Super League’s landmarks leading up to 5,000th game: Wigan, Warrington, St Helens all involved

Super League will bring up the milestone of 5,000 games on Friday night, so we thought we’d take you on a walk down memory lane and look at the landmark matches which have already been and gone.

Thursday night’s clash between Castleford Tigers and Hull FC at The Jungle was game #4,999 in Super League’s history book.

#5,000 will come between Warrington Wolves and Leeds Rhinos at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Below, we’ve detailed the 1,000th, 2,000th, 3,000th and 4,000th Super League games for your enjoyment, but just before we get into them, here’s a breakdown on how games are counted.

• All ‘regular’ season league games and play-off matches count
• Matches that took place in the Super 8s count
• Middle 8s fixtures and games in the Qualifiers DO NOT count towards the Super League total
• The Super League total includes Toronto Wolfpack’s six games before their withdrawal in 2020
• The Super League total includes the abandoned (and replayed) Wakefield Trinity v Widnes Vikings match from 2018
• The Super League total includes the three walkovers which happened between 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19

Without further ado, the milestone matches from previous years…

1,000: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 12-44 Bradford Bulls (April 1, 2002)

The 1,000th Super League game came in an all-West Yorkshire affair at Belle Vue in Round 5 of the 2002 campaign on Easter Monday.

En-route to winning the title, Bradford battered Wakefield in their own backyard, with Nathan McAvoy (2), Scott Naylor (2), Lesley Vainikolo (2), Brandon Costin and Leon Pryce all scoring tries for the Bulls.

Paul Handforth and Graham Law were Trinity’s two try-scorers.

2,000: Four-way shared custody (September 14, 2007)

It’ll come as no surprise that Super League hasn’t always had a single game to bring up a milestone.

Back in 2007, 1,999 games had been played in the competition as the day began on September 14. That day marked the start of Round 27, the final ‘regular round’ of the campaign that year.

Rather than having one game kick off earlier so that it became the 2,000th outright, no fewer than four games all kicked off at the same time (8pm), so eight teams share joint-custody of the honour.

Hull FC beat Bradford 20-10 on home soil, with tries from Graeme Horne, Danny Tickle and Richard Whiting winning it for the Airlie Birds.

Leeds were 46-4 winners at Headingley against Wakefield, where Rob Burrow (2), Danny McGuire (2), Kevin Sinfield, Lee Smith, Clinton Toopi and Brent Webb all grabbed tries for the Rhinos.

Elsewhere, Warrington beat Salford – then under the ‘City Reds’ tagline – 34-26 away from home at The Willows. Ben Westwood (2), Chris Bridge, Henry Fa’afili, Lee Mitchell and Paul Rauhihi were the Wolves’ try-scorers that night in Greater Manchester.

And rounding things off, Wigan Warriors beat bitter rivals St Helens 20-12 in front of just over 22,000 supporters at the JJB Stadium, as it was then known.

Liam Colbon, Tommy Leuluai and David Vaealiki all crossed the whitewash for the Cherry and Whites, with Saints going on to lose the Grand Final to Leeds that year.

3,000: Catalans Dragons 29-22 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (March 2, 2013)

Super League’s 3,000th match came circa five-and-a-half years later in Perpignan and was just a sole game as French outfit Catalans got the better of Wakefield on home soil.

In a Round 5 clash, the Dragons’ try-scorers were Damien Blanch (2), Jason Baitieri, Gregory Mounis and Mathias Pala. Thomas Bosc, who kicked four goals to earn eight points, also slotted over a drop goal.

Trinity’s try-scorers on the night in the South of France were Dean Collis, Peter Fox and Richard Mathers.

4,000: Widnes Vikings 24-26 Hull KR (July 14, 2018)

Game #4,000 was chalked up in Round 21 of the 2018 campaign, when Widnes – who would go on to be relegated through The Qualifiers – were edged out in their own backyard by fellow strugglers Hull KR.

KR, who finished 3rd in The Qualifiers to save their own bacon that year, won this clash at the DCBL Stadium courtesy of tries from James Donaldson, Adam Quinlan, Liam Salter and Danny Tickle. Crucially, hris Atkin kicked one goal for the Robins, with Tickle having slotted four conversions over.

Owen Buckley had grabbed a brace of tries for Widnes, with Olly Ashall-Bott and Danny Craven also on the scoresheet for the hosts. Krisnan Inu kicked four goals for the Vikings on the day.

5,000: Warrington Wolves v Leeds Rhinos (March 28, 2025)

As already mentioned, Friday night’s clash between Warrington and Leeds at the Halliwell Jones Stadium will become the 5,000th game in Super League history.

That’s only the case because Leigh Leopards agreed to delay their kick-off against Wakefield by five minutes to 8.05pm. Until a few short weeks ago, the two games would have been sharing the accolade, which is very Super League like, isn’t it?!

With thanks, as always, to the Rugby League Record Keepers’ Club for their help in piecing this together.