Engage Super League XV was the official name for the 2010 Super League season. Fourteen teams competed over 27 rounds. The season officially kicked off on 5 February with the Crusaders versus the Leeds Rhinos on 29 January at Crusaders' new homeground at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. Crusaders halfback Michael Witt scored the first points of the season with a penalty goal and the Rhinos came away with the first competition points, posting a 34 to 6 victory.
The season came to a conclusion with Wigan Warriors beating St. Helens 22-10 in the Super League Grand Final on 2 October with two tries for Martin Gleeson.
Teams Super League XV was the second year of a licensed Super League. Under this system, promotion and relegation between Super League and National League One was abolished, and 14 teams were granted licences subject to certain criteria. All twelve teams from Super League XIII were given places, as well as former Super League team Salford City Reds and Crusaders.
Geographically, the vast majority of teams in Super League are based in the north of England, four teams – Warrington, St. Helens, Salford and Wigan – 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 United Kingdom. Crusaders are the only team in Wales, and Harlequins are the only team to be based in a capital city (London).
TeamStadiumCapacityCity/Area Bradford Bulls (2010 season) Grattan Stadium, Odsal 27,000 Bradford, West Yorkshire Castleford Tigers (2010 season) The Jungle 11,750 Castleford, West Yorkshire Catalans Dragons (2010 season) Stade Gilbert Brutus 10,000 Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France Crusaders (2010 season) The Racecourse Ground 15,000 Wrexham, Clwyd, Wales Harlequins (2010 season) Twickenham Stoop 12,700 Twickenham, London Huddersfield Giants (2010 season) Galpharm Stadium 24,544 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire Hull F.C. (2010 season) Kingston Communications Stadium 25,404 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire Hull Kingston Rovers (2010 season) "New" Craven Park 9,471 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire Leeds Rhinos (2010 season) Headingley Carnegie Stadium 22,250 Leeds, West Yorkshire Salford City Reds (2010 season) The Willows 11,363 Salford, Greater Manchester St Helens R.F.C. (2010 season) The GPW Recruitment Stadium 17,500 St Helens, Merseyside Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2010 season) Belle Vue 12,600 Wakefield, West Yorkshire Warrington Wolves (2010 season) Halliwell Jones Stadium 14,206 Warrington, Cheshire Wigan Warriors (2010 season) DW Stadium 25,138 Wigan, Greater Manchester
Reigning champions
Rules
Rule changes The RFL announced two new rule interpretations intended to increase player safety in the tackle: Referees now call "held" if one of the ball-carrier's legs is lifted by a defender in a tackle in which the participants are stood upright. Previously, a referee would only declare the tackle complete if both legs had been lifted. Referees now call held as soon as they see the ball-carrier being dragged by more than one defender. This prevents groups of defenders dragging an opponent into touch or the in-goal area.
Operational rules The 'club trained player rule' entered its third year and made a planned adjustment: Clubs would be required to include a minimum of seven players, an increase from six players, who have come through their academy or are under 21 years old in their 25-player first team squads. British clubs were required to have twelve United Kingdom-trained players, an increase from eleven, and no more than six overseas-trained players, a decrease from eight. Crusaders were granted dispensation to include up to fourteen overseas-trained players for the 2010 season as the Welsh club is considered to be still developing.
Results
Season summary January
29 - Leeds Rhinos win the first game of 2010 against a new look Crusaders 34-6 in a snow filled Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. This match set a home record attendance for Crusaders of 10,334, which is also a record attendance for a Welsh rugby league fixture on home soil.
February
17 - Wakefield Trinity Wildcats hooker Terry Newton is provisionally suspended by the UK Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for a banned substance 22 - Wakefield Trinity Wildcats cancelled the contract of Terry Newton following his two-year ban from rugby for taking the self-administered human growth hormone HGH, later that year Newton died in his home in Orrell. 26 - Wigan Warriors equal Warrington's record win of the season with a 58-0 win of their own, this time against Catalans Dragons with 3 tries of Pat Richards' 38 point haul coming in the first 20 minutes of the game 28 - Leeds Rhinos lose the 2010 World Club Challenge 18-10 against the Melbourne Storm
April 1 - The first draw of Super League XV is recorded when Leeds and Bradford drew 20 - 20 at Headingley Carnegie 2 - St Helens are defeated 10 - 18 by Wigan Warriors in the last local derby match to be played between the two sides at Knowsley Road
May 1 - Warrington Wolves record the biggest win of the season with a 16-68 victory against Salford City Reds at the Magic Weekend at Murrayfield 15 - Salford City Reds produce a shock 42-34 victory over St. Helens at The Willows in a 'repeat' of last year's game there.
August 22 - Wigan Warriors secured the League Leaders' Shield with an 18-38 victory at Hull Kingston Rovers
September 4 - St. Helens beat Castleford Tigers 40-30 in the final ever league game at Knowsley Road. Captain Keiron Cunningham sealed the win with a last minute try - A score which moved St Helens above Warrington into 2nd place on points difference alone, meaning the Saints will host Warrington in the playoffs the following week.
October 2 - Wigan Warriors won their first title since 1998 with a 22-10 win over rivals St Helens in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.
