Category: Rugby League

Rugby League News

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Ambitious investors want to power London Broncos to Super League

A group of Australian millionaires aim to transform the 22nd best team in the country into one of the elite

By No Helmets Required

If you heard that a group of Australian millionaires had attended the London Broncos v Bradford Bulls game at Plough Lane on Saturday with a view to buying one of rugby league’s sleeping giants, you might assume they were interested in the visitors, who won the match by 10 points to keep the pressure on York and Toulouse at the top of the Championship table.

But Brisbane Broncos and Australia legend Darren Lockyer, his long-term business partner Grant Wechsel of MWG Mining, and the former Brisbane Broncos CEO Paul White are about to become majority investors in London Broncos. The former South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has agreed to become their new head coach, they have lined up a string of players from the NRL and aim to be in Super League by 2027, if not 2026.

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Roy Francis: the black rugby league coach who triumphed in a white world

The Welshman was a brilliant, original coach who had to fight against a culture that was prejudiced against him

By No Helmets Required

Hull FC began one of the greatest seasons in their history 70 years ago this week. Roy Francis guided them to their first title in 20 years with a desperately tight 10-9 win over Halifax at Maine Road. Not only was Francis an outstanding coach but he was black and this was the 1950s. In his majestic new book Rugby’s Forgotten Black Leader, Tony Collins calls Francis “quite probably the only black person to be a leader of white people in any walk of life in Britain”. He really was extraordinary.

No one had written in great depth about Francis and then two books came along almost at once. Peter Lush’s Ahead of his Time focuses on his tremendous playing and coaching career, whereas Collins widens the lens to take in Francis’s remarkable life.

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The Breakdown | Women’s World Cup creates legacy in rugby league’s backyard

A festival atmosphere in Sunderland, Salford and York may succeed in inspiring the next generation of England stars

The streets of Eccles have given little away on the face of it over the past two Saturdays. Local residents are going about their business, the nearby canal path is full of walkers and runners, and there is a slumberous Saturday morning feel: until you turn into the Salford Community Stadium.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup has made a strong start with decent crowds and good viewing figures. But there was a concerted effort to go beyond familiar territory in this tournament and lay down some roots in the north of England, too. The early signs suggest that may well have been achieved.

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A bigger Super League is not the only change coming rugby league’s way | Gavin Willacy

The Challenge Cup, Magic Weekend, international calendar and women’s game will look different next year

By No Helmets Required

Super League is going to look different next season. The big news is that the division is likely to expand to 14 teams, but that’s not the only change coming for fans. A review into the sport led by Nigel Wood has suggested various new ideas, with Magic Weekend, the Challenge Cup, international fixtures, the Championship, women’s and wheelchair games all affected. Now that the report has been digested, we have a fuller picture of how the sport will shape up in 2026.

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NRL player Brandon Smith hit with drug supply and betting charges

  • South Sydney star issued with summons by Queensland Police

  • 29-year-old hooker set to appear in court on 18 September

NRL star Brandon Smith has been charged with drug supply and using inside knowledge for betting.

The South Sydney hooker was questioned by police when he arrived in Queensland ahead of their 10 August clash with Gold Coast, but released without charge.

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Salford stumble on in crisis with their future on the line and fans demanding answers

Troubled club at least manage to fulfil a fixture before losing 38-6 at Leigh, but Super League status is looking desperate

The notion of Salford walking out on Friday night to play their game against Leigh may seem to casual observers like a positive step, given they failed to fulfil their recent fixture against Wakefield and seem engulfed in a perma-crisis.

In hindsight, the Salford warning signs were there last winter when the club requested an advance of £500,000 on their central distribution to survive the off-season. “We should have seen the wolves were at the door then,” one Super League chief executive said this week.

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Salford crisis deepens with Wakefield match cancelled over welfare concerns

  • Red Devils have only two senior players available

  • COO Claire Bradbury accused ownership of misogyny

The crisis at Salford Red Devils has deepened on and off the field in the past 24 hours. On Thursday, their chief operating officer claimed she had resigned after the club’s ­ownership suggested she “sleep with someone at the RFL” to ­alleviate their financial issues and on Friday the club’s Super League game against Wakefield on Sunday was cancelled.

The Red Devils have been embroiled in controversy for most of 2025, following a takeover by a consortium led by Dario Berta. Players and staff have repeatedly been paid late, most of their first-team squad have left and the club is in court next month over an unpaid tax bill of almost £700,000.

