English Rugby League - The Big Performers
1 Introduction
The English Rugby League has two grades - the Super League and the Championship. The Super League is the top-level of the British rugby league system and consists of twelve teams, of which ten are usually from Northern England, reflecting the sport’s geographic heartland as shown by the English teams’ hometowns in Map 1
During the Super League season the 12 teams play home and away (22 games) and an extra game during whats described as Magic Weekend. After the initial sequence of 23 games the Top 8 teams compete in a round robin series to select quarter-final seedings. The bottom 4 Super League Teams and the top 4 Championship Team play a knock to decide relegation and promotion.
In the year 2017, one Super League team was demoted. Since our exploration extends to the two years 2017 and 2018 only the performance of the remaining 11 teams is examined. In addition, as only eight teams proceed to the knock-out stage, the exploration is confined to the 23 preliminary games per year where all eleven teams competed. The home and away scores of each team per year are presented in Table 1 Home and Away Scores 2017 and 2018
Table 1 presents the home, away and total score per team per year for 2017 and 2018.
| Team | Home '17 | Home '18 | Away '17 | Away '18 | Tot '17 | Tot '18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castleford Tigers | 432 | 251 | 142 | 124 | 574 | 375 |
| Catalans Dragons | 159 | 210 | 228 | 167 | 387 | 377 |
| Huddersfield Giants | 210 | 177 | 196 | 207 | 406 | 384 |
| Hull FC | 227 | 287 | 271 | 144 | 498 | 431 |
| Leeds Rhinos | 258 | 151 | 118 | 154 | 376 | 305 |
| Salford Red Devils | 201 | 164 | 166 | 212 | 367 | 376 |
| St Helens | 201 | 263 | 149 | 100 | 350 | 363 |
| Wakefield Trinity | 142 | 288 | 170 | 215 | 312 | 503 |
| Warrington Wolves | 165 | 184 | 182 | 184 | 347 | 368 |
| Widnes Vikings | 122 | 157 | 230 | 260 | 352 | 417 |
| Wigan Warriors | 233 | 290 | 192 | 98 | 425 | 388 |
Diagram 1 presents the Home and Away Scores per Team for 2017
Diagram 2 presents the Home and Away Scores per Team for 2018
It is easier to see how the sum of Home and Away scores compare across the two years is representesd in the stacked bar chars for 2017 and 2018.
