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Continue reading...‘You need enemies’: joy for Super League as Bradford and Leeds finally resume rivalry
Heavyweight fixture that featured icons such as Kevin Sinfield and Lesley Vainikolo returns after 12-year hiatus
It will almost feel as if Super League has stepped back in time on Friday night as the rivalry that defined the competition’s early years returns after a 12-year hiatus, and it will not just be across West Yorkshire that eyes will be on Odsal Stadium for Bradford Bulls’ derby with Leeds Rhinos. In a small corner of New Zealand, Lesley Vainikolo will interrupt his Saturday morning to watch the return of the derby he starred in for Bradford during the early 2000s, and he will probably not be alone.
Dubbed the Volcano because of his incredible try-scoring record, with 149 in 152 games for the Bulls, Vainikolo rarely gives interviews these days. But the lure of discussing one of Super League’s biggest fixtures returning was too much to resist. “There is no way I’d miss it,” says the 46-year-old, who is now director of rugby at Wesley College near Auckland, the school that forged the career of Jonah Lomu.
Continue reading...Super League at 30: how media coverage has changed since 1996
After covering changes for matchgoing fans, Gavin Willacy assesses how coverage has transformed for fans at home
Super League celebrated its 30th birthday in style at the weekend. The main party was at Headingley, where Leeds hosted Warrington in a repeat of one of the league’s original fixtures. As Sky Sports anchor Brian Carney welcomed guest after illustrious guest to reminisce about their past heroics, we were shown clips from three of the opening round of games from 1996. That’s because only three were televised. And that was one more than Sky normally showed, despite having spent £87m on the new competition. All seven Super League games were shown live last weekend.
We now consume the game on our phones rather than through hourly radio bulletins. Unless you had a satellite dish on your house in the mid-1990s, you couldn’t watch Super League’s launch. For the opening weekend, Sky sent the media circus to Paris, Oldham and Leeds. By all accounts, members of the press pack were well oiled. In 2026, Super League on Sky is just a well-oiled machine.
Continue reading...Super League at 30: how the sport has changed for matchgoing fans
A lot has changed since 1996 – summer matches, bigger crowds, more foreign players, a salary cap, skin-tight jerseys and female referees – but some things always stay the same
The first season of Super League kicked off on 29 March 1996, when 17,873 people watched Paris Saint-Germain beat Sheffield Eagles 30–24 at Stade Charléty. The opening fixture might sound outlandish 30 years later, but the first season of the competition set the tone for the next decade.
St Helens ended Wigan’s run of seven successive titles and Bradford showed what was to come by finishing third. The three clubs would dominate the opening era of the new competition before Leeds finally fulfilled their potential. Leeds RLFC (rhinos were still something you only saw at the zoo) finished 10th in the inaugural season, winning just six of their 22 games. Hull KR were scrambling off the canvas, romping to the third-tier title, while Hull FC finished third in the second tier behind Salford and Keighley.
Continue reading...Featherstone’s long and quiet Sundays in a rugby league town that lost its soul
Club’s financial crisis meant exclusion from the RFL Championship this season, and it could be a long way back for one of the sport’s storied names
Sunday afternoon in Featherstone. The first shoots of spring are creaking through the skyline and the Railway pub is bustling with rugby league supporters as the town’s pride and joy, Featherstone Rovers, prepare to face Swinton Lions.
Or at least, that is what should have happened last weekend. Instead, streets of this West Yorkshire town built on coal mining were deserted. The Railway, just a few hundred yards from Rovers’ Post Office Road home, was largely empty and the gates of the stadium chained shut.
Continue reading...‘A shithouse stadium’: NRL coach left needing stitches to hand after glass shatters at Canberra stadium
Visiting Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo sustains deep gash
Calls intensify for ageing GIO Stadium to undergo refurbishment
Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo has joined growing calls for Canberra’s GIO Stadium to undergo a face lift after revealing he would need stitches after glass shattered on him in the ageing arena.
While the visiting coach was left with a deep gash in his hand, Raiders boss Ricky Stuart also weighed in, calling his side’s home arena a “shithouse stadium” and claiming authorities didn’t care about the state of the 1970s-built venue.
Continue reading...Judge in rugby brain injury lawsuit tells legal teams to hurry up as cases drag on
Five years on and little progress made, says judge
Litigants have until October to choose 28 lead claimants
The judge overseeing the pretrial phase of the two landmark litigation cases about brain injuries in rugby has issued another rebuke to the legal teams on both sides over their lack of progress.
Senior Master Jeremy Cook started the latest round of case management hearings by reminding both the defendants and the claimants that “it won’t have escaped anybody’s notice that some of these claims are now over five years old, and we haven’t made much progress”. Since the cases involve claims of degenerative brain diseases, Cook said, time is at a premium.
Continue reading...Fans storm field as South Sydney veteran Alex Johnston breaks NRL try-scoring record
Wild celebrations during game despite threat of fines
Winger scores 213th try of his career against Roosters
Thousands of fans have stormed onto the field at Allianz Stadium to celebrate South Sydney veteran Alex Johnston breaking the NRL’s try-scoring record.
The winger entered the history books when a break down the left edge put him over for his 213th career try, and his second in Friday’s clash with bitter rivals Sydney Roosters.
