A place in the elite group of the Women’s Super League awaited the winners of a play-off encounter between Barrow Raiders and Leigh Leopards as the teams that finished second and third after the regular season looked to replace the Huddersfield Giants at the top table.

The sides were only separated by a point at the end of the regular season with honours shared so far in the 2023 season, Barrow winning the game at Leigh in early September by 14-12, and Leigh being victorious in the first encounter of the season back at the start of May by 30-22.

There was plenty at stake for both sides after terrific seasons as they looked to make the next step as all eyes focussed on the LNER Community Stadium in York for the first of this afternoon’s double header of women’s rugby league.

Bradford Bulls had the unenviable task of a trip to the south of France to take on a Toulouse Olympique XIII side who were cast iron favourites to progress to next weekend’s promotion game against the victors from tomorrow evening’s game between Featherstone Rovers and the London Broncos.

The Bulls took a hammering on their last visit to the Stade Ernest-Wallon back in June when they lost by 52-14 but won the first meeting of the season between the sides by 28-18 in February.

The bookies thought that this would be a win for the home side who finished the regular season in clear second spot, but Bradford weren’t making the nine-hundred-mile journey just to make up the numbers.

After a Titanic battle in the south of France, the Catalans Dragons eliminated the reigning Champions St Helens with a last-minute Sam Tomkins Try which saw the French side into their second Grand Final in three years while ending the four-year domination of the most successful side of the modern era.

The second play-off promised to be equally as dramatic as the Wigan Warriors, sought a return to Old Trafford for the first time since 2020 as they came up against a Hull KR side intent on reaching their first ever Grand Final.

This was the fifth meeting of the season between the two sides with honours shared at two wins each despite Wigan having a massive points aggregate advantage thanks to their 64-6 triumph in the most recent meeting in August and which made them strong favourites with the bookies for the win at the DW Stadium and progress to Old Trafford.

The bookies had made the Catalans Dragons slight favourites ahead of tonight’s final eliminator against a Saints side looking for their fifth consecutive Old Trafford appearance and potentially a fifth consecutive Grand Final win.

The two sides last met in July at the Totally Wicked Stadium when the Dragons secured a 14-12 win with the season’s previous meeting at the Stade Gilbert Brutus at the beginning of May also witnessing a Dragons win, by 24-12 on that occasion.

Steve McNamara’s side have had a week off to prepare for their big game, and once which they will have been building towards for the last month, while Saints had a tough run out last weekend in the opening round of the playoffs when they beat Warrington Wolves by 16-8.

With the London Broncos thrashing the Shefield Eagles by 42-0 earlier in the day to make progress in the playoffs, all eyes turned to Odsal Stadium for the third against sixth encounter between the Bradford Bulls and York RLFC Knights as both sides looked to ensure their progress.

A win for Bradford would set up a trip to Toulouse next weekend while should York emerge as victors then they would have the daunting task of a visit to Featherstone while London Broncos would make the trip to France.

York had won both previous encounters in 2023, the latest just three weeks ago, but the bookies made the home side the favourites for the win and handicapped them by six points on the coupon for what could potentially be a classic play off eliminator.

The pinnacle of the Australian rugby league season saw the top two sides in the competition, the Penrith Panthers and the Brisbane Broncos, take the field at the Accor Stadium in Sydney for the 2023 Grand Final as the Panthers looked to secure their third consecutive trophy against the side who last picked up the ultimate prize back in 2006.

Whoever won todays game would join the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters who have both won the competition on four occasions in the modern era, but the bookies were favouring the Panthers as they handicapped them by four points on the coupon.

The Broncos won the opening match of the season against the Panthers by a single point, but the Panthers were triumphant in round twelve, it promised to be a classic between two evenly matched sides as the best in the competition went head to head.

A place in the play off semi-finals awaited and a win for St Helens would see them travelling to Perpignan next week to take on the Catalans Dragons, while should the Warrington Wolves spring a surprise and get the win then they would be travelling to Wigan next week while last nights winners, Hull KR, would be getting on the plane to France.

St Helens have won all three encounters so far in 2023, by twenty-two points at home in April, and by four and then twelve in the meetings in July and a fortnight ago at the Halliwell-Jones.

