2026 Super League season
31st season of Super League rugby
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The 2026 Super League season, known as the 2026 Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the 31st season of the Super League and 132nd season of rugby league in Great Britain.
| 2026 Super League season | |
|---|---|
| League | Super League |
| Duration | 27 rounds |
| Teams | 14 |
| Matches played | 118 |
| Points scored | 5,405 |
| Highest attendance | 45,719 Hull KR vs Leeds Rhinos (1 March) |
| Lowest attendance | 3,259 Toulouse Olympique vs Wakefield Trinity (23 May) |
| Average attendance | 10,072 |
| Total attendance | 1,188,529 |
| Broadcast partners |
|
| 2026 Season | |
| Biggest home win | Warrington Wolves 72–6
Castleford Tigers (21 March) |
| Biggest away win | York Knights 20–72 Wigan Warriors (20 June) |
| Top point-scorer | Jake Connor (190) |
| Top try-scorer | Maika Sivo (28) |
Hull KR are the defending champions, having beaten Wigan Warriors in the Grand Final, to win their first Super League title.[1]
Rule changes
Conversion and penalty kicks
A 60 second shot clock for conversion and penalty kicks will be introduced from 2026, starting from the confirmation of a try. The shot clock will be stopped and not restarted if the kicking process is 'corrupted', i.e. if the ball falls off the kicking tee, giving a kicker indefinite time.[2]
Overseas player quotas and dual registration
In July 2025, it was confirmed by the RFL that each Super League team's overseas player quota, limiting a team's maximum amount of registered players not trained by a Rugby League European Federation member club, would increase from seven to ten for the 2026 season.[3]
In January 2026, the RFL announced that the dual registration system, allowing for Super League clubs to register their players with a lower league club to allow them to be loaned on short notice, was to be scrapped in order to "increase players' opportunities of taking the field". As a replacement, Super League clubs were permitted to send players on one-week loans to "partner clubs" with the aim of improving reserve players' match appearances. Clubs that had benefitted from dual registration partnerships included Leeds Rhinos, who had partnered with Featherstone Rovers, and St Helens R.F.C., who had partnered with Halifax Panthers.[4]
Video referee
On-field try decisions referred to the video referee, which previously stopped the game clock upon a referee's whistle, are to be abolished from 2026 onwards. These will be replaced by a 'live review' system, similar to the one used in the NRL, in which 80 seconds of a video referee's review must pass before the game clock can be stopped. If reason is found for an on-field try decision to be overturned by the video referee, resulting in a 'no try', the game clock is reset to the moment of the blowing of the referee's whistle.[2]
Structure changes
League expansion
From 2026, the Super League expanded to 14 teams. Teams 1-12 were decided by the current IMG promotion and relegation system, while teams 13 and 14 were chosen from the RFL Championship by an independent panel assessing teams who meet the minimum criteria.[5] At a meeting of all twelve Super League teams at the Headingley Rugby Stadium on 28 July 2025 to vote on the expansion proposal, nine voted to approve expanding the league, with only Hull KR and Hull FC voting against while Wigan Warriors abstained from the vote.[6]
"Spare weekend"
With the expansion from 12 to 14 teams came the removal of the five loop fixtures, which originally included Magic Weekend.[7] This would have reduced the regular season from 27 to 26 rounds. The RFL had planned to use the spare week for an expanded playoff format which would take place over four weeks rather than three. However, a U-turn decision saw Magic Weekend retained for 2026 and played as the season's only loop fixture, and retained a 27 round regular season.[8] A mid-season international between England and Papua New Guinea was also proposed.[9][10]
Broadcasting
BBC Sport are broadcasting matches as well as match highlights in the final year of their three-year deal with the Super League, replacing Channel 4 as the league's free-to-air partner from the 2024 season.[11] Ten games per season will be shown live on television, with a further five shown on iPlayer, the BBC's streaming platform. Australian broadcaster Foxtel is continuing an extended deal signed with the Super League in 2025 to broadcast every match on their Fox League channel and their Kayo Sports streaming service.[12]
Deals were announced by the Super League in February 2026 with French news group La Dépêche's 'Rugbyrama' platform, who will broadcast 51 Catalans Dragons and Toulouse Olympique matches, and with the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea, who will broadcast matches for New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations. These join preexisting deals with Catalan-language broadcaster TV3, German-language broadcaster Sportdigital, and other worldwide broadcasters such as Fox Sports in the United States, Rogers Sports & Media in Canada, Rush Sports in the Caribbean, Premier Sports Asia in South East Asia and Dubai TV.[13]
Teams
The league consists of 14 teams, an increase of two from the previous season. The regular season consists of 27 rounds.
