Category: Super League Rugby

Minchella on life as a treble winner, his club’s rivalry with Wigan and why playing at Wembley brings it all back

By No Helmets Required

Hull Kingston Rovers and Wigan play each other twice in the next 10 days in two games that will fully test their depth and resilience. After a slow start in Super League, the treble winners are climbing up the table and could go second if they beat Wigan at Craven Park on Thursday night. Their second meeting is at Wembley in the Challenge Cup ​final next Saturday. Rovers seem to be peaking at the right time. They have been punching out peak performances in recent weeks, the latest a tough win at Leigh.

This is a golden era for the club. After reaching the Challenge Cup ​final and Super League semi-finals in 2023, they played in their first Grand Final in 2024, finally won the title last year and were crowned world club champions in February. Willie Peters’ squad are entering their fourth year together. He will leave in October to take over new NRL franchise PNG Chiefs and, even though most of the club’s important players will stay, it feels like their time is now.

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The new Women’s Super League season kicks off this weekend with some big-name coaches and a new format

By No Helmets Required

Wigan have won more league titles than any other team in men’s rugby league, but their dominance in the women’s game is a recent and rapid development. They swept the board last season, winning the Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield and their first Women’s Super League title since 2018. As Wigan begin the defence of their title against Leeds Rhinos this weekend, we take a look at the main issues facing the league.

The continued development of the league is reflected in the increase of high-profile coaches leading women’s teams. Denis Betts, the former Wigan, England and Lions player who previously coached in Super League, guided Wigan to the treble last year and has led the way for others to follow. The season opener on Saturday between York Valkyrie and Huddersfield Giants brings together two former Bradford Bulls full-backs, with Leon Pryce in charge of York and the former Scotland coach Nathan Graham now managing Huddersfield.

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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.

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• 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.

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After hitting rock-bottom, the four-time Super League champions are finally returning to the top flight

By No Helmets Required

When Super League was cut to a dozen teams at the end of the 2014 season, it lost two of its biggest cities in Bradford and London, which followed big markets such as Paris, Tyneside and Sheffield out of the top flight, seemingly never to return. London Broncos have popped back to the party twice but only stayed for a season each time. Seeing the Broncos become a penniless and homeless part-time operation was sad; seeing Bradford do the same was shocking.

The Bulls went into financial meltdown, were liquidated, relegated to the third division and even left their famous Odsal Stadium for a while. Now, 20 years after being crowned world champions for the third time in five seasons, Bradford are back in the big time and preparing to kick off their season at Hull on Saturday.

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A new documentary film shows elite referees are dedicated, passionate and desperate to get decisions right

By No Helmets Required

Fifteen teams are currently grinding their way through pre-season training before the new Super League season. No, the Rugby Football League has not suddenly decided to promote London to the big time. The people who will make the decisions on the pitch without touching the ball are also preparing for the season by hitting the treadmills, pushing weights and running laps at their base in the Etihad Campus in Manchester.

You can get a good idea what that looks like in a new documentary called Beyond the Whistle, which follows the highest-profile British referees through the 2024 season. The 40-minute film focuses on the battle between Liam Moore and Chris Kendall to be the league’s top referee, how the group copes when new rules are foisted upon them, and the work done by head of match officials, Phil Bentham.

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The coach should rethink his halfback combination and stand down his old pack for the game at Everton’s stadium

By No Helmets Required

Having bet the house on Hull KR hero Mikey Lewis being the problem that Australia could not solve, England coach Shaun Wane has retreated home to Wigan to ponder whether he should have stuck rather than twisted. Dropping Harry Smith for the Ashes opener, and favouring treble-winner Lewis to partner captain George Williams in the halves, was surprising but understandable. Lewis, the player of the match in the Super League Grand Final, was in the form of his life. But the Williams-Lewis combination struggled to open up Australia. If they fail again on Saturday in Liverpool, Wane’s dream of winning the Ashes will be over.

“Our last plays disappointed me most,” said Wane after the 26-6 defeat at Wembley. “They outkicked us.” It’s rare anyone outkicks Wigan player Smith. Lewis mixed up his kicks under the arch, but very little troubled Australia. The best attacking kick was a 40-20 from replacement hooker Jez Litten when England trailed by three scores. Even then, Williams fumbled close to the line and five seconds later Reece Walsh had got to the halfway line.

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Hosting the world champions is as tough as it gets, but the players say this is the ‘best England team in a long time’

By No Helmets Required

With the club season over, England players George Williams and Jack Welsby are focusing on their next challenge: an Ashes series against the world champions. The pair will take centre stage at Wembley against Australia on 25 October. We met up in London to discuss the first Ashes series since 2003.

George, as captain, what will you say to players like Jack who have waited so long to face Australia?
Williams: “The last time we played them over here was 2016, which is a long time ago. I was young and came off the bench. It was a good experience. But Jack knows – he’s been around the block long enough now, won Super League titles and played against the NRL’s best, so I don’t have to tell him too much. The younger ones? Probably just enjoy it. They don’t come around often. You want to test yourself against the best in the world. We want to knock them off their perch.”

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• London Broncos’ big names will play in Championship

• Door open for them in 2027 if they can raise grading

York Knights’ owner, Clint Goodchild, believes the club’s historic promotion to the Super League for the first time is a watershed moment for the whole of North Yorkshire, after they and Toulouse were granted admission to the top flight in 2026 and London Broncos missed the cut.

The Knights will play in rugby league’s highest division for the first time since 1986 after they were selected by an independent panel alongside Toulouse to join the top 12 from Thursday’s IMG gradings and expand the Super League to 14 teams for the first time in more than a decade.

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Unpredictability and fresher feel has been apparent in Super League and whets the appetite for England’s home Tests against Australia

For the first time in two decades Super League woke up on Sunday morning with a name other than Wigan Warriors, St Helens or Leeds Rhinos as its champions. Hull KR are the first new winners of the competition since 2004, and only the fifth in history to be crowned at all.

For the Robins, this is a watershed moment. Without a major trophy in 40 years before this season, they have now completed an historic treble in 2025 and are arguably Super League’s premier club side. But for the wider competition as a whole, their success could not have come at a better time.

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