How wooden spoon race could impact IMG gradings – and relegation in Super League

With just two rounds to go in the Super League season, the race for Old Trafford is heating up – but so is the battle to avoid the wooden spoon.

Incredibly, with just two rounds of games left, a whopping five teams can still end the season at the bottom of the table. Of course, that doesn’t have huge consequence anymore with no automatic relegation.. but it may still mean something to at least one or two of those teams.

There are some blockbuster games that will likely directly shape how and what the bottom six or seven teams looks like and the order of the bottom half – starting with Bradford Bulls against Castleford Tigers on Thursday evening. Here’s a run-down of how being as low as 14th this year could really matter for one or two teams when it comes to IMG gradings..

The state of play going into Round 26

Bradford sit bottom and in all eventuality, are going to be there at the start of Round 27, too. They are two points adrift of York Knights, who they meet on the final day, and they know they’ll probably have to beat Castleford and the Knights to get above the latter due to their own woeful points difference. They are currently 98 points worse off than York.

York, Huddersfield and Hull are all two points ahead of Bradford on 14 points while the outsiders to finish last are Castleford, who have 16 points. They will ensure the wooden spoon is off the table for them should they win at Odsal on Thursday evening.

How the scoring works

Just a quick reminder for those who don’t know. All clubs were previously ranked in order based on the average league finish over the three most recent seasons – so for last year’s gradings, that was 2023, 2024 and 2025.

But this year, it’s changed to a two-year average; and the most recent season counts for 65% of the score. The previous year, 2025 in this case, counts for 35%. There are also bonus points for winning trophies; but this year, for this five, that obviously doesn’t apply.

The team it really matters for..

..is undoubtedly York Knights. The general consensus is that Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull and Castleford are safe with IMG. Some of them will be Grade A clubs.

But for York, currently sitting 13th, if we are working on the assumption that gradings will once again determine a 14-team competition in 2027 – and there is nothing to suggest otherwise at present – every game really does matter. They finish with a trip to Catalans this weekend before that home tie with Bradford next Thursday.

10th is realistically the highest they can finish. If things finished today, York would get a performance score of 3.2353 – a rise of 0.8496. But don’t forget, every team can score a maximum extra point in this aspect of the criteria this year, so all the five teams in the mix to finish bottom are getting a rise of some sort.

But if York got to 10th? Their average would rise sufficiently to get them a score of 3.3824 – a rise of 0.9967; essentially a full extra point. For context, London’s score will go up by 0.8941 if they win the Championship Grand Final – we are talking potentially razor thin margins.

Yes, it’s rugby by spreadsheets. But York’s last two games really matter for their IMG score.

What about Toulouse’s IMG score?

The other team believed to be in jeopardy of being usurped by London are Toulouse. As we sit here today, 9th-placed Toulouse will get a performance score of 3.5294 – a rise of 0.6508 on last year (they drop their bonus points for winning the Championship Grand Final).

Sadly, even if they got to 8th, their average wouldn’t go above Catalans even with the Dragons dropping to 9th, so that score of 3.5294 is the most they can hope for. But it’s worth pointing out it can go down with a couple of bad results to finish. Toulouse have Hull at home and Warrington away. Win one, and they’ll probably finish 9th at worst.

How do all the IMG scores look today?

Going into Round 26, these are what the bottom five clubs in Super League are scheduled to get from the IMG performance criteria as it stands and their rises from last year:

• 10th: Castleford Tigers – 3.6765 (+0.9336)
• 11th: Hull FC – 3.8235 (+0.7378)
• 12th: Huddersfield Giants – 3.3824 (+0.4110)
• 13th: York Knights – 3.2353 (+0.8496)
• 14th: Bradford Bulls – 3.0882 (+0.5739)

Every result at the bottom truly matters for some teams over the final fortnight. For some, it could be the difference between survival and relegation.