UK Top Teams : 2001-2010

Wigan was rampant in the previous decade, with St Helens well back. Could the Lancashire club maintain its momentum and stay at the top? The competitions had been simplified and there were now just three for the whole of the decade. The league, finals and one cup.

12 teams contested the league until 2009, when the number grew to 14. One of the extra teams were the Crusaders who were given a licence, making a team in Wales. That went with the arrival in 2006 of the French side Les Catalan based in Perpignan. Licensing was introduced in 2009, ending promotion / relegation. During the promotion relegation period, there was some yo-yo teams going up and down.

This is part of a series where top results are scored and tallied up. The Championship is the top 4 teams, scored 6-3-2-1. Then the Premiership again top 4 sides, 6-4-2-2 and Challenge Cup finalists, 4-2.

A break down of competitions shows who were the big hitters in this decade.

The League: St Helens 38 points, Leeds 28 and Bradford 23.
Finals: St Helens and Leeds 33 each, Bradford 29 points.
Challenge Cup: St Helens 33 and no one close.

From that we can see Wigan failed to keep up its dominance, coming fourth. St Helens was far and away the best, from Leeds and Bradford.

In the World Club Challenge the top sides from each hemisphere going to head to head. In '01 St Helens defeated Brisbane, Bradford overcame Newcastle (Aust) in '02. The next year St Helens lost out to the Sydney Roosters, then in '04 Bradford took out Penrith. Leeds then squeeked past the Sydney Bulldogs and Bradford powered over Wests (Sydney) in '06.

The UK success continued in '07 when St Helens claimed a victory over Brisbane, then Leeds got past Melbourne. Finally Australia got a win when Manly (Sydney) defeated Leeds in 2009 and Melbourne did the same over Leeds the next year.

For the next in the series, just click here.
For the first in the series, simply click here.

	Rk	Team / Year	Tot	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03	02	01
	1	St Helens RFC	104	7	7	16	16	18	8	6	2	15	9
	2	Leeds Rhinos	70	6	12	9	9	2	10	12	8	2
	3	Bradford Bulls	60				2	3	8	7	18	7	15
	4	Wigan Warriors	48	12	2	3	2			6	6	10	7
	5	Hull FC	24			3	2	7	7	2			3
	6	Warrington Wolves	16	8	6			1	1
	7	Huddersfield Giants	10	2	5			3
	8	Catalan Dragons	8		2	3	3
	9	Hull KR	1		1
	9	Wakefield Trinity	1							1
		Total Points	342	35	35	34	34	34	34	34	34	34	34