Wigan Warriors' success in winning the 2023 Grand Final ensured they were graded second behind only Leeds Rhinos; St Helens, Catalans Dragons, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Hull FC also achieve Grade A status; Castleford Tigers to lodge a formal appeal against their score
Wednesday 25 October 2023 15:17, UK
Leeds Rhinos are among seven Betfred Super League clubs to have been awarded Grade A status in the indicative phase of the new club grading process that is being introduced, with Castleford Tigers to appeal against their score.
Membership for the 2025 Super League season will be determined by the top 12 teams in the 2024 rankings, which will be announced at the culmination of the next season.
Based on the rankings, Toulouse Olympique and recently-relegated Wakefield Trinity, who stand 10th and 11th respectively, would be promoted at the expense of 13th-placed Castleford and newly-promoted London Broncos.
Castleford indicated to the Rugby Football League late on Tuesday that they wished to lodge a formal appeal against their score of 12.16 which gives them a B grade.
That appeal will be considered by the RFL in the coming days and any changes made will be confirmed following that process. Were the Tigers to move into the top 12 as a result of the appeal, it would come at the expense of Challenge Cup winners Leigh Leopards.
The rankings come as a huge blow to the Broncos, who have just won promotion to the Super League for 2024 but are graded 24th after scoring 8.07 - the lowest score of the 17 clubs given Grade B status.
It means they are almost certain to be demoted at the end of next season, irrespective of their on-pitch performance.
Championship winners Featherstone, who lost to the Broncos in their play-off semi-final, also expressed concern over the grading criteria which appear to diminish their own long-held hopes of reaching the top flight.
Featherstone rank 15th on the current list with a score of 10.65, meaning only a prospective expansion of Super League to 14 teams would give them a realistic chance of promotion.
In a wide-ranging statement, Featherstone questioned the weighting of some of the criteria towards what it called "future promises of potential" and said it was deflecting from deeper issues within the game.
Leeds returned the top score of 17.49 out of the maximum available 20 points, following detailed analysis of every club's performance under five pillars - on-field performance, fandom, finances, stadium and community.
They are followed by three clubs separated by 0.14 points. Wigan Warriors' success in winning the 2023 Grand Final lifted them to second on 16.87, ahead of St Helens in third on 16.78 and Catalans Dragons fourth on 16.73.
Warrington Wolves are fifth on 15.75, and both Hull clubs have earned A grades, with Hull KR sixth on 15.52, and Hull FC seventh on 15.05 - just above the threshold of 15 points required to be placed in the top tier.
Toulouse are the highest-performing club currently outside the Super League, with their score of 12.97 leaving them 10th in the rankings, the third strongest Grade B team.
The new grading process is all part of new proposals brought forward by IMG as part of the 'Reimagining Rugby League' strategy that was passed by the Rugby League Council in April.
The main purpose of the grading process in 2023 is to give clubs a clear indication of their strengths and weaknesses, and the areas in which they need to improve in order to increase their score.
Managing director of Castleford Tigers, Mark Grattan said of the team's appeal: "On Monday we were given a grading score with just a headline number for the four categories. Each of the categories were as expected, as was the overall grading score. As a result of this, we did not challenge anything ahead of the 1pm Deadline on Tuesday 24th October.
"At 7pm yesterday evening, I received a phone call from Tony Sutton, CEO of the RFL to inform me that the RFL had made a mistake on one of the data lines in finance. This meant they were taking half a point off us which moved us down to 13th. At that point, we realised that the finance score was incorrect. Within an hour we spotted a missing data line that we had not submitted.
"I sent all of the supporting evidence to the RFL expecting our error to be amended as the RFL's error was and we believe other clubs' scores were amended. We were then informed later yesterday evening that due to the lateness of the information the grades would be published with the RFL's amendment, but without ours and they would also allow us to appeal and they would be announcing that as part of the grading story.
"We are extremely disappointed with the RFL's decision as both ourselves and the RFL made an error but the RFL error masked our error on the scores which meant up to 7pm yesterday evening, we believed our score to be correct."
Speaking on the results of the review, London Broncos Chairman David Hughes said;
"Whilst accepting the score given, we will now look to work together as a club to improve on this score with the long-term ambition of achieving an A grade.
"Following the magnificent success of securing promotion from the Championship last season the club now looks to build on the strong foundations we have built in Wimbledon and last year's achievements on the pitch, as we look to establish London Broncos as a Super League club now and in years to come."
"The vast majority of scores in each category are based on an average over a three-year period so we need to make improvements year-on-year in order to improve our grading score in the longer term."
Sky Sports' Jon Wilkin:
"There's some big headlines. These ones are just illustrative gradings, but everyone will still get carried away.
"For the teams with Grade A licenses, they're absolutely fine. It's the Grade B licenses where it gets really interesting, because they're not guaranteed a Super League spot.
"All the way from seventh to 14th, there's seven clubs who are very close in terms of the points that they've got.
"Those are the clubs that will be twitchy, in particular Castleford Tigers, who are 13th - which means they wouldn't be in the Super League, regardless of what they do on the field.
"Look at London Broncos: they've just got promoted from the Championship, but the grading system has pretty much said that regardless of how well they do, they'll not be in the Super League the next year.
"It's a complete move away from what we traditionally think of sports competitions. I'm not going to be one of these naysayers that says it's bad. Rugby league has needed something different and this is certainly that.
"This is absolutely a kick up the backside for clubs who have just wandered around for 20 years, painfully, dragging their heels and only just getting by.
"If we've got any aspirations as a sport, we need to take the example of our most fantastic clubs, use that as the benchmark, and drive the clubs that aren't reaching that standard to get there."
