THE 2025 rugby league season has reached the time of year that has the potential to produce the sport’s most entertaining, hard-fought matches.

It is semi-final time in Super League, and for the last occasion this season, games will be played at the home grounds of Super League teams before the winners go on to the neutral venue of Old Trafford to contest the Grand Final on Saturday, October 11.

Both playoff semis will be played this weekend, with Wigan and Leigh meeting on Friday night, and League Leaders Shield winners Hull Kingston Rovers set to face the most successful team of the Super League era, St Helens, on Saturday evening.

The competitiveness of these matches has varied over the years. Some have been closely contested nailbiters, while others have been more one-sided affairs, but the anticipation in the build-up to these games is about as big as it gets beyond a final.

Hull KR are the big story this season, and are on the verge of winning a treble, as Wigan did in 2024.

As recently as 2017, Hull KR were playing in the Championship — the second tier of professional rugby league.

Since returning to Super League in 2018, they have gone on to reach playoff semifinals in 2021 and 2023, finished runners-up in the Grand Final in 2024, and in 2025 have already claimed the double of the Challenge Cup and the League Leaders Shield. They will now be looking to add a first Grand Final win to a remarkably successful season.

If they went on to win the treble, it would be the first time since Wigan did so in 1994 and 1995 that there have been trebles in consecutive seasons in English rugby league.

Wigan themselves will be hoping to stop that from happening by retaining the Super League title they won last year.

Reports ahead of their semi-final against Leigh on Friday noted a classic rugby league administrative argument, as Leigh owner Derek Beaumont complained on Tuesday about his club’s allocation of tickets for away fans for the game.

At one point, it appeared that this could even go as far as to prevent the game from being played, as Beaumont threatened to withdraw his side from the game.

“At 10:37pm on Tuesday, September 30, our club was informed in writing by Derek Beaumont of Leigh Leopards that they do not intend to fulfil this Friday’s scheduled semi-final fixture,” Wigan said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We can confirm that Leigh Leopards were offered the choice of 4,600 unreserved seats or 5,400 reserved seats in the North Stand.

“It is important to note that the allocation offered was well above the 10 per cent minimum required for away supporters — indeed, it was almost double that threshold.”

Wigan’s Brick Community Stadium holds just over 25,000, and was set to be full for Friday night’s clash between two strongholds of Lancashire rugby league, and local rivals whose towns are less than six miles apart in the metropolitan borough of Wigan.

While that clash was limited to subscription services for TV viewers, Saturday’s game between Hull KR and St Helens will be shown live on BBC2 at 5.30pm.

And though this clash between two teams from opposite ends of the M62 may not be an intense local derby like Wigan versus Leigh, that doesn’t mean it will not produce an intense and fiercely fought game of rugby league.

“We’re under no illusions over how tough the game is going to be,” said St Helens coach Paul Wellens, speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside.

“Hull KR have been the benchmark team throughout most of the year, both with and without the ball.

“It’s a difficult place to go and play; it’s a very hostile atmosphere, but we’ve got to view that differently — as a great challenge for us and a wonderful opportunity.”

As Wellens says, Hull KR’s Craven Park can produce a rowdy atmosphere, something that some teams across all forms of football have lost as they have moved to newer stadiums over the years.

Opened in 1989, Craven Park is far from the oldest ground still in operation in Super League (Wakefield’s Belle Vue and Leeds’ Headingley stadiums both survive from the late 1800s), but it is very much in the mould of an original rugby league stadium.

It features atmospheric terraces and standing areas complemented by seating and a relatively small capacity of around 12,000. As is the case at grounds like Leeds, Wakefield and Castleford, it can make for a very unique experience on matchdays, and this is ramped up when the team is successful and appearing in big games.

There has been criticism that one of this autumn’s three Ashes series matches between England and Australia will be played at a ground as small as Headingley, but that could turn out to be one of the best of the three tests. The other two will be played at the much larger Wembley and the new Everton stadium, and all three games will be shown on the BBC.

Sunday is also a big day for rugby league as the men’s and women’s NRL Grand Finals in Australia take place in the morning, British time, while the Championship Grand Final between York and Toulouse, and the women’s Super League final between Wigan and St Helens, kick off in the afternoon.

The culmination of these seasons, combined with the upcoming Ashes series, should make for some quality and highly competitive rugby league. When it is played to such a level, there are few more entertaining sports.