Super League

Super League, officially the First Utility Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the top-level professional rugby league club competition in Europe. The league has twelve teams: eleven from England and one from France. The current champions are Leeds Rhinos.

Super League began in 1996, replacing the RFL Championship and switching from a winter to a summer season. Each team plays 23 games between February and July: 11 home games, 11 away games and a Magic Weekend game at a neutral venue. At the end of the season, the top eight teams enter a Super 8 stage, playing each other once more. The top four then enter the play-off series leading to the Grand Final (formerly Championship Final) which determines the champions.

The Super League champions play the National Rugby League (NRL) champions from Australasia in the World Club Challenge.

History

1996–2001: Establishment

The competition was first mooted during the Australian Super League war as a way for Rupert Murdoch to gain the upper hand during the battle for broadcasting supremacy with the Australian Rugby League. Murdoch also approached the British clubs to form Super League. A large sum of money aided the decision, and the competition got under way in 1996. Part of the deal saw rugby league switch from a winter to a summer season. The 12 founding teams of Super League were:

Stan Efferding

Stan "The White Rhino" Efferding (born November 6, 1967 in Portland, Oregon) is an American IFBB professional bodybuilder and a powerlifter competing in the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF). He currently holds the all-time raw world powerlifting records in the 275-pound-class in the Total without knee wraps (w/o 2,226.6 lbs) and in the Squat without knee wraps (854 lbs).

Bodybuilding & Powerlifting career

Stan Efferding, born November 6, 1967 in Portland, Oregon, graduated from University of Oregon. He had a college scholarship to play soccer, but he decided to go to University of Oregon, where he studied Psychology.

Efferding competed in bodybuilding since 1988 winning the Mr. Oregon in 1991, placing 6th in the Jr. USA in 1992 and placing 2nd in the Emerald Cup in 1996 and 1997. Efferding started competing in powerlifting in 1996 totaling over 2,000 lbs in the Pepsi Region 8 challenge, deadlifting 782 lbs raw.

In 1997 Efferding stopped competing in both sports in order to pursue business opportunities, but continued lifting.