UK Elite Teams By Season : 2006

For this season, Les Catalan from Perpignan in France and Castleford Tigers were promoted at the expense of Widnes Vikings and Leigh Centurions. The French side were exempt from relegation this season. A surprise was seeing Wigan miss out on a finals spot for the second consecutive year, unusual for such a successful club.

The League: St Helens RFC took the league by eight points From Hull FC (40 points), Leeds Rhinos collected 38 pints and the Bradford Bulls 32. The yo-yo team of the time Castleford came second to last but had to go because of Les Catalan's exemption.

Challenge Cup: In the quarter finals, Leeds got past the London team the Harlequins 36-18 and Hull KR defeated Warrington 40-36 in a high scoring game. It's not often a non top flight side makes it through to the semi-finals but Hull KR managed it in 2006. The Huddersfield Giants bowled over Warrington 44-14 and St Helens overwhelmed Les Catalan 56-10.

Saints impressive form carried over into the semi-finals with a 50-0 thumping of Hull KR. In the other game Huddersfield upset Leeds 30-12. The final showed just how good St Helens were that year when they took the trophy with an impressive 42-12 victory over the Giants.

Saints defend in the final 

Finals: The elimination matches were first up and had the Warrington Wolves squeak past Leeds 18-17 while Bradford demolish the Salford City Reds 52-6. The winners then came together in another sudden death game and Bradford was too strong for Warrington, winning 40-24. In the other semi final which decided who went straight into the grand final, St Helens defeated Hull FC in a tight game 12-8.

Hull then had to play in the last elimination game to see if they could overcome Bradford. This they did 19-12 to have an appearance with rampant St Helens. The final wasn't as close as the previous encounter, Saints too good in taking out the match 28-6.

Summary: St Helens took the treble in emphatic fashion. Hull FC and Leeds were the next two best sides but were unable to do anything to stop the Saints juggernaut.

	Rk	Team	Rnd	Fnl	CC	Total
	1	St Helens	20	20	20	60
	2	Hull FC	18	16		34
	3	Leeds	16	4	12	32
	4	Bradford	14	12		26
	5	Warrington	11	8	6	25
	6	Huddersfield	8		16	24
	7	Salford	12	4	6	22
	8	London	10		6	16
	9	Hull KR			12	12
	10	Catalans	5		6	11
	11	Wigan	9			9
	12	Wakefield	7			7
	13	Castleford	6			6
		Total	136	64	84	284

For the 2007 season, please click here.
fore the 2005 season, simply click here.
Picture source: BBC.