Warrington had been given a twelve-point start on the handicap coupon after suffering a monumental fall in form following a stunning start to the season, and all but their most optimistic fans were expecting a Wolves defeat and Saints marching closer to another Grand Final.

Super League entered the knock-out stages with a play-off encounter between two sides who have had sensational seasons and exceeded all expectations as Hull KR played hosts to the cup winning Leigh Leopards at Craven Park with the winners going through to a game against one of the top two next weekend.

It was KR who finished the regular season in fourth spot, and they were handicapped by six points on the coupon against the side who felt hard done by when they narrowly lost to the Wigan Warriors last weekend to drop from fourth a swap places with their hosts on points difference.

The season would end for one of these two after what promised to be an intense eighty minutes as the two sides played out a re-run the Challenge Cup final.

It is with great sadness that we have to bring you the news of the passing of RLFANS administrator, reporter, moderator and all-round decent bloke Tony Braisby, known to all as TB, who passed away on the 19th September, at the tender age of 63, after a battle against cancer which finally proved too much.

The now ‘long defunct’ RLFANS Dictionary lists TB as ‘London-based Cas fan moderator closely and directly linked with Mintball, mostly harmless´ and those thirteen words tell you a lot about a man who was a rugby league fanatic, a thoughtful and level-headed contributor and colleague, a long-term partner and latterly husband to Amanda (Mintball), and above all a decent bloke, as you would expect of a flat cap wearing Yorkshireman, albeit on difficult missionary work in London.

The final game of the regular Championship season was a Sunday tea time kick off between the Sheffield Eagles and the Bradford Bulls with plenty still to play for in determining who would have the all important home advantage in next weeks’ opening play-off round.

Both sides were guaranteed a spot, but the winner of this encounter would determine who would finish the season in third spot and have a home game next week against York RLFC Knights, a win for Bradford would see them finish third, while a loss for Sheffield would see them drop to fourth and have to face London Broncos in Sheffield in a weeks’ time.

The Bulls were slight favourites with the bookies but they were only handicapped by two points on the coupon, all indications were that it would be a close one.

The final round of the regular season was critical for both sides and the mathematics were a little complicated depending on who you were pulling for as Halifax needed to win and hope that Barrow Raiders lost to York RLFC Knights to get a play-off place, while Swinton Lions needed to avoid losing by more than four points to send Whitehaven down, or do better than Keighley Cougars result, to maintain Championship football for 2024 by the narrowest of margins.

Swinton showed massive character to beat their relegation rivals Whitehaven last week by a single point to grab themselves a massive lifeline, and they would be confident about kicking on from that and spoiling Halifax’s party.

A fifteen-minute delay to the kick-off, to allow half a dozen Halifax players time to negotiate traffic around the ground, added to the pre-match atmosphere.

Leeds Rhinos made their way across the Pennines looking for their fourth consecutive Women’s Super League Grand Final appearance as they looked to defend their title but they knew that they had a monumental challenge in their way as they took on a St Helens side who finished a place above them at the end of the regular season.

A Grand Final place against the York Valkyrie at the LNER Community Stadium on the 8th of October was up for grabs and the Rhinos were slight favourites after they won the round nine encounter three weeks ago by 34-22 while the sought further revenge for the defeat to Saints in the Challenge Cup Final.

Saints had never beaten the Rhinos at the Totally Wicked Stadium but were confident that today would be the day.

The first of two mouthwatering Women’s Super League play off games pitted recently crowned minor premiers York Valkyrie against a Wigan Warriors side who are acknowledged to be the weakest of the sides remaining in the competition after only winning three from their ten games iu 2023, but who would come into the game with a desperate point to prove.

York came into the game unbeaten after an excellent regular season and with a 40-6 win in July and a 36-4 win in August signalled that it would be the Valkyrie who would be progressing to the Grand Final on the 8th October.

It would take a monumental shock for Wigan to take the spoils.

The final day of the season mathematics were not simple, either at the top of the table, or for the play off places.

SKY chose to send their cameras to the Leigh Sports Village where the Leopards hoped to spoil the party for their near neighbours and seal them a loss which could see them end the night in third spot.

