Welcome to Super League: Beginner's guide for 2025

Super League is entering its 30th season and of course it is going to be 12 months of celebrating! Do you want to get to know the sport but aren't sure where to start? Let us help you out...

First things first: What is Super League?

Super League is rugby league's top-flight European competition. Starting back in 1996, the 11 clubs from the Rugby Football League's first division plus new team Paris Saint-Germain came together to start the era of summer rugby and bring the sport into a new era.

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There have been 29 editions of the competition to date, with 2025 marking a big 30th birthday for Super League.

To date, of the 24 clubs who have competed in Super League, ONLY FOUR have won the big prize in the Grand Final at the end of the year: Wigan Warriors (7), St Helens (9), Bradford Bulls (3), and Leeds Rhinos (8).

Talk about domination!

Get them on side: What are the key rules?

Let's put the sport in its simplest terms, shall we?

Rugby League is a 13 vs 13 code of rugby with each team getting six tackles to try and score before the ball is turned over to the opposing outfit. The match is 80 minutes long and split into two 40-minute halves.

Each team then has a bench of four players which can be interchanged throughout the match.

Unlike football, the clock stops for injuries, penalties, and tries.

A try is worth four points, with the subsequent conversion an extra two points. Penalty kicks are also worth two points. A drop-goal is worth an extra one point.

Within the 13 players, there are four main roles: Forwards, backs, hooker and half-backs.

The forwards are mainly focused on driving the ball forward and gaining as many metres as possible. The backs look to attack on the edges. The hooker is there to control the play of the ball (when a player is tackled and the ball is distributed). A half-back controls the distribution of the ball.

In short: 13 players have six chances to get down the field and cross the try line. Simple, right?

Fighting for the win: How many teams are there?

Throughout the years, there have always been 12 clubs competing in Super League and this is no different in 2025.

Castleford Tigers, Catalans Dragons, Huddersfield Giants, Hull FC, Hull KR, Leeds Rhinos, Leigh Leopards, Salford Red Devils, St Helens, Warrington Wolves, Wakefield Trinity, and Wigan Warriors will battle it out from February to be crowned champions in October.

Over the years, there have been another 12 clubs that had their chances in the top competition: London Broncos, Bradford Bulls, Widnes Vikings, Halifax Panthers, Sheffield Eagles, Crusaders, Oldham, Paris Saint-Germain, Gateshead Thunder, Workington Town, Toronto Wolfpack, and Toulouse Olympique.

While often touted as a northern English competition, Super League has certainly had some international reach!

Knockouts? A race for points? The Super League format...

The Super League competition is almost a hybrid of a Premier League football and knockout format.

So, the 12 teams compete across 27 rounds of the regular season, with the top six then making it through to the play-offs.

From there, the top two teams get a rest week, with the third-placed team playing sixth and fourth playing fifth.

The lowest-ranked team from the play-off matches will then play the regular season winners, aka the League Leaders' Shield winners, with the second-placed team playing the higher-ranked team still involved.

The winners of those two matches will then compete in the Grand Final to be crowned Super League winners.

No relegation?! Welcome to the IMG Criteria

Super League is in its (kind of) franchise era!

The teams in Super League are not determined by promotion or relegation from 2025 onwards. Instead, the 12 teams will be those who achieve the most points across a range of criteria, including fandom, on-field performance, finance, stadium and community.

The IMG gradings system has 20 points on offer for clubs. In order to be a Grade A club, you need to achieve at least 15 points and to be a Grade B club, you need 7.5 points.

The idea is that Grade A clubs are automatically in Super League, with the best-performing Grade B clubs then making up the rest of the 12 clubs in the competition.

As grading scores improve and there one day becomes more than 12 clubs with Grade A status, the top league will then expand, as happens in franchise sports such as the NRL and NFL.

Big boys vs underdogs: Who are the team to beat?

There is one side that heads into 2025 with a massive bullseye on their backs: Wigan Warriors.

The Warriors absolutely dominated 2024, picking up all four major trophies on offer: Grand Final, World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup and League Leaders' Shield.

The likes of St Helens, Warrington Wolves, and Grand Final runners-up Hull KR will be some of the teams looking to knock Wigan off their perch but Matt Peet's side do not look like they are going to slow down.

In other words, Wigan are having their 'Manchester United under Fergie' moment, and everyone else wants to stop them firmly in their tracks.

2025 Super League - key dates and what to look out for

March 1: Wigan Warriors vs Warrington Wolves in Las Vegas
April 17-19: Round 8 - Rivals Round
May 3-4: Magic Round (St James' Park, Newcastle)
July 24: August 31 - Round 20 - split round across two weekends
September 4-7: Round 25 - Rivals Round fixtures reversed
September 18-21: Round 27 - last round of regular season (dates and times tbc)
September 26-27: Elimination Play-Offs
October 3-4: Semi-Finals
Saturday October 11: Grand Final (Old Trafford)

Sky Sports will again show every game of the Super League live this season - including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+