Table
Play-offs
The play-offs commence following the conclusion of 27 round regular season. To decide the grand finalists from the top eight finishing teams, Super League adopts the unique Super League play-off system. The finals will conclude with the 2010 Super League Grand Final.
HomeScore AwayMatch InformationDate and Time (Local)VenueRefereeCrowd QUALIFYING AND ELIMINATION FINALS St Helens R.F.C.28 – 12 Warrington Wolves 10 September, 8:00pmGPW Recruitment StadiumRichard Silverwood (Dewsbury)14,632 Huddersfield Giants18 – 12 Crusaders11 September, 3:45pmGalpharm StadiumBen Thaler(Wakefield) 5,869 Hull4 – 21 Hull Kingston Rovers11 September, 6:00pmKC StadiumPhil Bentham (Warrington)17,699 Wigan Warriors26 – 27 Leeds Rhinos12 September, 6:45pmDW StadiumThierry Alibert (Toulouse)14,987 PRELIMINARY SEMI-FINALS Wigan Warriors42 – 18 Hull Kingston Rovers17 September, 8:00pmDW StadiumR Silverwood11,133 Warrington Wolves 22 – 34 Huddersfield Giants18 September, 6:15pmHalliwell Jones StadiumP Bentham8,050 SEMI-FINALS St Helens R.F.C. 42 – 22 Huddersfield Giants24 September, 8:00pmGPW Recruitment StadiumP Bentham13,510 Leeds Rhinos 6 – 26 Wigan Warriors25 September, 5:15pmHeadingley StadiumR Silverwood13,693 GRAND FINAL St Helens R.F.C. 10 – 22 Wigan Warriors2 October, 6:00pmOld Trafford, ManchesterR Silverwood71,526
Awards Awards have been presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs: Man of Steel: Pat Richards (Wigan Warriors)Wigan's Pat Richards named 2010 Man of Steel BBC Sport, 27 September 2010 Young Player of the Year: Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors) Coach of the Year: Michael Maguire (Wigan Warriors) Top Tackler: Dallas Johnson (Catalans Dragons) Top Points Scorer: Pat Richards (Wigan Warriors) Most Meters: James Graham (St. Helens) Team of the Season: Wigan Warriors Albert Goldthorpe Medal: Pat Richards and Sam Tomkins (both Wigan Warriors) Rugby League Writers Player of the Year: Pat Richards (Wigan Warriors)Wigan's Pat Richards wins RLWA player of the year BBC Sport, 7 September 2010
Disciplinary record
The following table lists all incidents that were reviewed by the Rugby Football League during Super League XV, which were later deemed "guilty" and resulted in disciplinary action. The offenses were graded, depending on severity, in alphabetical order, "A" being less severe than "B".
Media
Television 2010 was the second of a three-year broadcasting agreement between the RFL and BSkyB for Sky Sports to screen matches exclusively live within the United Kingdom. The deal for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 season was worth in excess of £50 million.
Sky Sports' continued coverage in the UK sees two live matches broadcast each week - one on Friday at 7:30pm and another at 6pm on Saturday. Regular commentators are Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Highlights are shown on Boots N' All which is shown on Sky Sports and is rebroadcast on the Internet.
BBC Sport broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, usually presented by Harry Gration. The BBC have elected to broadcast this only to the North West, Yorkshire and North Midlands, North East and Cumbria, and East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on a Sunday. A national repeat is broadcast overnight during the week, the BBC Director of Sport, Richard Moseley, commented that this move was in response to the growing popularity and awareness of the sport, and the large number of requests from people who want to watch it elsewhere in the UK. End of season play-offs are shown across the whole country in a highlights package. Super League Show is available for streaming or downloaded using the BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Orange Sport TV in France shows every Catalans Dragons home match live and also some other matches which are broadcast in the UK live on Sky.
Internationally Super League is shown live on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Sky Sport (New Zealand), NTV+ (Russia), SportKlub (Eastern Europe).
2010 was the second year of a three-year deal in which the Nine Network in Australia show up to 70 live games from Super League over the season.
In the United States America One show live Super League games from 2010.Engage Super League expands its horizons in 2010 Engage Super League, 4 February 2010
Channel Nine started coverage of 2010 matches from 7 March at midnight (leading into Monday morning) due to coverage of the Winter Olympics they could not show the earlier matches.
Radio Super League XV is covered extensively by BBC Local Radio: BBC Radio Manchester cover Wigan, Salford and Warrington BBC Radio Humberside cover Hull KR and Hull BBC Radio Leeds cover Bradford, Leeds, Castleford, Wakefield and Huddersfield BBC Radio Merseyside (AM/DAB only) cover St Helens and Warrington
The competition is also covered on commercial radio coverage:
BCB 106.6 (Bradford Community Broadcasting) cover Bradford Bulls home and away Radio Aire cover Leeds Rhinos KCFM Hull cover Hull KR and Hull Radio Marseillette covers every Catalans Dragons Home Match (in French) Radio France Bleu Roussillon covers every Catalans Dragons Away Match (in French) Yorkshire Radio cover all Yorkshire clubs and have one commentary per round which is not covered by either BBC or Sky
All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.
Internet ESPN3 has worldwide broadband rights.
Starting from 9 April 2009, all of the matches shown on Sky Sports are also 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 Livestation.com