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Expanding Super League to 14 teams is unpopular. But it might just work

No one seems to want a bigger league – other than the clubs that will benefit – but it’s not an entirely bad idea

By No Helmets Required

Do you know anyone who thinks expanding Super League to 14 clubs next season is a good idea, beyond the people who voted for it and the Championship clubs with hopes of promotion? Me neither. When almost no one thinks something is the right thing to do, it almost certainly isn’t. But why have nine successful businessmen made such a controversial decision? Let’s analyse the widespread objections to the idea and play devil’s advocate to see if there are valid reasons for making a change.

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Sport England to meet RFL over concerns with rugby league funding at stake

  • RFL under scrutiny after controversial appointment

  • Funding is critical to future of the sport

Sport England will meet the Rugby Football League in the coming weeks to air their concerns over developments at the governing body. It is a move that could affect the sport’s financial outlook.

Rugby league is one of several sports in receipt of millions of pounds worth of funding from Sport England every year. That is critical to the existence of the sport and is particularly important for the RFL, with continued adherence to the code for sports governance essential to maintain it.

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What happened to the rugby league Lions – and could they be revived?

While Andy Farrell’s team are winning matches and fans in Australia, the league Lions remain in hibernation

By No Helmets Required

If the British & Irish Lions complete a clean sweep against the Wallabies on Saturday in Sydney, there will be more talk of Australia no longer being a sufficiently challenging destination for a Lions tour. It’s a mirror image of what has happened to the rugby league Lions over the past 15 years, with Australia deciding that neither Great Britain nor England brought the jeopardy, ticket sales or eyeballs required to justify an incoming tour. Instead, the Kangaroos will visit London, Liverpool and Leeds later this year to play England.

It has been 33 years since Great Britain toured Australia. Martin Offiah lit up that series in 1992, scoring seven tries in six Tests against Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Offiah, who won 33 caps for Great Britain, as well as five for England, cannot believe the Rugby Football League and Australian Rugby League have allowed these showcase events to fade from view. “As a nation we’ve got to have regular fixtures against Australia,” says Offiah. “Not playing them since the World Cup final in 2017 is crazy. When you’re trying to get across that bridge and match them, that’s a massive gap. And we should have been Great Britain for this series – then gone back to England for the World Cup.”

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Super League votes to add two clubs and return to 14-team competition for 2026

  • Top-flight clubs agree to expansion for next season

  • Bradford Bulls and London Broncos could go up

Super League will become a 14-team competition again in 2026 after rugby league’s elite clubs opted to expand by two teams for the start of next season.

The league has operated with 12 teams for the last decade but clubs agreed to the expansion on Monday at a meeting in Leeds which opens the door for at least two Championship teams to join the elite ranks for 2026.

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Ray French, former BBC rugby league commentator, dies aged 85

  • Played internationally in union and league

  • Led BBC coverage for 38 years

Ray French, the former rugby league commentator, has died at the age of 85. He had been living with dementia.

He played internationally in union, winning four caps in the second row for England in 1961, before moving to league and joining his home town club, St Helens, that year and helped them win the Challenge Cup in 1966. He appeared four times for Great Britain, in 1968.

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Judge criticises solicitor acting on behalf of players with brain injury lawsuits

  • More than 1,000 players from both codes taking action

  • Solicitor under ‘misapprehension’ about responsibilities

The judge presiding over the two brain injury lawsuits in rugby league and union has issued an extraordinary criticism of the solicitor acting on behalf of the injured players, saying that he had been under a “misapprehension” about his responsibilities and that “he seems to have a problem with the English language”.

Senior master Jeremy Cook said that Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth is representing more than 1,000 players across both codes, had failed to disclose material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, and Rugby Football League.

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Embattled Salford players out to avoid tag of Super League’s worst ever team

The Red Devils are showing spirit and improving on the field, but they may still finish the season on zero points

By No Helmets Required

For much of last Friday’s game at Leeds, no one could possibly think they were watching one of the worst teams in rugby league history. Salford eventually sank to a 40-6 defeat, a harsh scoreline given they were the better side in the first half and conceded 18 points in the 10 minutes they had a man sin-binned. Despite a week of huge upheaval – players threatening a strike, crisis meetings with the Rugby Football League and a squad stripped by injuries of another three senior players – Salford competed heroically.

It was another spirited display after their victory over Castleford – just their second win of the season – but coach Paul Rowley is not expecting things to keep getting better over the remaining eight rounds of the season. Wages are due next week, with some players extremely concerned that, once they play the final game of the campaign at home to Wakefield on 19 September, they may not receive the final two paychecks of their contracts. Threats of a strike were quashed after a meeting with the RFL, but the players know they face an uncertain future.

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