Shaun Wane’s England entered a mouthwatering two game test series against a Samoan side who knocked the hosts out of the World Cup at the semi-final stage in 2022 as the two sides did battle at the Brick Community Stadium in Wigan.

England are unbeaten since that loss but are against a Samoan side containing only two of the players who made it to the World Cup final.

It promised to be a big challenge for England as they looked for a modicum of revenge for the heartbreak of two years ago, the scene was set for an explosive opening in the first ever test series between the two nations.

Following a Rugby Football League compliance investigation, an independent Operational Rules Tribunal was convened on October 17 to consider alleged breaches in March 2024 by Mark Aston and Mick Heys, who were respectively head coach and head physiotherapist at Sheffield Eagles.



The alleged breaches concerned the appearance of Matty Marsh for the Eagles in their Betfred Challenge Cup tie at Wigan Warriors on March 22, 13 days after he had suffered a head injury during a Betfred Championship fixture against Swinton Lions, and without having received the necessary medical clearance to return.

St Helens have earned the highest score in the first official club gradings which are today published as part of Rugby League’s long-term strategic partnership with IMG – and which determine membership of the Betfred Super League in 2025.

Saints have scored 17,02 points out of the maximum of 20 available to clubs across five pillars – Fandom, Finance, Stadium, Community and On-Field Performance.

They are one of nine clubs who have secured an A grading which guarantees a place in Super League.

The others include Wakefield Trinity, who were relegated from the Super League in 2023 and received a B grade in the illustrative gradings that were released last autumn.

The top two sides in the Championship took the field to play out the final game of the domestic season as they met in the Play-off final to determine the top side in the competition.

IMG and the RFL were praying for a Wakefield win to ensure that the winners would replace the London Broncos in the top flight next season while the mischievous neutrals were hoping for a Toulouse win to ‘put the cat amongst the pigeons’.

The bookies strongly fancied Trinity for the win.

Championship rugby for 2025 was at stake for the Swinton Lions and Hunslet as they met in the promotion/relegation play off for an eighty-minute showdown to determine whether the home side would maintain their status or whether the side from West Yorkshire would replace them.

The gulf between the second and third tiers of British rugby league meant that the Lions were strong favourites for the win, it would take a Herculean effort from Hunslet to upset the Championship side and take the prize.

A Sunday evening game, under the glare of the floodlights, promised plenty of needle and an exciting encounter.

In normal times the end of season Championship play-off game between Wakefield Trinity and York RLFC Knights would be a fight to the death for a place in the Million Pound Game and a chance for a tilt at Super League rugby in 2025, but these are not normal times.

With next year’s topflight line up to be decided by a desk exercise in the hands of the RFL’s consultants, IMG, what was to play for today was IMG success points, with Wakefield Trinity already guaranteed promotion.

Wakefield were strong favourites with the bookies, and it would have taken a brave man to back the visitors after Trinity romped to big wins in all of the games that the two sides have played in the 2024 season.

The final game of the 2024 Super League season pitched the top two sides over the regular season against one another in the Grand Final at Old Trafford as defending champions Wigan Warriors looked for back-to-back trophies against a Hull KR side appearing their first ever flagship event.

Traditional Grand Final day weather greeted the sides, rain pouring onto an already sodden turf, in a stadium adorned with red and white and cherry and white as the Robins looked to upset the formbook and the bookies odds and become only the fifth name to be etched onto the trophy.

The Warriors were handicapped by six points on the coupon, but many pundits thought that the gap would be wide in Wigan’s favour after two wins in the three meetings between the two sides this season, although only four points separated the sides the last time that they met at the beginning of September.

York Valkyrie were seeking back to back Grand Final wins as they took on a St Helens side who had only lost one game in a season which saw them crowned as minor premiers at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

St Helens were favourites to lift their first Grand Final trophy since 2021 and were handicapped by ten points on the coupon despite losing one of the three encounters between the sides earlier in the season.

It promised to be a tough encounter between the two best sides in the game.

A relegation play off against the Swinton Lions awaited the victory of a League One play off match between the Keighley Cougars and Hunslet in a West Yorkshire to derby to earn the chance to join Oldham and be playing their rugby in the Championship in the 2025 season.

The home side were big favourites with the bookies to win the game, but Hunslet have sprung a few surprises in 2024 including a win at Cougar Park in May by 26-18.

What was certain was that neither side would die wondering.

The pinnacle of the game for many, the Australian Grand Final, pitted Melbourne Storm against the Penrith Panthers in a rerun of the 2020 final which saw Melbourne the victors before three consecutive wins for Penrith as they have dominated the game in recent seasons.

Melbourne had been installed as slight favourites with the bookies but with just a two-point handicap on the coupon there was clearly very little to choose between the sides who finished first and second at the end of the regular season.

The Accor Stadium in Sydney was the venue for the encounter, almost a home game for the Penrith side and their supporters, as Australia ground to a standstill for a Sunday evening of high entertainment.

A place at Old Trafford against last night’s controversial victors, Hull KR, awaited the winners of the Borough Derby as league leaders Wigan Warriors faced a resurgent Leigh Leopards in a crucial eighty minutes which could have ended in ‘business as usual’ or herald the dawn of a new order at the top of the game.

