The independent Board of the Rugby Football League have accepted 44 recommendations from the sport’s Brain Health and Clinical Advisory Group Sub-Committees, as the latest and most wide-ranging phase of the drive to make the sport safer and more accessible at all levels.

  The recommendations – detailed here on the RFL website New for 2024 (rugby-league.com) - include changes for the 2024 season to the Laws, the Operational Rules, to Medical / First-Aid standards, and Coaching / Performance interventions.

This will affect all levels of the sport, from the Betfred Super Leagues (Men and Women) to Under-6s at community clubs, in different ways.

  Since 2021, the RFL have been working with Leeds Beckett University on the TaCKLE Project (Tackle and Contact Kinematics, Loads and Exposure), led by Ben Jones, a Professor at LBU who is the RFL’s Strategic Lead for Performance and Research.

 

With eighty-two days until the start of the 2024 Super League season, many peoples thoughts will be exercised by the idea of blowing Novembers pay packet on a season membership for their favourite team, to ensure that they’ll be attending every home game next year to cheer their side on to glory.

According to our survey of the cheapest season membership prices available at each club, for new season ticket holders and after some early bird options have ended, shows that there is a massive difference in what you will pay depending on which club commands your allegiance.

Access to all thirteen home games could cost you as little as £145, or as much as £300.

Ahead of tomorrow’s full fixture release, the opening two rounds of Super League XXIX have been announced with the opening game being a Thursday night Hull derby with the Black and White half of the city hosting the Red and Whites which is sure to get the season off to a tremendous start on the fifteenth of February.

The following night will see three games with Leeds Rhinos taking on the Salford Red Devils at the AMT Headingley Stadium while St Helens are visited by the new boys the London Broncos and last season’s sensations the Leigh Leopards face the Huddersfield Giants who will be hoping for a vast improvement over last year.

There was shock, and a fair helping on consternation, as Elland Road in Leeds was today announced as the venue for the Magic Weekend in 2024.

While there was confirmation over a month ago that the jamboree would be going ahead again after it was initially suggested that it would be dropped from the calendar in the IMG shake-up, it was widely expected to return to Newcastle and St James' Park after the success it had in hosting the weekend earlier in 2023.

Six Super League games will take place over the weekend of the 17th and 18th August with a stadium steeped in rugby league history hosting all the matches staggered over the Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Following a meeting of Betfred Championship and League One clubs last month the RFL Board has confirmed the structure for the 2024 season – including a new, expanded format for the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup.

The Betfred Championship will continue as a 14-team competition, with the top six teams qualifying for a Play-Off series culminating in a Grand Final to determine the champions.

This will be played at the home ground of the team ranked highest during the regular season.

With England already having the series win under their belts, Headingley was the venue where they would seek to turn the screw, and deepen the pain, by making it a series whitewash against a Tongan side who arrived on our shores full of hope that they might cause an upset.

Shaun Wane had controversially swapped man of the series Mikey Lewis for returning skipper George Williams, the Hull KR man not included in the eighteen with additional changes seeing Currie in for the injured King and Mulhern for Radley.

Tonga also made a number of changes, the most notable being the return of St Helens star Konrad Hurrell to bolster the centres.

England were still favourites for the win, but never underestimate the pride and passion of a south pacific islander.

This was the third annual meeting of England and Wales Women’s international sides as Headingley played host to the encounter as a curtain raiser to the third and final test between England and Tonga.

England have won both previous encounters between the two nations but after romping to a 60-0 win in 2021, the margin or defeat was more than halved to 32-6 in 2022, with the hope amongst the Welsh contingent being that they would be even closer to matching their English counterparts this time out.

But with the England players becoming household names, against a side drawn from emerging clubs, the bookies strongly fancied an England win, the only discussion being about the size of the winning margin.

New Zealand were unchanged from the side who were comprehensively beaten last weekend as they hosted an Australian side at the FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton.

Australia made two changes with Payne Haas and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui in place of Jake Trbojevic and Cam Murray and were strong favourites with the bookies to pick up the trophy, despite a five year drought for the Kangaroos against the Kiwi’s in New Zealand.

The pre-match expectation was for a much closer affair than last week’s one-sided encounter.

England Head Coach Shaun Wane has called Josh Thewlis and Morgan Smithies into his squad ahead of the third Test against Tonga at Leeds Rhinos’ AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium this Saturday.

Smithies – who played for the Halifax community club Siddal and was confirmed as a Canberra Raiders player for the 2024 season this morning - made his international debut in the 64-0 victory over France back in April and went on to help Matt Peet’s Wigan Warriors side secure a League Leaders’ Shield and Betfred Super League Grand Final double later this year while Thewlis was named as the Betfred Super League’s Young Player of the Season earlier this month after a season which saw him cross for eight tries in 21 league appearances for Warrington.

While Engand won the first of the three test match series against Tonga last week, it was for from a simple victory and Shaun Wane knew that his side would need to be on top form again to avoid the tourists levelling the series in the afternoons game at the John Smiths Stadium in Huddersfield.

England went in to battle with Jack Welsby wearing the captain’s armband but with enforced changes with Saints duo Morgan Knowles and Tommy Makinson being ruled out through injury to be replaced in the squad by Warrington’s Ben Currie and Matty Ashton.

England were slight favourites for the win and were handicapped by four points on the coupon, the winning margin in the first test, but Tonga would need to dig deep to take the series on to a decider in Leeds next weekend.

AAMI Park in Melbourne was the venue for the Australian Kangaroos against the New Zealand Kiwis in the rematch of the World Cup semi-final where the sides were separated by just two points in a sensational game, the Australians snatching the win on that occasion.

