Ben Flower will miss out on Wigan’s first chance to take revenge on St Helens for their defeat in the Super League Grand Final. The first derby of next season is on the traditional Good Friday date, 3 April – and Flower’s six-month suspension for punching Lance Hohaia at Old Trafford expires 10 days later.
The first match for which the Welsh prop would be available is another tasty one, at home to Warrington on 16 April, with his first meeting with St Helens likely to come at Langtree Park on 12 June.
Saints begin their defence of the title at home to Catalans Dragons on 6 February, and are expected to confirm on Monday morning that it will be the first game in charge for Keiron Cunningham.
The 37-year-old has been on the coaching staff for the four seasons since he retired in the autumn of 2010, assisting Royce Simmons, Mike Rush and, for the last two years, Nathan Brown, who headed home to Australia after the Grand Final win. He will become only the second permanent British coach of St Helens of the Super League era, following Ellery Hanley’s single season in charge in 1999, and leaves a record low of two Australian coaches among the 12 clubs in the elite competition at the start of next season – Warrington’s Tony Smith (and even he has a British passport having been here since 1996) and James Webster at Wakefield Trinity.
Cunningham will have a baptism of fire with the Catalan opener, followed by a trip to Salford and then the World Club Challenge against South Sydney on 22 February – the culmination of a series of three fixtures in which Warrington play St George Illawarra Dragons and Wigan renew their rivalry with Brisbane Broncos.
Wigan will kick off the season in Sky’s first Thursday night game at Widnes, and there are also an intriguing set of opening fixtures in the Championship the following weekend as Bradford Bulls begin their first campaign outside the Super League at ambitious Leigh on 15 February and London Broncos, who were relegated with Bradford, are at home to Doncaster.
Both the Super League and the Championship will have a Magic Weekend in late May – with a full round of Championship fixtures at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road before the 12 Super League clubs decamp to St James’ Park in Newcastle the following weekend. But the most striking feature of the fixture list is the break at the end of July, at which point the two leagues of 12 will reform as three of eight – the Super Eights, culminating in various sets of play-offs, grand finals and even potentially promotion and relegation.
Major dates
First Utility Super League starts
5 Feb Widnes v Wigan
6 Feb St Helens v Catalans
8 Feb Castleford v Wakefield, Huddersfield v Hull, Hull KR v Leeds, Warrington v Salford
Kingstone Press Championship starts
15 Feb including Leigh v Bradford, London Broncos v Doncaster
World Club Series
20 Feb Warrington v St George lllawarra Dragons
21 Feb Wigan v Brisbane Broncos
22 Feb St Helens v South Sydney (World Club Challenge)
Championship Summer Bash
23-24 May Blackpool
Super League Magic Weekend
30-31 May Newcastle
Split to Super Eights
26 July (first fixtures 6-9 Aug)
Challenge Cup semi finals
1-2 Aug
Challenge Cup final
29 Aug
Super League semi finals
1-2 Oct
Super League Grand Final
10 Oct
