For the Qualifiers Super 8s the points slate was wiped clean at the end of the opening part of the season giving the sides a level playing field for the remaining seven games of the season. While the Super League sides came through the field to finish in the top four spots, with Hull KR, Widnes and Salford guaranteeing themselves top flight rugby next season the Wakefield Wildcats have a home play-off against the Bulls in the Million Pound Game on Saturday afternoon.

In the Super League Super 8’s the top four sides at the split, finished as the top four sides overall and gained themselves a semi-final place, albeit with the order of finish changed. This was predominantly due to the points for the first half of the season being carried forward, giving an advantage to the sides who had competed well all year.

But what if the Super League Super 8s had been played with all sides starting on zero, would things have been any different?

The outcome would have been somewhat different, with the form teams in the later part of the season taking the spoils and making it into the semi finals.

Hull FC had a disastrous Super 8s with just one win, and would have been anchored in eighth, the place they finished under the existing format. The Catalans however, with four wins in seven matches, would have made it into the play-offs in fourth spot and gained themselves an away semi-final to the league leaders.

Castleford also showed poor play off form, despite big wins against the Rhinos and the Saints, and they would have finished in seventh with three wins, trailing on points difference to St. Helens and Warrington Wolves who also both recorded three wins.

Saints, on their form in the last seven games would have ended the season in sixth, out of the play-offs, and the Wolves would also have missed out finishing on six points just above Saints by virtue of a better points difference.

We already know that based on the last seven games the Dragons would have been in fourth, trailing by just thirty-one points difference to the Leeds Rhinos who also recorded four wins.

Above the Rhinos in second place would have come the Wigan Warriors by virtue of a +106 points difference, meaning that the League Leaders would have been crowned as the Huddersfield Giants, the form team of the Super 8’s with five wins from seven outings.

From a standing start in the Super 8’s the semi-finals line-ups would have seen the Catalans Dragons travelling to the John Smiths Stadium to take on the newly crowned league leaders the Huddersfield Giants, while the Leeds Rhinos would have had to have gone to the DW Stadium to play Wigan Warriors.

But this was an academic exercise. The Super 8’s and therefore the play-offs and Grand Final were designed to reward consistency throughout the season, not just in the final few games. The Rhinos were crowned League Leaders but if you look beyond league positions then the Huddersfield Giants could be the form side to watch from here on in.