Super League Grand Final


The Super League Grand Final is the championship-deciding game of rugby league's Super League competition. It is played between two teams who have qualified via the Super League play-offs. The winning team receives the Super League Trophy and goes on to play the NRL champions in the World Club Challenge. As of 2024, the Rob Burrow Award is awarded to the man of the match, replacing the Harry Sunderland Trophy. The match is normally played at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester.
Only five clubs have won the Super League, as of 2025 - St Helens, Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Bradford Bulls, and Hull KR. St Helens and Bradford Bulls each won one of their Super League titles before the Play Off and Grand Final system was introduced in 1998.
Hull KR are the current champions, after winning the 2025 Super League Grand Final, defeating Wigan Warriors 24–6, to win 3 trophies in the same year.

Background

Use of a play-off system to decide the Championship brought back a rugby league tradition that had fallen out of use in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The Premiership replaced the Championship final but it was to decide the Premiership winners, not the Championship winners. The Premiership was discontinued after the introduction of the Super League play-off series in 1998, ending with the Super League Grand Final, the concept inspired by the NRL Grand Final in Australia. The inaugural Grand Final match was played that year on Saturday 24 October, between Wigan Warriors and Leeds Rhinos.

Venue

The Grand Final has been held on a Saturday at Old Trafford in Manchester every year since 1998. The only exception to this was the 2020 final, which as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic causing fixture congestion with Manchester United F.C.'s 2020-21 season, was rescheduled to be held at the KCOM Stadium in Kingston upon Hull. The match was also held on a Friday night for the first and only time in its history.
CityStadiumYears

Trophy

The winners of the Super League collect the Grand Final rings and the team's name, captain and year are engraved into the trophy. The winners also collect £100,000 with the runner up collecting £50,000.
Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield currently holds the record for captaining the most Super League title winning sides after leading Leeds to seven of their Grand Final successes. St Helens contested the final six consecutive seasons during which time they succeeded only once in lifting the trophy, against Hull F.C. in 2006, after which they suffered consecutive defeats against Leeds in 2007, 2008, 2009, Wigan in 2010 and Leeds once again in 2011.

Awards

The Rob Burrow Award is awarded to the Man-of-the-Match in the Super League Grand Final by the Rugby League Writers' Association. The award was introduced in tribute to Rob Burrow for the 2024 Grand Final; Burrow, who won eight grand finals with Leeds Rhinos and has been awarded the Harry Sunderland award himself twice, died in June 2024 of Motor Neurone Disease. The inaugural Rob Burrow Award was handed to Wigan Warriors stand-off Bevan French by Rob Burrow's father Geoff Burrow following the conclusion of the 2024 final on 12 October.
Before 2024, the trophy was named the Harry Sunderland Trophy in tribute to Harry Sunderland, who was an Australian rugby league football administrator in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The Trophy was first awarded in the Rugby Football League Championship Final of the 1964–65 season following Sunderland's death and was retained with the introduction of the Super League Grand Final in 1998.

Finals

The Super League Grand Final has been the championship-deciding game since Super League III in 1998:
YearWinnersScoreRunner-upAttendance
1998 Wigan Warriors10–4 Leeds Rhinos43,533
1999 St Helens8–6 Bradford Bulls
2000 St Helens Wigan Warriors
2001 Bradford Bulls37-6 Wigan Warriors 60,164
2002 St Helens19-18 Bradford Bulls 61,138
2003 Bradford Bulls25-12 Wigan Warriors 65,537
2004 Leeds Rhinos16-8 Bradford Bulls 65,547
2005 Bradford Bulls15-6 Leeds Rhinos 65,728
2006 St Helens26-4 Hull F.C. 72,575
2007 Leeds Rhinos33-6 St Helens 71,352
2008 Leeds Rhinos24-16 St Helens 68,810
2009 Leeds Rhinos18-10 St Helens 63,259
2010 Wigan Warriors22-10 St Helens 71,526
2011 Leeds Rhinos32-16 St Helens 69,107
2012 Leeds Rhinos26-18 Warrington Wolves 70,676
2013 Wigan Warriors30-16 Warrington Wolves 66,281
2014 St Helens14-6 Wigan Warriors 70,102
2015 Leeds Rhinos22-20 Wigan Warriors 73,512
2016 Wigan Warriors12-6 Warrington Wolves 70,202
2017 Leeds Rhinos24-6 Castleford Tigers 72,827
2018 Wigan Warriors12-4 Warrington Wolves 64,892
2019 St Helens23-6 Salford Red Devils 64,102
2020 St Helens8-4 Wigan Warriors0
2021 St Helens12-10 Catalans Dragons 45,177
2022 St Helens24-12 Leeds Rhinos 60,783
2023 Wigan Warriors10-2 Catalans Dragons 58,137
2024 Wigan Warriors9-2 Hull Kingston Rovers 68,173
2025 Hull Kingston Rovers24-6 Wigan Warriors 68,853

Results

The Double

The Treble

The Quadruple

Pre-match entertainment

Match records

  • Largest margin of victory: 31 points
Bradford 37–6 Wigan
  • Smallest margin of victory: 1 point
St Helens 19–18 Bradford
  • Highest scoring: 48 points
Leeds 32–16 St Helens
  • Lowest scoring: 11 points
Wigan Warriors 9–2 Hull KR
  • Highest attendance: 73,512
Leeds vs Wigan
  • Lowest attendance: 43,533
Leeds vs Wigan