The Super League attendance figures from Round 17 have seen polar opposites with both the highest crowd number and also the lowest figure of the Super League season.
It was a round of action over just three days with a Saturday triple-header wrapping up the action in time for the European Championships Final featuring England and Spain. That clash had not been avoided for the Quarter-Finals with Hull KR playing at the same time as England’s game against Switzerland.
How much that affected the crowd number is unclear because Hull KR do not announce their Super League attendance figures weekly, but instead every three months at their Supporters Meeting.
Round 17 saw no such clashes but fans were once again left lamenting the decision to play multiple games in the same time slot with two Friday 8 pm games and two Saturday 3 pm games. As it happened, those Friday fixtures recorded the largest Super League attendance figure of the season and the lowest as well.
Super League Quiz: Can you name the runners-up from every Grand Final?
Round 17 Round-Up: Derby delight for Wigan and Hull KR
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Thursday’s match saw Leeds Rhinos play in front of Brad Arthur for the first time and the new head coach witnessed a 30-18 defeat with Leeds sleeping at the start and end of the first half to allow themselves to be opened up by the imperious Matt Dufty and co.
Friday’s action saw Castleford take good support down to face London Broncos with that game being hosted at Ebbsfleet’s stadium, instead of Wimbledon. Tex Hoy and Innes Senior put on the burners once again as they showed out in the 34-20 win that helped Cas close in on rivals Leigh and Huddersfield.
That clash was overlooked by the huge fixture between Wigan Warriors and St Helens, a game that saw injuries and bans on both sides render the starting line-ups to be complete mixed bags. Liam Farrell and Jack Farrimond played at nine for Wigan whilst Paul Wellens made the huge call to drop Lewis Dodd and start 18-year-old Harry Robertson at full-back.
Robertson starred but was outshone by Man of the Match Zach Eckersley who scored one and created another to help Matt Peet’s side to a 16-12 win that helped them avenge their loss on Good Friday.
Saturday’s action saw the other huge derby in Super League as Hull FC hosted cross-city rivals Hull KR. The Robins bounced back from their golden point loss last week to defeat their nearest and dearest 24-10 in a game full of drama, four sin bins and an alleged testicle grab!
At the same time Leigh hosted Huddersfield with the Giants playing for the first time since Ian Watson’s sacking. They couldn’t snap their poor run of form though and fell to an eighth defeat in nine as Leigh leapfrogged them on the table courtesy of a 20-16 win.
The action was rounded off that evening and saw another club leapfrog another as Catalans’ 20-0 win over Salford propelled them to fifth with centre Arthur Romano bagging a brace.
Round 17 Super League Attendance Figures
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The Super League attendance figures for five of those six games are in with Catalans’ clash with Salford the only unconfirmed so far, however, Salford reportedly took 1,000-plus fans to the South of France, per Catalan Media, which would indicate a strong figure.
Friday night saw both the season-high and season-low attendance figures with Wigan’s clash against St Helens drawing in over 20,000 at the same time that just over 2,000 watched London host Castleford.
Saturday’s derby game drew a crowd of over 15,000 while the remaining two games of Warrington vs Leeds and Leigh vs Huddersfield put together a combined 15,631, just 249 more than in West Hull.
Cracking shout here in Perpignan from the Salford Diables Rouges… easy over 1k in the Brutus 👏👏👏
❤️💛🐉👹 pic.twitter.com/5PbV6xKaEs— Catalan Media 🇨🇵 (@catalanmedia) July 13, 2024
Super League Attendance Figures
Warrington Wolves 30-18 Leeds Rhinos – 8,471
Wigan Warriors 16-12 St Helens – 20,152
London Broncos 20-34 Castleford Tigers – 2,050
Hull FC 10-24 Hull KR – 15,392
Leigh Leopards 20-16 Huddersfield Giants – 7,160
Catalans Dragons 20-0 Salford Red Devils – TBC
