The sun is setting on the Super League season as next month’s Grand Final approaches and, while all 12 teams wind down for the winter, one club is facing a potentially serious situation.
With IMG’s controversial gradings system going live next month to replace conventional promotion and relegation from 2025, only the 12 highest-scoring clubs in a variety of on and off-field metrics will qualify for Super League status.
Wigan need one more win to retain the League Leaders' Shield after cruising to a 38-0 win over woeful Leeds at the Brick Community Stadium. The hosts' seven-try rout means they will confirm first place in the Super League table – and the most favourable route in the playoffs – if they beat Salford in their final match of the regular season next Thursday.
Meanwhile, Leeds' heavy defeat means they face the daunting task of heading to second-placed Hull KR knowing they will need a win to stand any chance of avoiding a second straight campaign without a post-season berth.
Elsewhere, Mikey Lewis starred as Hull KR beat Leigh to keep their hopes of winning the Shield alive heading into the final week. Lewis scored two tries and four goals to set up an impressive 24-0 win at Leigh Sports Village that kept Rovers within touching distance.
And winger Jon Bennison grabbed the spotlight from Tommy Makinson with his first-ever Super League hat-trick as St Helens stepped up their play-off bid with a 40-4 win over Castleford.
The one thing IMG did not account for, though, in its planned shake-up of the game is the club ranked 24th in the provisional gradings. By winning promotion against the odds, the London Broncos, in effect knew they would be booted out of Super League at the end of this year irrespective of how they performed as a result of their poor grading.
Even then, it was supposed to be straightforward. London, knowing their fate before a ball had been kicked, opted for a season in Super League with a part-time squad and were expected to be routinely humiliated, making IMG’s decision seem more credible. However, with a fortnight of the regular season to go, London could still avoid finishing bottom.
Before the weekend’s fixtures they were level on points with 11th-placed Hull with two games remaining and have taken some of the league’s biggest teams all the way. Which prompts the question: what next for a club who will be dismissed to the Championship by IMG and have no realistic chance of Super League for years to come? Is this the end for the sport in the capital?
“I don’t really know what’s going to happen,” admits their coach, Mike Eccles. “I’ve not enjoyed this year. This club is going to look almightily different from this in every single way possible. We have made so much progress but we are going to lose it all.”
The Broncos’ impressive squad has been cherrypicked of some key players. Eccles says London have just seven contracted players for 2025. What’s more, their longstanding owner, David Hughes, who has invested tens of millions into the Broncos, is to spend “substantially less” according to Eccles. “He doesn’t see a route back to Super League for us as it stands,” he says.
London have frequently spoken out against the IMG gradings. Last month, Hughes called for them to be scrapped and Eccles says there is a case for the Broncos to be granted an exemption to remain in Super League given their progress. He points to crowds growing at their Wimbledon home and the club producing more homegrown players than many northern rivals.
“I’m very happy to put my name to this – you have got to treat London differently,” Eccles says. “There has to be an exemption. It’s a different world down here. We cut our cloth accordingly, we produce players on par with the best academies in the game and we’ve got a home where we can build. Things are different down here.”
Expansionists would argue there is a precedent in Catalans Dragons, who finished bottom of Super League in their inaugural season in 2006 but were exempt from relegation; 18 years later, they have won the Challenge Cup, reached two Grand Finals and often attract five-figure crowds in the south of France.
But a stay of execution will not be forthcoming this time. Despite IMG conceding in December 2022 that London were a “sleeping giant” of rugby league and the capital topped all the data metrics, the Broncos are not just going to be ushered back to the Championship, they are going to be there for years to come, with their grading way off the required score.
“We face a long road to get back to Super League,” Eccles says. “There’s no eyes and ears on the Championship, no TV coverage and no investment. So how are you going to do it, especially in London, where you have to pay players more? I’m not saying it’s impossible but it’s going to be incredibly hard.”
Eccles is keen to stress the positives, too, however. Two years ago, London were nearly relegated from the Championship; now, their squad of predominantly local players is holding its own in the Super League. The Broncos have shown that there is a place for the capital in the sport’s long-term plans but IMG does not see it that way.
“This clearly works – we’re showing it works on the field and off it,” says Eccles. “Do you really want to throw this away? It’s a crying shame we aren’t going to be able to build on this. We don’t want money, we just want a chance to show that this club and this region has a place in rugby league. This is the point of no return. How badly does the sport want London?”
