2009 Super League Grand Final
| 2009 Super League Grand Final | |||||||||||||
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| Date | 10 October 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Stadium | Old Trafford | ||||||||||||
| Location | Manchester, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||
| Harry Sunderland Trophy | Kevin Sinfield, Leeds | ||||||||||||
| Jerusalem | All Angels | ||||||||||||
| Referees | Steve Ganson | ||||||||||||
| Attendance | 63259 | ||||||||||||
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The 2009 Super League Grand Final was the conclusive and championship-deciding match of the Super League XIV season. It was held on Saturday 10 October 2009, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was contested by defending champions and 2009 League Leaders Leeds Rhinos, and the team they had faced in the grand final for the past two years, St. Helens.
The 2009 decider, contested by the sides finishing 1st and 2nd in the competition, was a very close contest, played at a furious pace from end to end with the lead changing several times and rarely being more than a single point. Every ruling on try-scoring situations was given by the video referee, with some allowed and some disallowed, including a few very close and controversial calls. Leeds Rhinos were eventual victors, winning the match 18 to 10. They became the first side in Super League history to be champions in three successive years.
Regular season final standings
Position in Super League table: 1st
Position in Super League table: 2nd
It was the third consecutive year that these two teams faced each other in the Super League Grand Final. Both sides were at full strength.
Pre-match entertainment was provided by The Wombats, an indie rock band from Liverpool, UK. The band performed songs from their album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation.All Angels, a classical and pop group, performed, with Yorkshire Co-op Brass Band, the Grand Final anthem, Jerusalem.
St Helens kicked off and after thirteen minutes of end-to-end football they were thirty metres out from Leeds' goal-line when Jon Wilkin chip-kicked the ball ahead for Kyle Eastmond to regather, crossing the line then running back infield to improve the field position for the kick before grounding it. Video referee Phil Bentham only gave the four points after checking that there was no knock-on in the regather and Grand Final débutante Eastmond converted his own try to give the Saints a 6 nil lead. In the twenty-sixth minute, St. Helens were again down in Leeds' half when Sean Long put up a bomb and as the ball came down the Rhinos defence was ruled to have interfered with the attacking Saints players, drawing a penalty. The decision to take the two points was made and the goal was kicked by Eastmond, pushing St. Helens' lead out to 8 nil. A few minutes later Leeds had managed to get to the other end of the field and were on the attack when Matt Diskin dived over the line from dummy-half, reaching out through the defenders to put the ball down. The video referee was again called on to make the ruling and gave the try. Kevin Sinfield's conversion attempt hit the upright so the score was 8 - 4 in favour of St. Helens with less than ten minutes of the first half remaining. In the thirty-seventh minute the Rhinos were again in an attacking position when Danny McGuire got the ball out to the right and chipped it ahead in goal where the St. Helens defence failed to secure it and Lee Smith came through to touch it down. Sinfield again missed the conversion so the scores remained level at 8 all and did not change before the half-time siren.
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