Hull KR are the defending champions after winning the 2025 Grand Final.[1] Salford Red Devils, who finished bottom of the Super League table in 2025 following a season marred by financial difficulties, were relegated to the 2026 RFL Championship after not applying to join the Super League for 2026.[14] They were replaced by 2025 RFL Championship semi-finalists Bradford Bulls, who were promoted to the Super League after achieving the highest IMG Grade B rating for 2025.[15] Bradford were joined by fellow Championship teams Toulouse Olympique and York Knights for the 2026 season, each achieving Grade B rankings.[16][17]
62miles
| Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Reigning Champions |
Previous season runners-up |
Previous season League Leaders |
Promoted |
Fixtures and results
Matches decided by golden point
If a match ends in a draw after 80 minutes, then a further 10 minutes of golden point extra time is played, to determine a winner (five minutes each way). The first team to score either a try, penalty goal or drop goal during this period, will win the match. However, if there are no further scores during the additional 10 minutes period, then the match will end in a draw.[32]
Game 1: Leigh Leopards v Toulouse Olympique
The Round 6 fixture between Leigh Leopards and Toulouse Olympique on 28 March finished 20–20 after 80 minutes. The game then went to extra time and Gareth O'Brien kicked the winning drop goal for Leigh, ending the game 21–20.[33]
Table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Leeds Rhinos |
17 | 14 | 0 | 3 | 594 | 250 | +344 | 28 | Advance to Semi-finals |
| 2 |  Wigan Warriors |
17 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 495 | 331 | +164 | 24 | |
| 3 |  Warrington Wolves[a] |
16 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 414 | 258 | +156 | 24 | Advance to Eliminators |
| 4 |  Wakefield Trinity |
17 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 457 | 308 | +149 | 24 | |
| 5 |  Hull KR[a] |
16 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 496 | 249 | +247 | 22 | |
| 6 |  St Helens |
17 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 402 | 324 | +78 | 22 | |
| 7 |  Leigh Leopards |
17 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 374 | 326 | +48 | 20 | |
| 8 |  Catalans Dragons |
17 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 365 | 511 | −146 | 16 | |
| 9 |  Castleford Tigers |
17 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 304 | 500 | −196 | 12 | |
| 10 |  Hull F.C. |
17 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 279 | 355 | −76 | 10 | |
| 11 |  Toulouse Olympique |
17 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 340 | 458 | −118 | 10 | |
| 12 |  York Knights |
17 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 332 | 511 | −179 | 10 | |
| 13 |  Bradford Bulls |
17 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 312 | 507 | −195 | 10 | |
| 14 |  Huddersfield Giants |
17 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 263 | 539 | −276 | 4 |
- A Round 2 fixture between Hull Kingston Rovers and Warrington Wolves has been postponed to 18 August due to the former's World Club Challenge commitments.[34]
Player statistics
Top try scorers
|
Top goal scorers
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals | Missed Goals | Drop Goals | Goal Percentage % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jake Connor |
Leeds Rhinos |
91 | 19 | 0 | 83% |
| 2 |  Adam Keighran |
Wigan Warriors |
66 | 24 | 73% | |
| 3 |  Rhyse Martin |
Leeds Rhinos |
58 | 11 | 85% | |
| 4 | Jackson Hastings |
St Helens |
49 | 16 | 75% | |
| 5 | Adam Cook |
Leigh Leopards |
48 | 28 | 1 | 62% |
| 6 | Tom Weaver |
Castleford Tigers |
45 | 16 | 0 | 73% |
| 7 | Jake Shorrocks |
Toulouse Olympique |
38 | 5 | 88% | |
| 8 | Marc Sneyd |
Warrington Wolves |
9 | 2 | 80% | |
| 9 | Zak Hardaker |
Hull FC |
32 | 11 | 0 | 75% |
| 10 | Toby Sexton |
Catalans Dragons |
31 | 10 | ||
Top points scorers
| Rank | Player | Club | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Connor |
Leeds Rhinos |
190 |
| 2 | Adam Keighran |
Wigan Warriors |
168 |
| 3 | Rhyse Martin |
Leeds Rhinos |
136 |
| 4 |  Maika Sivo |
112 | |
| 5 | Tom Weaver |
Castleford Tigers |
106 |
| Jackson Hastings |
St Helens | ||
| 7 | Adam Cook |
Leigh Leopards |
105 |
| 8 | Mikey Lewis |
Hull KR |
100 |
| 9 | Toby Sexton |
Catalans Dragons |
90 |
| 10 | Josh Charnley |
Leigh Leopards |
80 |
- As of 5 July 2026 (Round 17 –Magic Weekend)
Discipline
- As of 5 July 2026 (Round 17 – Magic Weekend)
Attendances
Club attendances
(Round 17 – Magic Weekend) |
Top 10 attendances
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- As of 4 July 2026 (Round 17)