second- and fourth-place teams in the other. In either variant, the winners of the first two games would then compete for the league championship. Some lower-level leagues use a Shaughnessy playoff for purposes of promotion to the next-higher league.
The Super League is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of which ten are from Northern England, reflecting the sport's geographic heartland within the UK, one from London and one from southern France.
The 2015 Rugby Football League Championship, known as the Kingstone Press Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the Super League.
In British rugby league, winning the Treble currently refers to winning the Super League Grand Final, League Leaders' Shield, and Challenge Cup in the same season. Up until 1973 this was achieved by winning the Championship Final, finishing top of the league during the regular season, and winning the Challenge Cup.
The 2016 Rugby Football League Championship, known as Kingstone Press Championship due to sponsorship by Kingstone Press Cider, was a rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the first tier Super League. The 2016 season was the second to consist of a new structure combining the championship and super league divisions three quarters of the way through the season.
