Records tumbled on an historic opening night for the 30th Super League season at Wigan’s Brick Community Stadium
The attendance of 21,748 for the Thursday night Battle of the Borough between Leigh Leopards and champions Wigan Warriors was the highest for a Round One fixture since Super League kicked off in 1996, beating the 21,693 for Wigan’s opener Warrington Wolves in 2007.
The teams were introduced to the field by Michael Buffer, the renowned ring announcer from Pennsylvania who was flown in by Sky Sports for the start of their 30th season of Super League coverage – to set the tone for a campaign which will include the Round Three fixture between Wigan and Warrington at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday March 1.
The local rivals then created Super League history in a ferocious, captivating but pointless 80 minutes – meaning the 4,969th Super League fixture since the competition was launched in 1996 became the first to be 0-0 at the end of normal time.
Statistics supplied by the Rugby League Record Keepers Club confirm that it was only the third of those 4,969 matches not to include a try – with the official total of matches including Play-Offs and all games involving Super League clubs in the Super 8s which ran from 2015-2018.
The milestones continued in Golden Point Extra Time, with Gareth O’Brien’s drop goal securing Leigh’s first away win against Wigan since August 1983 (at Central Park) – and completing the first 1-0 scoreline after Golden Point in elite Rugby League since it was introduced by Australia’s NRL in 2003.
