Super League’s new era makes the grade as Warrington hold off Rovers

Rugby league’s new beginning under IMG and the gradings system that will determine which 12 teams play in Super League every year has, understandably, focused attention on the bottom of the table this year. There is genuine doubt and uncertainty over around half a dozen clubs in Super League and the Championship about who will make the grade in 2025.

But for all the drama IMG hopes to manufacture at the bottom, it is at the top of the table where all the intrigue and fascination lies this year. Super League has never had it this good when it comes to competitiveness among the competition’s elite clubs.

Yes, there have been some outstanding sides in the summer era. That goes without saying. However, there has never been a spread of genuine title contenders across Super League like this, underlined by the historic position the table finds itself in 10 rounds into the season with six teams level on 14 points at the top. Two more, Leeds and Huddersfield, are within spitting distance just below them too.

To have half the competition level is a remarkable endorsement of the strength of Super League, and a triumph for the salary-cap system that will probably forever cause debate in this game.

While the cap will always have its detractors, specifically those who believe it prevents the biggest clubs from attracting the best rugby talent in both codes, this season shows it has a place.

Here, two of that six squared off in a thoroughly entertaining contest that shows the encouraging strides Super League has made in recent years. Warrington Wolves and Hull KR have enjoyed different journeys to this point, with the Wolves spending the cap – and beyond on marquee players – for years, and Hull KR spending the past decade in and out of the elite competition.

We have seen more games than ever like this in 2024: contests that you feel could go a long way to deciding who finishes where come the playoffs in autumn and perhaps even who finishes on top. Hull KR knew victory here would put them top of Super League for the first time in their history, but they ultimately came up short here, with Warrington the side ending the night top of the league.

Nonetheless, both played their part in a thoroughly entertaining game that felt as though it was shaped by two of the competition’s standout talents, and arguably the England half-back pairing for the foreseeable future. In the first half Sam Burgess’s Warrington sauntered into an 18-0 lead with two tries from Toby King and another for Matty Ashton.

But the chief tormentor of Hull KR was the England captain, George Williams, who caused mayhem among the Rovers’ defence time and time again, ripping their right-hand edge to shreds. He looks to be at the peak of his powers under Burgess, who still has Warrington competing on all fronts in his debut season as a head coach.

However, Hull KR responded either side of half-time with tries from Jack Broadbent and Mikey Lewis, with Lewis in particular the beating heart of Rovers’ attack, much like Williams is for Warrington. England could do far worse than pair those two together for the road to the next World Cup, in 2026.

Lewis’s side probed to try to threaten a grandstand finish, but it was the Wolves that held on. Both these sides will compete in next weekend’s Challenge Cup semi-finals, with Hull KR facing Wigan and Warrington playing Huddersfield.

If it is these two who emerge through their respective ties, we could be in for one heck of a cup final at Wembley later this summer.

For now, it is the Wolves who sit atop Super League: but who knows what things will look like in a week or two. And that, in essence, is surely everything IMG wanted from rugby league’s elite competition when it took over: unpredictability aplenty. Long may that continue.