That was the decade that was - A lookback at the 2010's in Super League (Part 1)

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Over the course of the decade in Super League, we have had 16 clubs take part in the competition. We will start the new decade with another new team, Toronto. For now, as the decade draws to a close, it’s time for some positivity.  So we will look back at each Super League team’s high point of the decade, in this two-part blog.

Bradford
On 26 June 2013, Bradford entered administration for the second time in the decade. Their next match was against Wigan, who were on a 13-game winning streak. Only one winner, wasn’t there?

In sport, it’s never that black and white. Inspired by a Karl Pryce brace, Bradford caused the shock result of that season, in front of a 19,000+ crowd, with a healthy Bradford following. What was already an emotional week had become even more so.


Castleford
Speaking of emotion, it’s a bit of a recurring theme throughout this piece. With 60 seconds left of the 2017 Super League semi final, Wheldon Road was shellshocked. St Helens had scored 3 tries in 10 minutes to surely book their place at Old Trafford. Some fans were in tears.

Castleford recovered the ball from the kick off, but a last ditch grubber kick went tamely to Barba. A dream 2017 had ended. Or had it? James Child blew for a penalty for a Ryan Morgan obstruction, giving Castleford a penalty to level the match.

It wasn’t easy, the pressure was immense, but Luke Gale was as cool as they came. After misses from each side, the first ever play off match to reach golden point saw Castleford kick the winning drop goal.

I had the pleasure of being at that match. The atmosphere was fizzing, the scenes of joy and despair (from both sets of fans in a matter of minutes) was incredible. The ending of that game will live forever, perhaps even overshadowing that the first 79 minutes alone were classic in their own right.


Catalans
If you would have told Bernard Guasch that the 2010’s would have seen Catalans lift a major piece of silverware and the club set a record Super League attendance, he would have been pretty happy.

In 2017, Catalans were in freefall, saved only by a rare composed performance in the Million Pound Game. In 2018, after a shaky start, they began to look more composed. In July of that year, they avoided the qualifiers and then had a Challenge Cup Semi Final to look forward to.

They were playing runaway league leaders St Helens. No chance many cried. What many didn’t bank on is witnessing arguably the finest performance in the club’s history. They led 27-0 at half time and finished the job in the second half.

5,000 + Catalans fans organised a tricky trip to Wembley in a matter of weeks. The game started perfectly, a Lewis Tierney try in the opening minutes. In the second half when they opened up a 14 point lead over Warrington, it suddenly started to become possible. Warrington closed the gap to 6, but could not find that game equalling try.

And for the first time, the Challenge Cup had a French name on it. The Catalans Dragons class of 2018 had become trailblazers!






Crusaders
Celtic Crusaders (or later, Crusaders) had a three year stint in Super League, part spent in Bridgend and latterly in Wrexham. It was in North Wales where they enjoyed their better times.

They had a relatively successful 2010, finishing in 8th spot. It took until the final day of the season for them to secure the play off berth, a home victory of Hull KR combined with a Castleford defeat by St Helens saw Crusaders head for the end of season shoot out.

Their play-off journey only lasted a week, as they bravely went down away to the more fancied Huddersfield.


Huddersfield
Speaking of the 2010 play offs, had you told a Huddersfield fan in October 2010 that they would have better days to come, they may not have believed you. That is because their best ever play-off performance had just come to an end. Yes, I’m talking about that Leroy Cudjoe try.

But in 2013, things got better still. Huddersfield became just the fifth team to win the League Leaders’ Shield. They received their trophy on a Sunday night at home, after defeating Yorkshire rivals Wakefield in front of a healthy crowd.

Sadly for Huddersfield, as with many other underdogs, they faded in the play offs and haven’t scaled the same heights since.


Hull FC
“Old Faithful, you’ll never win at Wembley” the former chant so went, usually sang by Hull KR fans. Hull FC put that unwanted to chant to bed emphatically in 2016, by defeating Warrington in the Challenge Cup Final.

Losing 0-10 after an hour, it looked like the baron Wembley run was to continue. But Lance Todd Trophy winner Marc Snyed had other ideas. He laid on tries for Fonua and Shaul from kicks, converting both to give FC a 2-point lead with just minutes to go.

It was nearly snatched away. It would have been but for Danny Houghton’s famous #Tackle52, denying Ben Currie a certain match-winner. In what was the first classic final at the new Wembley, it was finally Hull FC’s day.

And it was no fluke either, they backed it up with another success by retaining their crown in 2017!


Hull KR
Hull KR have also had an appearance at Wembley. Since this is a positive piece, I’ll skip over that and move on to how they got there! Hull KR weren’t having the best Super League season, but defeating Warrington at Headingley to make their first Challenge Cup Final in 29 years would have made up for that.

This was a significant upset. Hull KR were 20-6 up at one stage, but two quickfire tries put Warrington back within two points. You sensed Hull KR needed one more score and Shaun Lunt secured it to put Hull KR back at one of rugby league’s showpiece events.

 Here's a fantastic excerpt from the club's commentary video!


Leeds
Now we’ve moved on to Leeds, I can talk about the Wembley 2015 final! It was a 52-0 drubbing, which saw Tom Briscoe scored five tries! 2015 was also the year that Leeds joined Bradford (2003) and St Helens (2006) in taking all three major trophies.

Whilst the Challenge Cup Final was a breeze, the other two trophies were not. After Wembley, Leeds started to falter and it looked as though the League Leaders’ Shield had gone. They were given a reprieve as Wigan were defeated by St Helens in the penultimate round of the season.

This set up a three way showdown on the final day. Leeds, Wigan and Huddersfield, all going for top spot. Wigan were doing their bit, comfortably beating Castleford at home, ready to take advantage of another Leeds slip.

And that was happening too, Leeds trailing 16-14 to Huddersfield. With minutes remaining, Leeds kicked an equalising penalty. They knew that this would secure a home play off semi final, whereas a defeat would see them drop into 3rd place, below Huddersfield.

Then we saw one of the most dramatic moments in Super League history, with the final act, Ryan Hall picked up a McGuire chip kick and ran 50 metres, joy etched on his face, to claim the League Leaders’ Shield. The helicopter which was already taking the trophy to Wigan did an about turn, and Leeds secured trophy number two.

Tense, thrilling victories over St Helens and Wigan saw Leeds claim the treble and make history!


We’ll cover the other 8 Super League participants tomorrow!

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