• Consortium are hoping new club will join British game in 2019• Plan for Super League match in US next year to whet fans’ appetiteAn application has been formally lodged to the Rugby Football League for a team based in New York to join the British gam…
Penalties will be left to the discretion of a single refereeAn in-goal video referral system will replace the NRL bunkerOfficials won’t need to implement mandatory sin-bins for punches during the Rugby League World Cup to clamp down on the illegal act,…
• Full-back tested positive for banned substance on 8 September
• Hardaker left out of England squad due to be announced at midday
The Castleford full-back Zak Hardaker has become the third Super League player to test positive for cocaine use in the last three months.
The 2015 Man of Steel failed a test after the Tigers’ game against his old club Leeds on 8 September and has been provisionally suspended by the Rugby Football League.
Having battled through depression, the inspirational Ward is a strong candidate to replace Danny McGuire as new leader of Leeds Rhinos
Stevie Ward may not have been the one scoring the tries and garnering the plaudits during Leeds’ Super League Grand Final victory on Saturday, but he is more than deserving of his time in the spotlight.
For all the talk of high-profile rugby league players and their off-field indiscretions in the week leading up the Old Trafford showpiece – in which Leeds defeated Castleford 24-6 – Ward is a shining example of everything that is good in rugby league: the warriors who put their bodies on the line just for a chance of success. Yet it could have easily been so different for a player who has already experienced enough ups and downs to span an entire career.
6.49pm BST
No try! Briscoe is adjudged to have pushed a defender off the ball before grounding for the try and for the second time Leeds are denied by the video referee. Despite everything, it’s still Castleford 0-6 Leeds.
6.48pm BST
37 min Moon pumps one into the sky but Castleford defend it well and come forward again – until Holmes fumbles one and a quick McGuire kick sets up a try opportunity for Leeds. Briscoe gets close to touching down before crashing into the advertising hoardings, and once again James Child refers to the television official…
Danny McGuire and Rob Burrow want to end their Leeds playing careers with another title against their neighbours Castleford at Old Trafford
The home grounds of Castleford Tigers and Leeds Rhinos lie less than 20 miles apart. As local rivalries go, they do not get much more intense. That much will be evident on Saturday night when their two worlds collide at Old Trafford in the 20th Super League Grand Final.
They may be close as the crow flies but the two clubs are a long way apart in many other respects. This is David versus Goliath, played out on the sport’s biggest stage – and, even though the pre-match chatter has been dominated by Zak Hardaker’s omission from Castleford’s squad for a breach of club rules, it still has all the makings of a classic.
• Scrum-half only fourth Castleford player to win top award
• Gale has former club Leeds in his sights at Old Trafford on Saturday
It has already been one of the more remarkable periods in one of the more unorthodox careers in rugby league and Luke Gale will now look to add a Super League title to his list of honours after winning the man of steel award for the first time.
The scrum-half is only the fourth Castleford player to win rugby league’s highest individual accolade in its 40-year history. He saw off competition from his Tigers and England team-mate Zak Hardaker and the Hull half-back Albert Kelly to win the award on Tuesday night in Manchester. The Wigan centre Oliver Gildart was named Super League’s young player of the year.
Melbourne bolter Felise Kaufusi has been confirmed as one of seven Storm players named in Australia’s 24-man squad for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup. Kaufusi is one of six rookies included by coach Mal Meninga, with Melbourne team-mates Cameron Munster and Jordan McLean also selected.
Related: Melbourne claim NRL premiership with champions across field | Matt Cleary
• ‘It’s all about turning up and playing,’ says Tigers’ coach
• Leeds Rhinos lose Stevie Ward to a shoulder injury
Castleford have been the form team all season but their coach denies favouritism will make any difference in the club’s first Super League Grand Final.
It is first versus second on Saturday evening as Castleford face Leeds but Daryl Powell said the Tigers’ priority was “turning up and playing” at Old Trafford, regardless of which side was favourite.
• Leeds 18 Hull FC 16
• Rhinos head to Old Trafford after nailbiting Headingley win
For well over a decade, there is little doubt that the Super League landscape in Yorkshire has been dominated by Leeds Rhinos. Since Bradford’s Grand Final victory of 2005, no side from the county has lifted the trophy high at Old Trafford other than Leeds – but next Saturday, the Rhinos’ dominance will be put to the ultimate test in the season’s showpiece finale.
Six months ago, in the days following their 66-10 defeat at Castleford, the Leeds coach, Brian McDermott attracted criticism aplenty for suggesting his side could still reach – and win – the Grand Final for the eighth time. Then, it appeared a ludicrous comment, given how the Rhinos were only months removed from their annus horribilis of 2016 which saw them finish ninth and flirt with relegation.
• Castleford 23-22 St Helens
• Luke Gale scores winner 16 days after appendectomy
On nights like these, it seems unfortunate that someone has to lose. For Castleford’s critics, the argument had been for months that when the play-offs came around, the runaway Super League leaders would fail to cope with the expectations of a do-or-die play-off semi-final.
Next Saturday will dictate whether they have the credentials to go all the way and become Super League champions at Old Trafford, but this was a tick in the box which some believed Daryl Powell’s side were incapable of conquering. However, while Luke Gale’s drop goal – 16 days after emergency surgery to remove his appendix – was the game’s decisive moment, it does not even begin to describe 86 minutes of sporting drama which underline that when Super League is good, it is seriously good.
