Sports Blog 06/10/2015: Super League Grand Final – Wigan Warriors vs Leeds Rhinos, Saturday 10th October 2015

It’s the Grand Final of the 20th Super League season, and last year’s runners up the Wigan Warriors take on the Leeds Rhinos at Old Trafford.

Arguably the best team of the season, and emphatic Challenge Cup winners, Leeds have reached their first final for 3 years, their last being a victory that capped off a period which saw the Rhinos win 5 of the 6 Super League Grand Finals between 2007 and 2012. They topped the table in the regular season, beating last year’s Grand Final champions St Helens by a point and Wigan by 2 to take the League Leader’ Shield. Leeds just edged out Wigan in the Super 8’s, with both finishing on 41 points but Leeds having the better points difference.



A confident 20-13 win over St Helens in the semi-finals, with tries from Zak Hardaker, Ryan Hall and Kallum Watkins joined by 4 goal kicks from Kevin Sinfield, then sent them to the Grand Final. That leaves Sinfield as the top goal-scorer of the season with 101, 3rd best point-scorer overall with 166 and the Rhino Top Gun of the season; Ryan Hall, meanwhile, became the Rhinos’ top try-scorer with 18. Most impressively, Hardaker was named the Super League’s Man of Steel, alongside Brian McDermott as Coach of the Year, and the Rhinos as Club of the Year.

Despite reaching their 3rd consecutive Grand Final (beating the Warrington Wolves in 2013 before losing to St Helens last year) the Wigan Warriors were largely absent from the awards, with only two players (Joe Burgess, second top try-scorer of the season behind Hudderfield’s Jermaine McGillvary, and Liam Farrell) in the Super League Dream Team to Leeds’ 4 (the aforementioned Hardaker and Watkins alongside Jamie Peacock, in a record 11th appearance, and Adam Cuthbertson).

With a 3rd place finish in the regular season and a 2nd place finish in the Super 8’s, Wigan faced the Huddersfield Giants in the semi-finals. The Warriors breezed past their Giant rivals, with a 32-8 victory complete with tries for Ben Flower, John Bateman, Dom Manfredi, ony Clubb and a penalty try joined by 6 goals from Matty Bowen (the season’s 5th best goal-scorer and 6th best point-scorer).

Regardless of all of Leeds’ awards, and their league-topping form, Wigan’s semi-final showed how dangerous they can be, and leaves them with the (marginal) advantage of 5/6 fixed odds to Leeds’ evens, alongside a Warriors/Rhinos Supremacy spread of -1-2.