Super League XXIV, known as the Betfred Super League XXIV for sponsorship reasons, was the 2019 iteration of and the 24th season of the Super League and 125th season of rugby league in Great Britain.
Twelve teams competed over 29 rounds, including the Magic Weekend, which took place at Anfield. After the regular rounds, the top five highest teams entered the Super League play-offs, for a place in the Super League Grand Final.
London Broncos were immediately relegated to the Championship after only being promoted last year, but a bad season saw them win just 10 games out of 29. They will be replaced by Toronto Wolfpack.
Wigan Warriors were the defending champions, but they were eliminated from the competition, after suffering back to back defeats in the semi-finals. First against St Helens in the semi final, and eventually losing out to Salford in the preliminary final.
Toronto Wolfpack won the Million Pound Game by beating Featherstone Rovers 24–6 and were promoted to the Super League, for the first time in the club's history.
St. Helens were crowned champions on 12 October, after a 23–6 victory over Salford, which saw them claim their first championship in 5 years.
Format
Following a vote of RFL clubs in 2018, Super League has implemented a number of changes to the format for Super League XXIV. The Qualifiers were scrapped and the play-offs for the Super League Grand Final changed from a top four to top five play-offs system for the first time in 18 years as it was last used in 2001. For relegation, the Rugby League Super 8s were also scrapped so that the team that finishes bottom of the Super League will be relegated and replaced by the winner of the Championship Grand Final. The Magic Weekend was held on 25 and 26 May at Anfield in Liverpool. Each team will play each other home and away, with an extra game at the Magic Weekend, before a series of 6 "loop" fixtures are played to finish the regular season.
The Super League game between Catalans Dragons and Wigan Warriors, saw a new record crowd of 31,555 fans, and it was the first game to be played at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium on 18 May 2019.
Catalan went on to win the match, 33–16, thus ending a 10-game losing streak against Wigan, and their first win over Wigan since 2015.
For the first time in Super League history, the Derby between St Helens and Wigan was not televised, as Sky Sports opted to televise the relegation battle between Leeds and Hull KR.
St Helens won the League Leaders Shield for the second season running on 3 August when Warrington Wolves were beaten 30-10 by Catalans Dragons, thus ensuring that 2nd placed Warrington, 12 points behind with 5 games left, could no longer catch the Saints.
Teams Super League XXIV featured twelve teams. This is also the fourth year since promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the competition. London Broncos were promoted from the Championship after defeating Toronto Wolfpack in the final Million Pound Game to compete in Super League for the first time since 2014. They also received special dispensation from the RFL to play their home Super League matches at their Trailfinders Sports Ground, which they share with rugby union's Ealing Trailfinders, even though it is smaller than the RFL's minimum seating requirements. London replaced Widnes Vikings who were relegated last season.
Just prior to the start of the season Wigan Warriors were fined and deducted two competition points for breaching the salary cap in 2017; however, on 6 March following an appeal, the points deduction was suspended, and Wigan were reinstated the 2 points, as long as the club do not breach the salary cap in the following 12 months.
Twelve teams were selected to play in the inaugural Super League season. Legend Reigning Champions Previous season League Leaders Promoted Team2018 positionStadiumCapacityCity/Area Castleford Tigers(2019 season) 3rd The Mend-A-Hose Jungle 11,750 Castleford, West Yorkshire Catalans Dragons(2019 season) 7th Stade Gilbert Brutus 14,000 Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France Huddersfield Giants(2019 season) 6th John Smith's Stadium 24,544 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire Hull(2019 season) 8th KCOM Stadium 25,404 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire Hull Kingston Rovers(2019 season) 10th Lightstream Stadium 12,225 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire Leeds Rhinos(2019 season) 9th Headingley Carnegie Stadium 22,250 Leeds, West Yorkshire London Broncos(2019 season) 2nd in Championship (Promoted) Trailfinders Sports Ground 4,000 Ealing, London Salford Red Devils(2019 season) 11th AJ Bell Stadium 12,000 Salford, Greater Manchester St. Helens(2019 season) 1st (League leaders) Totally Wicked Stadium 18,000 St. Helens, Merseyside Wakefield Trinity(2019 season) 5th Beaumont Legal Stadium 11,000 Wakefield, West Yorkshire Warrington Wolves(2019 season) 4th (Runners Up) Halliwell Jones Stadium 15,500 Warrington, Cheshire Wigan Warriors(2019 season) 2nd (Champions) DW Stadium 25,138 Wigan, Greater Manchester
Results
Golden Point Extra Time Golden-point extra-time, shot clocks and a reduced number of interchanges are among the law changes confirmed by Super League for the 2019 season.
On 19 November 2018, it was confirmed that Super League would be adopting golden point during regular season for the first time as of the start of the 2019 season, bringing it in line with the NRL which has been using the system since 2003.
The 12 clubs announced the introduction of golden-point extra-time in November, with games level at full-time, to be decided in two additional five-minute periods. If it remains level after the extra 10 minutes, the match will end as a draw.
Game 1 (Wigan v Hull FC) The first game to go to golden-point, was the round 3 game between Wigan and Hull F.C. on 24 February 2019. Hull won 23–22, after the scores were tied at 22-all after 80 minutes.