The Kangaroos are ranked number one in the world against the side ranked second as the top two went head-to-head in the Pacific Championships as a dress rehearsal for next weekend’s Pacific Cup final, and the right to take the momentum into the last game of the series.

Australia were strong favourites for the win, but New Zealand would surely have plenty to say about the outcome.

Wane makes two changes to England squad for second Tonga clash Warrington Wolves winger Matty Ashton is set to make his second international appearance for England on Saturday, as Head Coach Shaun Wane makes two changes to his squad for the game against Tonga at Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium.

Ashton comes in for Tommy Makinson and Wolves teammate Ben Currie replaces Morgan Knowles – the St Helens pair having picked up wrist and thumb injuries respectively during last Sunday’s 22-18 victory over Tonga in the series opener at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

Knowles, like winger Dom Young, is ruled out of the rest of the three-match series.

Reaction to the IMG preliminary grading of clubs has had a very mixed response from clubs and fans alike with those faring well being relatively comfortable with their score, while those who are down the rankings kicking back against the system, criteria, the Rugby Football League, and IMG.

There is no question that IMG have been handed a poisoned chalice, and it is impossible for them to make proposals to expand the game without upsetting a few, if not the majority of clubs.

But if you believe what a lot of fans say, in that the game is dying, then there seems to be little option than to try something radical and make a change at a fundamental level.

Social media is awash with criticism, but those with the most to lose will always shout the loudest, there are unlikely to be many evangelists putting a positive slant on the proposals, as those who are destined to benefit will keep their heads below the parapet.

 

Seven Betfred Super League clubs have been awarded Grade A status in the indicative phase of the new club grading process that is being introduced as part of Rugby League Commercial and IMG’s ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ strategy.

Leeds Rhinos lead the way, following detailed analysis of every club’s performance under five pillars – On-Field Performance, Fandom, Finances, Stadium and Community.

But they are run very close by three other clubs with Wigan Warriors, St Helens and Catalans Dragons all close behind.

Kristian Woolf returned to the Totally Wicked Stadium, this time in charge of a Tongan side starting an historic three game test series against an England side under the control of Shaun Wane who was looking to banish thoughts of a disappointing World Cup last November.

England gave debuts to rising stars Mikey Lewis and Harry Newman but were without regular skipper George Williams who will miss the opening two games through suspension, the skippers arm band being thrown in the direction of rugby prodigy Jack Welsby, captaining his international side for the first time, and on his home ground.

The home side were the favourites with a six-point handicap on the coupon, the good crowd in St Helens with their fingers crossed that Tonga wouldn’t provide the shock and heartache that Samoa inflicted in the semi-final in November 2022.

England Head Coach Shaun Wane has named his 19-strong squad to face Tonga in the opening match of a historic three-game autumn international series at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium this Sunday.

The side will be led by St Helens full-back and three-time Super League Dream Team player Jack Welsby – at 22 years of age England’s youngest-ever captain and the first Saints player to lead England since James Graham against Australia in the 2010 Four Nations competition.

Hull KR half-back Mikey Lewis is set to make his international debut after an impressive season during which he helped the Robins reach both the Betfred Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and the Betfred Super League play-off semi-finals.

Lewis was previously part of the mid-season international squad but didn’t feature back in April against France.

England Head Coach Shaun Wane has named his 24-player squad for the upcoming three-game series against Tonga.

This historic series – the first between the two nations and their first meeting since the epic 2017 World Cup semi-final in Auckland – will see England host Tonga this Sunday at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, before meetings at Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium (Saturday 28 October) and at the AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds, on Saturday 4 November with all games kicking off at half past two.

  Wane names five NRL players who also featured in last autumn’s World Cup campaign, including winger Dom Young – the NRL’s leading try-scorer in his last season with Newcastle Knights – John Bateman, Tom Burgess, Victor Radley and Elliott Whitehead.

 

After stunning a Featherstone Rovers side, who were already making plans for 2024 in the Super League, with a sensational performance last weekend the London Broncos made the trip to the south of France to take on a Toulouse XIII side who were the hot favourites to make an immediate return to the topflight after having been relegated at the end of 2022.

It was an expansionists’ dream game with the guarantee that a side away from the rugby league heartlands would be plying their trade in the top division next season and the bookies had handicapped the home side by six points with the expectation that it would be a close game but with the French side being victorious.

With changes in the offing for league structure in 2025, and possession being nine tenths of the law, then it was crucial for both sides that they gained promotion from today’s game.

One hundred and sixty-six games over 13,280 minutes had led us to Old Trafford and the 2023 Super League Grand Final between the top two sides in the competition as the Wigan Warriors took on the Catalans Dragons for the biggest prize in the domestic game.

Wigan were the slight favourites with the bookies to take the spoils despite the Dragons having been victorious on two out of the three meetings so far this season.

He stage was set for a fairytale final game of an illustrious career for Sam Tomkins should he be able to lead his Dragons side to victory over the side who he debuted for fifteen years ago and with whom he tasted so much success, including three Grand Final victories.

After dominating the league season, it was Featherstone Rovers who were the massive favourites to make progress in the second play-off semi-final as they looked to end the aspirations of the London Broncos and make progress to take on Toulouse Olympique XIII next weekend in the Million Pound game.

Few gave the Broncos any hope as they made their way up the M1 to Post Office Road, many neutrals believing that it was almost pre-destined that it would be Rovers making the move into Super League this season after missing out in the final in 2019 and 2021.

The bookies thought that it was a foregone conclusion, but the Broncos have timed themselves to peak at the right time of the season and came into the game full of optimism about their chances.