A surprising 7 Super League matches were played

Hull KR have announced a pre-season friendly in Amsterdam with Championship side York for next year, and it’s got us thinking about times when rugby league has tried to broaden its horizons in the past.

Of course, there were too many to name. Games have appeared in unfamiliar places on many, many occasions.

Every year we have Magic Weekend and this year will be the sixth different venue for that event in Elland Road – after the Millennium Stadium, Murrayfield, Etihad Stadium, St James’ Park and Anfield.

2022 also saw the Challenge Cup final moved from Wembley to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

And the London Broncos in particular tend to move around quite a bit in terms of their actual home locations.

But here, we take a look at seven times Super League matches have been taken ‘on the road’, taking a trip down memory lane…

18 May 2019: Catalans Dragons v Wigan Warriors – Camp Nou, Barcelona

It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since the Dragons – who were on the back of a Challenge Cup triumph at Wembley last year – played a game at Camp Nou.

31,555 were in attendance as they beat Wigan 33-16 at one of the sport’s most iconic grounds, around a quarter of that crowd believed to have bought tickets direct from FC Barcelona. To this day, it remains the biggest attendance ever for a Super League game, excluding Magic Weekends and Grand Finals.

IN PICTURES: Historic rugby league day at Camp Nou

February and March 2018: Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road, Leeds

This is the only inclusion on this list that has seen a Super League club temporarily move home, but we thought it was worth including. The Rhinos took two games into early 2018 at Elland Road while Headingley were being redeveloped, beating Hull KR 20-11 before losing 25-24 to Castleford Tigers the following month.

The Rhinos are no strangers to Elland Road, having now played Leeds United 18 times in total, with a 19th – against Warrington Wolves – coming in August at Magic Weekend. Remarkably though, that 2018 clash with Castleford remains the club’s record home attendance in Super League – with 23,246 watching on the day.

10 February 2018: Wigan Warriors v Hull FC – Wollongong Showground, Australia

The first Super League game to take place outside of Europe saw Wigan and Hull fly over 12,000 miles to face off on Australia’s south-east coast in a second-round match. 12,416 packed WOLlongong’s ‘WIN Stadium’ to witness a 24-10 victory for the official ‘hosts’ Warriors.

Both Super League sides played friendlies against NRL sides later that week before returning home, Wigan were beaten 18-8 by South Sydney Rabbitohs & Hull lost 24-18 to St George Illawarra Dragons . In the same week, in the current World Club Challenge, Melbourne Storm hosted and defeated Leeds Rhinos, 38-4 in that game.

TEST: Can you name the 72 stadiums that have hosted a Super League match?

5 September 2015: Wigan Warriors v Catalans Dragons – The Den, London

Four years before their meeting at Camp Nou, Wigan and the Catalans met at The Den, the home of EFL Championship side Millwall. This time the Warriors were the official hosts in a Super 8 clash, with boss Kris Radlinski saying the club wanted to increase their presence in the capital at the time, given their success over the years in the Challenge Cup in London .

The Cherry & Whites were 42-16 winners on the day with 8,101 in attendance. This was the first rugby league match held at The Den, with the 13 code not returning there since.

20 June 2009: Catalans Dragons v Warrington Wolves – Olympic Stadium, Barcelona

🇪🇸 10 years ago today, Wire reigned supreme in Spain with a historic win over Catalans Dragons at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium pic.twitter.com/x1uxLfRJgL

— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) June 20, 2019

A decade before their Camp Nou experience, the Catalans tested the Barcelona waters when they hosted Warrington at the city’s Olympic Stadium, the ‘Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys’ to give it its full name.

With the Dragons just three-and-a-half years into their Super League existence, the Round 17 clash attracted a crowd of 18,150, although supporters of the French side were left disappointed after seeing them lose 24-12.

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1999, 2001 and 2004: London Broncos at Welford Road, Leicester

I’ve already mentioned London and their tendency to move around quite a bit, but playing over 100 miles away from the capital in Leicester was not a necessity and was actually an effort to increase interest in the sport and the club. The Broncos have graced the pitch at Welford Road, home of Premiership Rugby team Leicester Tigers, on three separate occasions.

Bradford were the opponents for the first two games there, with the Bulls winning 19-16 in July 1999 and 42-0 in June 2001. The two Super League clashes drew crowds of 8,233 and 5,259 respectively, but when London returned for the third time in June 2004 and were beaten 42–26 by Hull FC, attendances dropped considerably to just 3,589.

Before the 2001 game against the Bulls, then boss Lionel Hurst spoke of the “tremendous interest” in rugby league in the area. Since then very few professional games have been played in the sport in Leicester, although we now have the Midlands Hurricanes competing in League One, so who knows if these games have helped our cause in any small way?

10-26 July 1998: ‘On the Road’ round of the Super League

Returning to the third season of the Super League to round things off and round 14 that year which saw an ‘On the Road’ round. A sort of Magic Weekend, all 12 clubs were involved, but rather than every team playing at the same venue, the six matches were spread across the UK.

Who faced who was decided as the loop matches in effect today are, by league positions from the previous season (1997). Two games were sent to Gateshead, with Cardiff and Swansea getting one each – all three venues at the time had Super League franchise bids on the table.

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Elsewhere, the other two games were split between Edinburgh and Northampton, with the latter also interested in forming a club at the time. The six matches were played over three separate weekends, with a gap of three weeks remaining in the original schedule to avoid a clash with the World Cup in France.

Kicking things off on a wet Friday evening, Leeds beat Salford – then known as the Reds – 34-16 at the Gateshead International Stadium in front of a crowd of 4,122. Notably, Gateshead Thunder (now Newcastle) were to play their home games at that venue from the following year, and later that year the club would temporarily return there.

Seven days later, Halifax – then under the slogan “Blue Sox” – beat Sheffield Eagles 32-10 at Northampton. Played at Sixfields Stadium, the home of Northampton Town Football Club, who now operate in League One, only 3,087 watched that clash.

The next day in Edinburgh at Tynecastle, the home of Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian FC, over 4,000 Bradford supporters made the trip to see their side beaten 22-8 by London. 6,863 was the official attendance.

Back at Gateshead on Friday 24 July, Huddersfield were beaten 21-10 by Hull – then under the ‘Sharks’ banner – in front of 4,306. Huddersfield had sacked player-manager Garry Schofield earlier that week.

And for the last two games of the ‘On the Road’ round, Wales took center stage. Cardiff were first up with 4,437 in attendance at the Arms Park as Castleford beat Warrington 23-16.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest crowd of the round came the following day at Swansea as Wigan faced bitter rivals St Helens. Vetch Field, the former home of Swansea City Football Club, was home to 8,572 attendees. A 36-2 victory by the Warriors was the fourth time they had beaten their bitter rivals that year, following one in the Challenge Cup and two in “regular” league games.

John Monie’s side went on to claim their first title of the summer period later that year with victory over Leeds in their first ever Grand Final.

More than 31,000 fans watched a Super League match during this ‘On the Road’ run, with a per-game average of 5,230.

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