British rugby league season
Engage Super League XIII was the official name, due to sponsorship, for the 2008 Super League season by Engage Mutual.[1] Twelve teams competed for the League Leader's Shield over 27 rounds (including Millennium Magic), after which the top 6 finishing teams entered the play-offs where they competed for a place in the Grand Final and the chance to win the Super League Trophy.
The Castleford Tigers took the place of the Salford City Reds who finished last in the Super League in 2007 and were therefore relegated.
The season kicked off on Saturday 2 February, with Leeds Rhinos playing Hull Kingston Rovers at Headingley Carnegie. This was the only game played on this weekend, due to Leeds' 2008 World Club Challenge fixture with Melbourne Storm on Friday 29 February. Leeds won the close-fought game 20-12.
The interest in events on the pitch was matched by those off it with the lead up to and the announcement of which teams were to be awarded Super League licences for 2009–11.
Operational rules
Refined salary cap regulation to prevent clubs over-spending:[3]
- Super League clubs agreed to use the pro-active salary cap already in use in Australasia with the NRL.[3] The new cap examines each club's salary cap position at the beginning of and then during the season, new player signings will be permitted only if it is affordable within the cap.[3] Nigel Wood, the RFL's chief operating officer, explained that new system dealt with the weaknesses of the previous one that had meant breaches were only discovered in retrospect and could only be acted upon during the following season, as the new system is 'live' clubs cannot breach through miscalculation or mismanagement.[3]
- The salary cap for this season was set at £1.6 million for the combined earnings of the top 25 players.[4] Clubs are permitted to spend a £50,000 maximum on players outside the top 25 earners who have made at least one appearance for the club in the first grade during the year.[4] Expenditure on players outside the top 25 who make no appearance for the first team are unregulated.[4] If a player has represented the same club for 10 consecutive seasons only half of their salary will be counted towards the cap for the eleventh and subsequent seasons - subject to a £50,000 maximum for each club.[4]
To provide a bigger pool of talent for the Great Britain team:[3]
- Clubs ratified a homegrown player rule designating 'club trained players'.[3][4] Clubs must include a minimum of five players who have come through their academy or are under 21 years old in their 25-player first team squads.[3][4] British clubs were required to have ten United Kingdom-trained players and no more than ten overseas-trained players in their 25-player squads.[4]
Table
Source:
superleague.co.ukRules for classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference.
Competition points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
(C) Champions;
(L) League Leaders' Shield Winners
Statistics
Source:[6]
Attendance
The average attendance for the regular season in 2008 was 10,338 (a Super League record) this was up from 9,855 in 2007 which was previously the record. The regular season attendance aggregate was also the highest ever for Super League at 1,674,809 up from 1,537,326 for 2007. For the seventh consecutive season since 2001 the regular season average attendance and aggregate attendance had increased from the previous year.
Tries
Points
Red cards
James Graham
Pat Richards (269).png)