Wigan were clear favourites with the bookies after sweeping aside the challenge of Hull KR for the minor premiership but despite a ten-point handicap on the coupon they took the field under few illusions that the Leigh side, under their former coach Adrian Lam, would be massive in opposition.

The Brick was a sea of red and white as the crowd reached fever pitch ahead of kick off.

A place at Old Trafford awaited the victors as Hull Kingston Rovers looked to achieve their first ever Grand Final against a Warrington Wolves side who have made it through to the showpiece game on four previous occasions but who have never lifted the trophy.

The two teams had already met on three occasions in Super League 2024, Warrington winning the first two meetings by 22-20 and 20-8 while the most recent encounter saw Hull KR triumphant by the scoreline of 22-4.

The home side were slight favourites with the bookies going into the game and they were handicapped by four points on the coupon, it was an indication that in all reality the game was too close to call and the stage was set for a great game of knockout rugby.

St Helens only made the play-off by virtue of a better points difference than the Catalans Dragons which meant that after a poor season by their very high standards they were the favourites with the bookies to drop out of the race for Old Trafford at the first hurdle as they took on a Warrington Wolves side who were still smarting from not making the top two.

Should Warrington meet expectations and secure the victory then they would set up a visit to Hull KR next weekend, whereas as win for St Helens would see them travel to Wigan to face the old enemy, the Warriors, for a place in the Grand Final.

It promised to be an intense battle.

Forget the regular season, forget previous games, this was the end of season play-offs as fourth placed Salford Red Devils looked to progress after a great season as they took on a Leigh Leopards side who have cast aside all those in front of them after a terrible start to the season to end up in fifth place.

Despite finishing the season lower in the table, the bookies made the visitors slight favourites as they came into the game on the back of an excellent run of form and handicapped them by two points on the coupon.

Salford won the first 2024 meeting between the two sides back in March by ten points, but have since being thrashed twice by the Leopards, most recently at the Magic Weekend when they lost by 26-0.

It was now just a pride thing for both Hull FC and the Catalans Dragons as they brought down the final curtain on the 2024 regular season with a game which the Dragons needed to win by a margin of sixteen points to finish ahead of the Rhinos in seventh spot, while Hull FC needed to win, draw or lose by less that fifty-four points to avoid the ignominy of finishing at the bottom of the pile.

The Airlie Birds have been woeful in recent weeks and the likelihood was of them conceding another cricket score, but the Dragons form of late has also been poor and has seen them drop outside the top six, and out of the play-offs.

There was impossible scenario of a Dragons win by 182 or more points which would see them push St Helens out of the six on a superior points difference, but not even the 2024 Hull FC are that bad.

The aims for both Hull KR and the Leeds Rhinos were clear as they went into their round twenty-seven encounter at opposite ends of the play-off zone.

Hull KR knew that a win would be enough to guarantee them second spot and a weekend off before a home game in the play-off eliminator while nothing less than a victory would suffice for the Leeds Rhinos who needed the two points to lift them above the Leigh Leopards and into sixth spot should the Leopards not be able to secure a victory over St Helens in a game kicking off at the same time.

Hull KR were the massive favourites with the bookies, the Rhinos not given a hope of taking the points and extending their season.

In beating Hull KR a couple of weeks ago, Wigan knew that the league leader’s trophy was theirs to lose and that they were masters of their own destinies, but tonight was the day that they would be crowned as their opponents, the Salford Red Devils, had raised the white flag.

Salford have already cemented their place in the play-off’s and the only issue to settle is whether they will be at home, or away, to St Helens in the opening week so Paul Rowley elected to make wholesale changes to his seventeen to rest his key squad members ahead of that clash next weekend.

Salford were such outsiders for the win, with no less than eight debutants named, that they were given a forty-point start on the coupon as the Wigan fans licked their lips at the likelihood of a cricket score for their boys with a trophy lifting at the end of it.

With the Championship title already secured, Wakefield were looking to hone their play-off strategy as the faced one of the sides which they might come up against in the end of season jamboree when it starts in a few weeks’ time, York RLFC Knights.

York still have aspirations of a top four finish and a home tie in the play-offs but they would need to beat the side who destroyed them by 50-6 in the league earlier in the season and who knocked them out of the AB Sundecks with a 40-4 scoreline.

It was Trinity who were the massive favourites for the win with York being given a twenty-two-point start on the coupon.

Thanks to this afternoons Salford Red Devils win over a hapless Hull FC, London Broncos came into tonight’s penultimate round fixture out of the bottom position in Super League for the first time this season, thanks to a slightly better points difference.

There could be no better motivation for a fourth win of the year but they were up against a Catalans Dragons side who needed the two points themselves to keep their slim hopes of a top six finish alive going into the last weekend of the season.

The Dragons were massive favourites with the bookies, the visitors seemingly without a hope.

A victory over Hull FC would confirm Salford Red Devils in the top six play-offs for the end of season jamboree and would also lift them up to fourth in the table, two points clear of St Helens with one game of the regular season to play.

Hull FC, on the other hand, were still looking to avoid the wooden spoon and a win on the road would be only their four victory in a woeful season but would see them favourites to avoid finishing in twelfth spot.

Salford were massive favourites with the bookies, the Airlie Birds given no chance of scraping the win and embarrassing their hosts, the Red Devils expected to rack up a big winning margin.