2003 Super League Grand Final
18 October 2003 · Old Trafford, Manchester
2003 Super League Grand Final result: Bradford Bulls def. Wigan Warriors, 25-12, at Old Trafford, Manchester on 18 October 2003.
Sourcing caveat: See the finals-series match report for this fixture for a fuller scoring breakdown. No verified direct post-match coach quotes could be located in the sources checked for this Grand Final. This entry's lineups were corrected in round 39 of the finals-lineups backlog (13bc): both `team1_lineup` and `team2_lineup` previously carried a position-order 1-13 index (flagged unverified since 13al) rather than real squad numbers — several entries happened to coincide with the real number (e.g. Vaikona 2, Hape 4, Vainikolo 5, Deacon 7, Vagana 8, Lowes 9, Peacock 12, Forshaw 13), which is why the error went unnoticed for so long, but others did not (e.g. Reardon was listed as 1, really 17; Fielden as 10, really 29; Carney as 2, really 5). Corrected against this backlog's own independently-sourced `super_league_finals_reports.py` Grand Final entry, which matches the Rugby League Project match page number-for-number for both teams' starting thirteens and benches.
Result
| Team | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | Bradford Bulls | 25 |
| Runner-up | Wigan Warriors | 12 |
Attendance: 65,537
Super League 2003 — full season ladder & finals series
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | Diff | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bradford Bulls | 28 | 22 | 0 | 6 | 878 | 529 | +349 | 44 |
| 2 | Leeds Rhinos | 28 | 19 | 3 | 6 | 751 | 555 | +196 | 41 |
| 3 | Wigan Warriors | 28 | 19 | 2 | 7 | 776 | 512 | +264 | 40 |
| 4 | St Helens | 28 | 16 | 1 | 11 | 845 | 535 | +310 | 31 |
| 5 | London Broncos | 28 | 14 | 2 | 12 | 643 | 696 | -53 | 30 |
| 6 | Warrington Wolves | 28 | 14 | 1 | 13 | 748 | 619 | +129 | 29 |
| 7 | Hull FC | 28 | 13 | 3 | 12 | 701 | 577 | +124 | 27 |
| 8 | Castleford Tigers | 28 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 612 | 633 | -21 | 25 |
| 9 | Widnes Vikings | 28 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 640 | 727 | -87 | 25 |
| 10 | Huddersfield Giants | 28 | 11 | 1 | 16 | 628 | 715 | -87 | 23 |
| 11 | Wakefield Trinity Wildcats | 28 | 7 | 1 | 20 | 505 | 774 | -269 | 15 |
| 12 | Halifax RLFC | 28 | 1 | 0 | 27 | 372 | 1227 | -855 | 0 |
Qualified for the finals series — top 6 ("Top-Six"/Page play-off format) that season.
Finals series
Elimination Play-off
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Sep 2003 | Wigan Warriors 25–12 Warrington Wolves | JJB Stadium, Wigan | 14,154 |
| 26 Sep 2003 | St Helens 24–6 London Broncos | Knowsley Road, St Helens | 7,188 |
Qualifying Semi-Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Oct 2003 | Bradford Bulls 30–14 Leeds Rhinos | Odsal Stadium, Bradford | 19,786 |
Elimination Semi-Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct 2003 | Wigan Warriors 40–24 St Helens | JJB Stadium, Wigan | 21,790 |
Elimination Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Oct 2003 | Leeds Rhinos 22–23 Wigan Warriors | Headingley, Leeds | 17,264 |
Grand Final
| Date | Result | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct 2003 | Bradford Bulls 25–12 Wigan Warriors | Old Trafford, Manchester | 65,537 |
Match officials
| Referee | Karl Kirkpatrick |
Scorers
| Bradford Bulls | Tries: Shontayne Hape — minute unconfirmed; James Lowes — minute unconfirmed; Stuart Reardon — minute unconfirmed Goals: Paul Deacon (6/6) Drop goals: Paul Deacon (1) |
| Wigan Warriors | Tries: Kris Radlinski — minute unconfirmed; Danny Tickle — minute unconfirmed Goals: Andy Farrell (2/3) |
Teams
| Bradford Bulls | Wigan Warriors | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Stuart Reardon | Fullback | Kris Radlinski | 1 |
| 2 | Tevita Vaikona | Wing | Brian Carney | 5 |
| 6 | Michael Withers | Centre | Martin Aspinwall | 18 |
| 4 | Shontayne Hape | Centre | David Hodgson | 14 |
| 5 | Lesley Vainikolo | Wing | Brett Dallas | 2 |
| 15 | Karl Pratt | Stand-off | Sean O'Loughlin | 15 |
| 7 | Paul Deacon | Scrum-half | Luke Robinson | 20 |
| 8 | Joe Vagana | Prop | Quentin Pongia | 30 |
| 9 | James Lowes | Hooker | Terry Newton | 9 |
| 29 | Stuart Fielden | Prop | Craig Smith | 10 |
| 11 | Daniel Gartner | Second Row | Mick Cassidy | 11 |
| 12 | Jamie Peacock | Second Row | Danny Tickle | 12 |
| 13 | Mike Forshaw | Loose Forward | Andy Farrell (c) | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 3 | Leon Pryce | Paul Johnson | 4 | |
| 1 | Robbie Hunter-Paul | Mark Smith | 17 | |
| 18 | Lee Radford | Gareth Hock | 23 | |
| 10 | Paul Anderson | Terry O'Connor | 8 | |
| Brian Noble | Coach | Mike Gregory | ||
Harry Sunderland Trophy
Stuart Reardon (Bradford Bulls). Reardon won the Harry Sunderland Trophy — Super League's Grand Final Man of the Match award, not renamed the Rob Burrow Award until 2024 — after scoring one of Bradford's three tries.
Match context
Bradford Bulls beat Wigan Warriors 25-12 at Old Trafford, winning their second Super League Grand Final title (after 2001) in a repeat of that year's Grand Final pairing. Wigan led 6-4 at half-time, but Bradford pulled clear in the second half through tries from Shontayne Hape, Scott Lowes and Stuart Reardon, with a Paul Deacon field goal capping the scoring. Bradford's title sequence in this era ran 2001, 2003 and 2005 — this was the middle of the three, with St Helens beating Bradford in the intervening 2002 Grand Final. Stuart Reardon won the Harry Sunderland Trophy.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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