2005 Super League season
| Super League X | |
|---|---|
| League | Super League |
| Duration | 28 Rounds |
| Teams | 12 |
| Highest attendance | 25,004 Wigan Warriors vs St Helens (25 March) |
| Lowest attendance | 2,682 Salford City Reds vs Huddersfield Giants (2 July) |
| Attendance | 1,492,464  (average 8,884) |
| Broadcast partners |  Sky Sports |
| 2005 Season | |
| Champions |  Bradford Bulls4th Super League title 6th English title |
| League Leaders |  St Helens |
| Man of Steel Award | Jamie Lyon |
| Top point-scorer(s) | Paul Deacon (322) |
| Top try-scorer(s) |  Mark Calderwood (27) |
| New franchise | |
| Awarded to |  Catalans Dragons |
| Promotion and relegation | |
| Promoted from National League 1 |  Castleford Tigers |
| Relegated to National League 1 |  Leigh Centurions Widnes Vikings |
engage Super League X is the official name of 2005's Super League season. It was the 10th season of Super League and saw twelve teams from across England compete for the premiership. The season kicked off in early February, culminating in a six team play-off series
The Grand Final, held at Old Trafford on 15 October, saw Bradford Bulls crowned Champions. The Grand Final was the final match of a which itself was the climax of a league season that kicked off in early February.
Season summary
Either one or two teams were to be relegated from the league at the end of the season in order to make way for new entrants. The bottom team were certain to be relegated, in order to allow in French club Catalans Dragons. The second bottom team would only be relegated if the winner of National League One met the criteria for Super League entry. On the 3 October the Rugby Football League announced that both finalist in this competition, Castleford Tigers and Whitehaven were eligible for promotion, hence two teams were relegated.
The season was a commercial success, with a rise in average crowd size for the regular rounds of 8,887, continuing the trend of rises every year since 2001 [1]. It is worth noting that this is the first time in the history of Super League the Grand Final has not included the league leader at the end of the regular season: St Helens were knocked out by Bradford Bulls in the semi-final.
Table
| Pos. | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Helens
|
28 | 23 | 1 | 4 | 1028 | 537 | +491 | 47 | Play-off semi-final |
| 2 | Leeds Rhinos
|
28 | 22 | 0 | 6 | 1152 | 505 | +647 | 44 | |
| 3 | Bradford Bulls
|
28 | 18 | 1 | 9 | 1038 | 684 | +354 | 37 | Play-off elimination finals |
| 4 |  Warrington Wolves
|
28 | 18 | 0 | 10 | 792 | 702 | +90 | 36 | |
| 5 |  Hull F.C.
|
28 | 15 | 2 | 11 | 756 | 670 | +86 | 32 | |
| 6 |  London Broncos
|
28 | 13 | 2 | 13 | 800 | 718 | +82 | 28 | |
| 7 |  Wigan Warriors
|
28 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 698 | 718 | −20 | 28 | |
| 8 |  Huddersfield Giants
|
28 | 12 | 0 | 16 | 742 | 791 | −49 | 24 | |
| 9 |  Salford City Reds
|
28 | 11 | 0 | 17 | 549 | 732 | −183 | 22 | |
| 10 |  Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
|
28 | 10 | 0 | 18 | 716 | 999 | −283 | 20 | |
| 11 | Widnes Vikings
|
28 | 6 | 1 | 21 | 598 | 1048 | −450 | 13 | Relegated to National League 1 |
| 12 | Leigh Centurions
|
28 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 445 | 1210 | −765 | 5 | |
Source: Rugby League Project.
Classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference.
Competition points: for win = 2; for draw = 1; for loss = 0.
Play-off series
Home team first
Elimination Play-offs
- 23 September: Bradford Bulls 44-22 London Broncos
- 24 September: Warrington Wolves 6-40 Hull FC
Semi-finals
- 1 October (Elimination SF): Bradford Bulls 71-0 Hull FC
- 30 September (Qualification SF): St Helens 16-19 Leeds Rhinos
Final Eliminator
- 7 October: St Helens 18-23 Bradford Bulls
Grand final
- 15 October: Leeds Rhinos 6-15 Bradford Bulls