Sports

Wigan top Super League as NRL takeover nears approval

Carys BevanPublished 5d ago3 min readBased on 3 sources
Wigan top Super League as NRL takeover nears approval
Photo by Hullian111 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Wigan Warriors smashed Catalans Dragons 50-12 to finish top of Super League as the competition edged towards a takeover by Australia's National Rugby League.

The win secured the League Leaders' Shield, the prize for finishing first after the regular season. It stretched Wigan's winning run to 16 matches in all competitions. Leeds finished second. Both clubs sit out the first week of the playoffs and go straight through to the semi-finals.

That first week is set. Warrington, who finished third, host reigning champions Hull KR on Saturday. Wakefield host Leigh on Friday at the DIY Kitchens Stadium. The winners keep their season alive. The losers go out.

The Grand Final will be held at Old Trafford next month, three weeks after 14 September. Hull KR will be desperate to get back there. They won every trophy on offer in 2025, according to The Guardian.

Wigan have momentum. They won the Challenge Cup, rugby league's historic knockout competition, in May. They have not lost since. It was ruthless against Catalans. Fast feet. Quick play-the-balls. No way back for the visitors.

Off the field, the bigger story is moving fast. The partnership deal that would see the NRL effectively run Super League from 2027 is on the verge of approval after a meeting on Friday, with almost all clubs in favour.

The NRL is prepared to give Super League clubs around £35m over five years in return for administrative control, The Guardian reported. The offer came from the Australian Rugby League Commission, the body that runs the NRL, as part of a recapitalisation project, Sky Sports reported last month.

An earlier outline linked to the plan suggested Super League could switch back to winter to allow year-round global broadcasts of rugby league, with the NRL season in the Australian summer followed by a British winter season, The Guardian reported in April.

For fans, this means two races at once. One on the pitch, where Wigan look very hard to stop. One off it, where the shape of the whole competition could soon change.

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