Depends what you judge this on: is it fan base, is it success (recent or since the game began?)

Fan base you'd have to say that Leeds and Wigan are the biggest and there is probably a group below them consisting of Saints, Hull FC and Warrington who get similar crowds.

Success (I'm one of those annoying fans who only watched the game from 1996, sorry) would mean it would be Leeds, Saints and Bradford.

I'd say overall it would have to be Leeds, Saints and Wigan.

People forget that saints have actually won 4 grand finals (5 SLs in total - we have actually won GFs! It's easy to forget!), winning the league 5 times (4 on the bounce) and have won the challenge cup 12 times. Also throw in 2 world club challenges and that's an impressive haul that makes us very successful and one of the 'big teams' still!

It's a pointless debate tho...

Solomona gave it a good shot towards the end too.

crusaders
harlequins
broncos

Is this just in the Superleage Era only, or are we talking the whole history of the game?

Oldham Bears
Huddersfield Baracudas
Halifax Blue Sox

If we are talking major trophies won ( Championship/SL, Challenge cup, Regal trophy/county cups) then the top 3 are :

Wigan 65
Leeds 39
Saints 36

The next 3 would be :

Bradford 27
Huddersfield 25
Wire 20

Biggest Official: Nigel Wood

Biggest player: Feka Palea'aesina

Biggest club: Wigan.

Biggest troll...

On current successes that would be:

1) Leeds (Superleague Champions)
2) Warrington (Challenge Cup Winners)
3) Wigan (League Leaders Shield)

In that order.

warrington fan are we?

if you go back to the start of superleague it would read differently!

Bradford/saints/leeds would be the top 3 followed closely by wigan

pre SL
wigan
leeds
saints

since SL
leeds
saints
Bradford

now

wigan
Huddersfield
warrington

Tough luck Brucie. Nobody has chosen your pets, the worldwide iconic brand that is Hull KR. You must have thought they would be a shoe-in.

Much as I'd love my team to be included they're not there yet so would have to go with Wigan, Leeds and one from Saints or Wire.

The poster clearly said all time.
Although it doesn't wash we'll with some people everyone knows Wigan are the biggest name in English RL. Leeds would be second only just above Saints because of their recent dominance!

And posters suggesting Bradford are in the top three are imbeciles.
No one would suggest Blackburn are bigger than Liverpool because they have one premier league trophy.

Bradford have more than one major trophy though? surely that puts them right up there in terms of all time clubs?

Top 6 maybe. 3? No chance.

No, I'm a Leeds fan. the trouble with using historic is deciding where to draw the line & which stats you will then ignore.

Nice try



What criteria are you using? Silverware, final league positions or size of fan base?

If we are talking now it has to be Leeds, Wigan, Warrington.

I'm not sure there's a definite 'Big Three'. A 'Big Two' (Leeds and Wigan) and a 'Big Six' (Wigan, Warrington, St Helens, Leeds, Bradford & Hull FC) I can see. Three's just a very odd number.

Also Huddersfield are not a 'big' side. They struggle to get any kind of crowd, even to raise 6k for a massively discounted cup game against the champions. They're Ken Davy's fantasy RL team, and as soon as he pulls the plug they'll plummet back down to hanging around with Widnes & Wakefield.

Possibly the current league table ?
and as it stands he would be correct !!

If we were to decide who RL's 'big three' were, the league table after 16 rounds of a 27 round league + play-off structure, when 1 team had only played 14 games and 2 had played 15 games, would obviously be the way to do it.

Why not have a grading system on numerous points such as stadia quality, what each team brings to the competition and average gate?

Surely that would work to see who is the bigger teams?

All time big 3 are Wigan, Leeds and Saints.

Looking at a set, limited period in history is completely subjective as anyone can manipulate it to show what they're after.