Wigans superior points difference meant that so long as they beat Leigh by a point, and Catalans won by less than sixty-eight, and Saints won by less than one hundred and forty-one, then it would be the Warriors getting crowned as minor premiers by ten o’clock.

A loss and wins for Catalans and the Saints would drop them down into the spots for next week’s play-off games and throw away the luxury of a week off.

Leigh were also looking over their shoulders and knew that a heavy loss could open the doors for Hull KR to take fourth and a home game next weekend.

The 2023 Betfred Super League season is on the brink of two significant attendance milestones ahead of the final round of matches before the Play-Offs this Friday night – and among a majority of clubs whose home crowds have increased year on year, the Challenge Cup finalists Leigh Leopards and Hull KR have posted their best figures since well before the start of Super League in 1996.

The cumulative attendance of 1,446,052 across the first 26 rounds is already the highest since the change in the competition format in 2019, which involved a significant reduction in the number of fixtures and another 53,948 when all six Round 27 matches are played on Friday night would break the one and a half million barrier for the first time in five years.

York RLFC Knights came into their final home game of the season against the Batley Bulldogs with the slenderest of hopes of making the playoffs while their opponents knew that a win in tonight’s game in front of the ViaPlay cameras would mean that their qualification for the playoff was in their own hands.

A win for York by seven points or more would lift them above the Bulldogs and into seventh spot in the league, while a win for the Bulldogs would see them up to sixth in the table, going back above the Halifax Panthers who usurped them yesterday afternoon.

Batley have what looks like a home banker against the Newcastle Thunder next week while York travel to Barrow and Halifax have a home game against the Swinton Lions.

Whatever happened tonight the playoffs wouldn’t finally be decided until next week’s games.

Keighley Cougars were looking for a double celebration as they took on the Halifax Panthers in the penultimate round of the Betfred 2023 Championship season.

A win would lift them closer to guaranteeing Championship football next season, while a victory would also serve a major blow to the Panthers play-off aspirations.

On the other hand, a win for the Panthers could see them end the weekend in fifth spot in the table should fifth paced Bradford Bulls lose to fourth placed London Broncos.

It promised to be an exciting Sunday afternoon as teams vied for the remaining play-off places and to avoid finishing up in the bottom two.

Halifax were the favourites for the win with a twelve-point start on the coupon for the Cougars.

A play-off place was at stake at Craven Park as Hull KR took on the Salford Red Devils in a Saturday evening fixture, the ultimate game of the penultimate round of Super League in 2023 with both sides desperate for the crucial two points which would make their chances of a play-off berth a lot more likely.

A win for Hull KR would guarantee that they couldn’t finish the season any lower than fifth place, but a win for the Red Devils would see them move two points ahead of seventh placed Warrington Wolves and in full control of their own destiny when they face the Catalans Dragons in the final game of the season next Friday.

A loss for Salford would mean that they are in all sorts of trouble, especially as their challengers for sixth spot, Warrington, play Huddersfield Giants next week.

After Wigan and St Helens secured round twenty-six wins last night, the Catalans Dragons knew that they needed a home win, and a large one at that, to keep their hopes of a minor premiership alive as they took on the Leeds Rhinos who needed the win to maintain the slimmest of hopes that they could make the 2023 play-offs.

A win of any description would put the Dragons into second spot, while they needed an unlikely win by one hundred and twenty-nine points or more to regain top spot.

A win for the Rhinos would keep their season alive, at least for a couple of hours until Hull KR took on the Salford Red Devils in the evening kick-off.

There was no doubting that the Dragons were strong favourites, the Rhinos likely to see an end to their 2023 hopes after the most inconsistent of seasons.

St Helens fans travelling to Warrington for tonight’s round 26 game would be keeping one eye on the score updates from the DW Stadium as they hoped that their side could thrash an out of form Wolves side who are in danger of dropping out of the play-offs, while Castleford Tigers sprung some kind of miracle against one of their rivals for the minor premiership.

A win for Saints would send their interest into the final round of the season and while defeat wouldn’t certainly mean that the Wolves would miss out on the last play-off spot, it would mean that it was increasingly unlikely that they would make the top six when the final reckoning was made at the end of round twenty-seven.

Saints were big favourites in the bookies eyes as they start to find their best form at the right end of the season.