Continue reading...‘That day changed my life’: when Italy beat England in rugby league
Italy have finally beaten England at rugby union. Their rugby league team did it at the first attempt
In a bar at the Valle d’Aosta ski resort last Saturday evening, there were only two people celebrating when Tommaso Menoncello raced away to seal Italy’s first win against England in rugby union, at the 33rd attempt. One of them was on the field the day Italy beat England at rugby league. Not that Gioele Celerino told the England fans who surrounded him and his pal, offering congratulations on Italy’s historic triumph. “I was too humble!” he jokes. “In the pub, everyone came over to me and the other guy and said ‘congratulations’ like we had just finished playing!”
Celerino was part of the team that beat England in a warm-up match before the World Cup in October 2013. Steve McNamara’s star-studded England side – Kevin Sinfield, Rob Burrow, Sam Tomkins et all – were stunned by an Italy team drawn from Australia, France, Argentina and England, coached by Carlo Napolitano, the son of Salford restaurateurs.
Continue reading...Codebreakers: rugby players who shift between union, league and sevens
Male and female players are increasingly willing and able to switch codes, with some even playing all three
Charlotte Caslick epitomises the term code agnostic. The 31-year-old has clocked up 328 appearances for Australia in rugby sevens, winning Olympic gold, Commonwealth gold and a Sevens World Cup along the way; she’s played rugby union for her state and country; and rugby league in the world’s biggest women’s club competition in any code, the NRLW. So, why is she – and so many other players from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific – good enough to switch between codes – and why do they want to?
“It probably comes down to the way we grow up,” says Caslick. “We play so many different sports all year round, changing between them. Boys will play school rugby on Saturday then club rugby league on Sunday for as long as they can. More girls are starting to do that as well. Throw in touch or oztag, and we have so many opportunities. It challenges athletes to find where they are best suited. Until you get exposed to different formats, you don’t know which one is for you.”
Continue reading...Bulldogs’ Stephen Crichton kicks golden-point winner in final seconds to beat Dragons
Canterbury defeats St George Illawarra 15-14 in Las Vegas
Knights beat Cowboys 28-18 in NRL opener at Allegiant Stadium
Canterbury skipper Stephen Crichton stood up like only he can to land a field goal with six seconds of golden point remaining to sink a gallant St George Illawarra 15-14.
A record Las Vegas crowd of 45,719 got their first taste of golden point and it took 89 minutes and 54 seconds of a cracking, old-fashioned arm wrestle to split the teams.
Continue reading...Leeds’ Maika Sivo stars in demolition of Hull KR in Las Vegas
Hull KR 6-58 Leeds Rhinos
Ex-Parramatta veteran scores four tries
Hull KR may well be rugby league’s newly crowned world champions but on the biggest stage the sport can provide its superstar athletes, it was Leeds Rhinos who produced their very best in Las Vegas to absolutely dismantle the Super League champions in spectacular fashion.
A week on from stunning NRL premiers Brisbane Broncos to win the World Club Challenge for the first time, the Robins headed Stateside keen to put on another show to further enhance their burgeoning reputation as one of rugby league’s great sides. But the Super League champions were ultimately humbled by one of their main title rivals.
Continue reading...Super League is NRL’s secret weapon as 12,000 English fans head to Vegas
Hull KR face Leeds in Sin City on Saturday, with the supporters they bring in tow illustrating the league’s value to the global game
Rugby league’s greatest ride returns to Las Vegas this weekend with Super League nestled firmly in the sidecar. Two NRL fixtures kick off the Australian season while Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos open up the Allegiant Stadium action on Saturday. More than 12,000 English fans are expected to make the trip and add plenty of colour, flair and, most importantly, value.
This has been a strong start to 2026 for the game in England, evidenced last week by Hull KR’s triumph over Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Challenge. It is handy for Super League that the Robins are one of two clubs in Vegas representing the competition this week and they have even flown the trophy over to hammer home the point that Super League holds the cards when it comes to the best club side in the game.
Continue reading...Sports quiz of the week: Olympic heroes, world champions and Norwegian stars
Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby, ice hockey, skiing, boxing, cricket and motor racing?
Continue reading...‘We are quirky and imaginative’: how Hull KR won the treble and world title
The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they reached the top so quickly and what it will take to stay there
When Hull Kingston Rovers play Leeds Rhinos in Las Vegas on Saturday night, they will do so as domestic treble winners and world club champions. The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they made it this far and what they want to achieve next.
Leeds say they will struggle to break even on Vegas as the Super League teams have to pay all their own costs. So how difficult a decision was it to give up a home game to go? “It was a big decision and one that we didn’t take lightly. Part of our strategy is to constantly raise our profile and when you looked at the results from a marketing and audience perspective for Wigan v Warrington in Vegas last year, the eyeballs on that were incredible. You don’t get given a pot of money: you have to generate your own money through ticket sales. But like Leeds, we felt that we have a big enough fanbase to financially support our ability to go out there. It’s an incredibly tough schedule but to put ourselves on that stage was too big an opportunity to turn down. A year ago we said: ‘What if we won the Grand Final? It’ll be the World Club Challenge and straight into Vegas.’ We just decided to worry about it when it happens. And now it’s happened!”
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