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Stuck for a Super League team to support? Look no further than the logos, ranked from best to worst for your convenience.
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Unless you happen to hail from the north of England or the south of France, choosing a Super League team to support can be a neverending nightmare of bewilderment and regret.
Conventional wisdom would suggest you choose the team with the best or coolest players, but players come and go. A couple of years and you could be stuck supporting the worst team of unlovable idiots rugby league has ever seen. Another train of thought would suggest choosing the team with the most exciting playing style, but just like players, coaches are little more than dust in the wind in the great scheme of things.
The secret to choosing a Super League team is simple, and it’s been hiding in plain sight the whole time. It’s the logo. In a world of constant changes, a logo is one of the few things you can rely on. A logo will last decades, sometimes even centuries.
And the Super League is home to some of the best logos in professional sport. Its foundation in 1996 – replacing the old Rugby Football League Championship – provided England’s ancient rugby league clubs with the perfect opportunity to break the shackles of tradition in favour of a beautiful 1990s design aesthetic.
Here are all 12 Super League team logos, loosely ranked from best to worst based on how they’d look printed on the front of an otherwise plain white t-shirt.
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1. Catalans Dragons
The only French side in the competition, the Dragons logo looks like it belongs to a karate club more than a rugby league club – this is surely the highest praise any logo can get.
Choose this club if you like: Martial arts; hard fantasy novels
2. Castleford Tigers
The circular majesty of the Castleford Tigers logo is as close to sports design perfection as any logo in the world. Almost too good as a t-shirt design; could be mistaken for high-end streetwear.
Choose this club if you like: High-end fashion; big cats
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3. Wigan Warriors
From a distance Wigan’s logo looks old-fashioned and boring, but closer inspection reveals it to be an intricate and beautiful work of art, depicting a nonchalant King holding a miniature lion.
Choose this club if you like: Magical realism; primary colours
4. Salford Red Devils
Red Devils is one of the best team names in Super League, but having a likeness of Satan himself as their club logo truly takes things to the next level. Very scary and extremely cool.
Choose this club if you like: Satanic worship; occult rituals
5. Leeds Rhinos
The rhinoceros is frequently and unfairly overlooked when it comes to animal-inspired sports team names. Full credit to Leeds for thinking outside the square, and full credit for following through with this sick logo.
Choose this club if you like: Rare animals; 90s slacker aesthetic
6. Widnes Vikings
Remarkably minimalist and subtle for a sports logo, if you wore this on a t-shirt most people would be none the wiser that it had anything to do with rugby league. Hard to say if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Choose this club if you like: Minimalism; Norse legends
7. Huddersfield Giants
Where Widnes have gone for subtlety, Huddersfield Giants’ logo screams rugby league. Specifically, it screams “THE BIRTHPLACE OF RUGBY LEAGUE”. A great, ugly logo.
Choose this club if you like: Historical boasts; ironic t-shirts
8. Warrington Wolves
Wolves have the newest logo in Super League, unveiled in 2015. It’s good – ‘The Wire’ is a wonderfully oblique nickname – but nowhere near as good as their previous logo, which featured one of sport’s all-time scariest wolves.
Choose this club if you like: Wolf iconography; mysterious slogans
9. Wakefield Wildcats
The Wakefield Wildcats cat, captured mid-hiss, is one of the angriest and best sporting cats. The rest of the logo makes it look a bit like a kind of cheap regional lager. Pint of Wildcat please!
Choose this club if you like: Lager; pints thereof
=10. Hull KR / Hull FC
Impossible to separate the two Hull clubs, who confusingly have near-identical logos. Both feature a simple triple-crown motif – take your pick between the gold crowns of FC or the white-on-red of KR.
Choose this club if you like: Simplicity; crowns
12. St Helens Saints
St Helens are one of the most consistently successful clubs in the Super League, but they have easily had the worst logo since they plonked their old interwoven ‘SH’ logo inside a crest designed on MS Paint in 2010.
Choose this club if you like: Winning; not caring about design
Comments on RugbyPass
“But with an exceptional pass accuracy rating “ Which apart from Roigard is not a feature of any of the other 9s in NZ. Kind of basic for a Black 9 dont.you. think? Yet we keep seeing FC and TJ being rated ahead of him? Weird if it’s seen as vital to get our backline beating in your face defences.
1 Go to commentsThanks BeeMc! Looks like many teams need extra time to settle from the quadrennial northern migration. I think generally the quality of the Rugby has held up. Fiji has been fantastic and fun to watch
13 Go to commentsLets compare apples with apples. Lyon sent weak team the week before, but nobody raised an eyebrow. Give the South African teams a few years to build their depth, then you will be moaning that the teams are too strong.
41 Go to commentsDid footballs agents also perform the scout role at some time? I’m surprised more high profile players haven’t taken up the occupation, great way to remain in the game and use all that experience without really requiring a lot of specific expertise?
1 Go to commentsSuper rugby is struggling but that has little to do with sabbaticals. 1. Too many teams from Aust and NZ - should be 3 and 4 respectively, add in 2 from Japan, 1 possibly 2 from Argentina. 2. Inconsistent and poor refereeing, admittedly not restricted to Super rugby. Only one team was reffed at the breakdown in Reds v H’Landers match. Scrum penalty awarded in Canes v Drua when No 8 had the ball in the open with little defence nearby - ideal opportunity to play advantage. Coming back to Reds match - same scrum situation but ref played advantage - Landers made 10 yards and were penalised at the breakdown when the ref should have returned to scrum penalty. 3. Marketing is weak and losing ground to AFL and NRL. Playing 2 days compared with 4. 4. Scheduling is unattractive to family attendance. Have any franchises heard of Sundays 2pm?
11 Go to commentsAbsolutely..all they need is a chance in yhe playoffs and I bet all the other teams will be nervous…THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN IM THE PLAYOFFS..
2 Go to commentsI really hope he comes back and helps out with some coaching.
1 Go to commentsI think we are all just hoping that the Olympic 7s doesn’t suffer the same sad fate as the last RWC with the officials ruining the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsPersonally, I’ve lost the will to even be bothered about the RFU, the structure, the participants. It’s all a sham. I now simply enjoy getting a group of friends together to go and watch a few games a year in different locations (including Europe, the championship, etc). I feel extremely sorry for the real fans of these clubs who are constantly ignored by the RFU and other administrators. I feel especially sorry for the fans of clubs in the Championship who have had considerable central funding stripped away and are then expected to just take whatever the RFU put to them. Its all a sham, especially if the failed clubs are allowed to return.
10 Go to commentsI’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
11 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
4 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
24 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
4 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
10 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
35 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
35 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
17 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
4 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
5 Go to comments