Unlike the Storm, the Cowboys go into the decider unburdened by favouritism and with the backing of the majority of the crowd
At the recent launch of his new book at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos questioned the popular notion that a sporting team has only a brief “premiership window” in which to challenge before it regresses into the dreaded rebuilding phase, that long winter of discontent that so troubled Shakespeare, who must have been a North Sydney Bears fan.
Instead, Roos said, a team could go a long way to being a perennial force if it recruited well (which, he said, means more than simply signing the best players money can buy), had a strong team culture and was well served by a few key leaders, both in the coaching team and playing ranks.
The rugged North Queensland prop has the task of putting the frighteners on the Storm in Sunday’s NRL grand final
Scott Bolton has a certain look about him: slightly hang dog, a hint of stubble. It’s a old school look. He could be 27 or 42; he’s sort of ageless. It’s like he was never young, like his head has been carved from a mighty cedar or mountain redwood by Native Americans and left to sit on the plinth of his neck, defying the elements, impervious to pain, glaring at his enemies.
Related: NRL officials warn that referees are willing to use sin-bin in grand final
The part-time players in the Championship will need to keep their passports handy next year – and that’s before more clubs arrive from across the Atlantic
By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required, part of the Guardian Sport Network
On Saturday evening we will know whether Catalans Dragons or Leigh Centurions will be playing in the Championship next season. The losers of the Million Pound Game (that name – eurgh!) will go down and the odds are on a spineless Dragons team failing to play to their potential at a hostile Leigh Sports Village. That will be a great shame for Catalans and French rugby as a whole, but there are positives amid the gloom. It would mean two derbies with Toulouse Olympique and both clubs would be expected to challenge Toronto Wolfpack and London Broncos for promotion.
And that, in a nutshell, is the other problem. Part-time clubs in the Championship will have to travel to all four of those exciting destinations, flung far from the M62. Throw in either Barrow or Whitehaven – who meet in the League 1 play-off final on Sunday – and the financial impact on clubs such as Swinton, Batley, Sheffield, Featherstone is considerable. But they better get used to it, as there could soon be away trips to the USA and Ireland on the schedule, too.
Recording artist Macklemore has done what other NRL teams couldn’t in the last three weeks – upset North Queensland in Sydney. The Cowboys were reportedly furious that they had been denied access to ANZ Stadium ahead of Sunday’s NRL grand final against the Melbourne Storm due to a clash with the American rapper’s sound check.
Runaway favourites Melbourne will get to train at the grand final venue on Saturday after booking a 10.30am session. However, the Cowboys won’t get a chance to hold their captain’s run at ANZ Stadium because Macklemore will be have his rehearsal straight after the Storm on match eve.
Festivals such as the Murri Carnival and the Koori Knockout provide a chance to reaffirm connection to community, but also offer players a career stepping stone
Every spring, as September draws to a close and the NRL grand final is played over the October long weekend, thousands of Indigenous people in Queensland and New South Wales come together to contest the Murri Carnival and the Koori Knockout. Together, these two rugby league tournaments represent the largest gathering of Indigenous people in the country, eclipsing all other cultural festivals.
Established in 2011, the Murri Carnival is the much younger and more formal little brother of the Koori Knockout, which began in 1971. For the past six years the Carnival has been run by the Arthur Beetson Foundation and hosted at Redcliffe Dolphins’ home ground in Brisbane.
Live updates from the match at Allianz StadiumGet in touch with Sam on email or via Twitter @sjjperry 12.19pm BST A look at the Feldt tryThe finisher does it again!Try @feldt092.#NRLFinals#NRL pic.twitter.com/0gwuzXqdrC 12.19pm BST The Cowboys lead by …
• Super 8s: Salford 4-30 St Helens
• Wigan would need huge win to deny neighbours
Whether it is Castleford on Thursday or Leeds 24 hours later in the semi-finals, it is increasingly clear that St Helens are in no mood to let this season peter out with a whimper.
When Justin Holbrook arrived on these shores in May and inherited a side whose fate appeared more likely to be in a battle to avoid the Qualifiers as opposed to the race for Old Trafford, few would have fancied St Helens being in this position.
Leon Pryce, the former Bradford back, had a breakdown after retiring but is healthy again and looking to share his experience with others leaving the game
Leon Pryce is smiling. “Hi, mate, how’s it going?” he bellows as he enters the room with an ear-to-ear grin. “Life’s pretty awesome at the minute, isn’t it?”. Once, this greeting would have been little to remark upon from Pryce, but, given how the former Great Britain rugby league international is about to describe the mental turmoil he went through this summer after retiring unexpectedly, it makes his mood all the more surprising.
We meet at a service station coffee shop which, while only a few miles from Bradford Bulls’ Odsal Stadium, where Pryce made his name, is a world away from his glittering career.
• Wigan Warriors 20-38 Castleford Tigers
• Teenager produces thrilling all-round display at half-back
Jake Trueman gave Castleford significant reason to be cheerful with a thrilling performance at half-back in place of the injured Luke Gale. The 18-year-old scored a first-half hat-trick of tries to set his side on course for victory, although they had to withstand a strong comeback by Wigan during which a Castleford collapse many had predicted appeared to be happening.
With 20 minutes remaining, Wigan had reduced a 26-0 deficit to 10 points. They looked the stronger side and Castleford’s mettle was being seriously tested, having previously looked supremely comfortable.
