The opening weekend of Super League’s new era as a 14-team competition has been undeniably positive and packed with surprises. There have been sell‑out crowds, the attendance boom of 2025 continuing into 2026, and with two out of the three promoted teams winning it is clear the competition is largely unpredictable, which can only be a good thing.
It seems some things, though, do not change. York may have stunned the champions, Hull KR, on Thursday while Toulouse defeated Wakefield on Saturday evening, but the final game of the opening round did not maintain the feeling that anything is possible.
A few days ago this was being largely touted as a convincing Wigan victory and nothing more. The Warriors have retained the squad that made the grand final last season, while Castleford are starting afresh with a new-look squad and a different coach after a disappointing 11th‑place finish in 2025. And one thing you can still be relatively sure of is that Wigan will handle occasions such as these extremely well.
If you drilled down into the detail, this actually had all the hallmarks of a difficult afternoon and Castleford certainly showed they will be no pushovers this year, unlike last season, but Wigan’s quality across the park always looked as if it would shine through in the end.
The Tigers stayed in the contest but the four minutes either side of half-time were crucial, as tries from Bevan French and Zach Eckersley transformed a 6‑4 deficit into a 14-6 lead.
From there, Wigan always had their opponents at arm’s length, winning 26-16. With shocks aplenty elsewhere in the opening round Matt Peet, the Wigan head coach, described the win as “a job well done”, saying: “Every game is a difficult one, especially in round one. Castleford away is often challenging and I thought Castleford were good and tested us for sure.”
This feels an appropriate time to take stock of what we have seen across the board on the opening weekend. There were fears that adding two more teams to Super League would dilute the quality of the competition, leading to more blowout scores and ultimately fewer games that remain compelling.
In a year when Super League is negotiating a critical broadcast deal and is hopeful of starting a bidding war that could provide a major financial injection, that would be far from ideal. So from a neutral perspective the first seven games of 2026 can only offer a shot in the arm for those hoping to go into negotiations with potential broadcasters.
When sides coming up from the Championship can go toe‑to‑toe with not just existing Super League teams but ones that were dominating the sport at periods in 2025 your competition has to be in a good place. It may change as the season settles into a rhythm and there could well be teams cut adrift at the foot of the table as bigger clubs with larger squads find their flow. But we can only judge Super League on what we have seen so far and the first round has been a tick in the right box.
Wigan will have been satisfied by their own afternoon’s work too after navigating a tricky test in difficult conditions. Having not won any silverware last year for the first time since Peet took charge in 2022, they will be keen to show they are among the favourites this year.
Victory at a place such as this, against a Castleford side who battled well with several of their new signings impressing, was a solid start after an opening round that showed that perhaps things might not be as easy to predict from top to bottom in 2026 as some had anticipated.
Should the reigning Hull KR stun Brisbane Broncos, the National Rugby League winners, in the World Club Challenge on Thursday, that feeling will grow even further at a critical time for rugby league in Britain.