Game 2 (Leeds v Castleford) The second game to go to golden-point, was the round 8 game between Leeds and Castleford, on 28 March 2019. Leeds won the match 21–20, after a 40m field goal from Brad Dwyer after the scores were tied at 20-all after 80 minutes.
Game 3 (Catalans v Hull FC) The third game to go to golden-point, was the round 10 game between Catalans and Hull FC, on 12 April 2019. Hull won the match 31–30, thanks to a Marc Sneyd field goal, after the scores were tied at 30-all after 80 minutes. This is Hull's 2nd golden point victory so far this season, Sneyd has scored the decisive field goal in both.
Game 4 (Castleford v Huddersfield) The fourth game to go to golden-point, was the round 17 game between Castleford and Huddersfield Giants on 7 June 2019. Castleford won the match 27–26, thanks to a Peter Matautia field goal, after the scores were tied at 26-all after 80 minutes.
Game 5 (London v St Helens) The fifth game to go to golden-point, was the round 17 game between London Broncos and St Helens on 9 June 2019. London won the match 23–22, thanks to a Morgan Smith field goal, after the scores were tied at 22-all after 80 minutes.
Game 6 (Hull KR v Castleford) The sixth game to go to golden-point, was the round 24 game between Hull KR and Castleford on 4 August 2019. Hull KR won the match 27–26, thanks to a Danny McGuire field goal, after the scores were tied at 26-all after 80 minutes.
This was the 3rd time that Castleford had forced extra time, winning just once
Game 7 (Salford v Hull KR) The seventh game to go to golden-point, was the round 29 game between Salford and Hull KR on 13 September 2019. Salford won 17–16, after the scores were tied at 16-all after 80 minutes.
Table
Playoffs The play-off system in use for 2019 was also previously used between 1998 and 2001.
Week 1: Elimination and qualifying finals HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendanceElimination final Warrington Wolves12–14 Castleford Tigers19 September 2019, 19:45Halliwell Jones StadiumChris Kendall5,627Qualifying final Wigan Warriors18–12 Salford Red Devils20 September 2019, 19:45DW StadiumRobert Hicks9,247Progress to semi-final 2: Castleford, Salford Progress to semi-final 1: Wigan Eliminated: Warrington Source:
Week 2: Semi-finals
HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendanceSemi-final 1 Salford22–0 Castleford26 September 2019, 19:45AJ Bell StadiumBen Thaler6,000Semi-final 2 St. Helens40–10 Wigan27 September 2019, 19:45Totally Wicked StadiumChris Kendall14,508Progress to Preliminary Final: Salford Red Devils, Wigan Warriors Progress to Grand Final: St Helens Eliminated: Castleford Source:
Week 3: Preliminary final
HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendance Wigan4–28 Salford4 October 2019, 19:45DW StadiumBen Thaler9,858Progress to Grand Final: Salford Eliminated: Wigan Source:
Week 4: Grand final
HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendance St Helens23 – 6 Salford12 October 2019, 18:00Old Trafford, ManchesterChris Kendall64,102 Source:
Player statistics
Top 10 try scorers RankPlayerClubTries1 Tommy Makinson St. Helens232= Ash Handley Leeds Rhinos22 Niall Evalds Salford Red Devils4 Regan Grace St. Helens205= Kevin Naiqama St. Helens18 Blake Austin Warrington Wolves7= Jermaine McGillvary Huddersfield Giants17 Jonny Lomax St. Helens Josh Charnley Warrington Wolves10 Liam Marshall Wigan Warriors16
Top 10 try assists RankPlayerClubAssists1 Jackson Hastings Salford Red Devils362= Lachlan Coote St. Helens22 Theo Fages St. Helens4= Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.21 Jonny Lomax St. Helens George Williams Wigan Warriors7= Paul McShane Castleford Tigers19 Daryl Clark Warrington Wolves9= Sam Tomkins Catalans Dragons18 Lee Gaskell Huddersfield Giants Josh Drinkwater Hull KR
Top 10 goal scorers RankPlayerClubGoalsDrop Goals1 Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.10472 Lachlan Coote St. Helens10113 Zak Hardaker Wigan Warriors9314= Krisnan Inu Salford Red Devils841 Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves06 Sam Tomkins Catalans Dragons7617 Kieran Dixon London Broncos7508 Danny Brough Wakefield Trinity7259 Ryan Shaw Hull KR63010 Peter Matautia Castleford Tigers541
Top 10 points scorers RankPlayerClubPoints1 Lachlan Coote St. Helens 2592 Zak Hardaker Wigan Warriors2313 Marc Sneyd Hull F.C.2234 Krisnan Inu Salford Red Devils1975 Kieran Dixon London Broncos1906 Sam Tomkins Catalans Dragons1897 Stefan Ratchford Warrington Wolves1848 Danny Brough Wakefield Trinity1579 Ryan Shaw Hull KR14210 Peter Mata'utia Castleford Tigers119
Statistics correct, as of 20 September 2019 (Play off game 2)
Discipline
Red Cards RankPlayerClub Red Cards1= Jesse Sene-Lefao Castleford Tigers 1 Michael McIlorum Catalans Dragons Sam Tomkins Catalans Dragons Josh Griffin Hull F.C. Brad Singleton Leeds Rhinos Ben Westwood Warrington Wolves
Yellow Cards