Sky Sports will celebrate 25 years of Super League with a takeover day of special shows across its channels on Sunday, 29 March.
Starting at 6am and running through to 7am the following morning, Sky Sports Arena will broadcast wall-to-wall rugby league programmes, including highlights of classic Grand Final matches, documentaries and special features.
The main event of the channel’s takeover day will be broadcast at 7pm, when Sky Sports repeats its full broadcast of the first-ever Super League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Sheffield Eagles.
The historic and trailblazing match, held at the Charlety Stadium, Paris, in March 1996, heralded a new era in rugby league and Sky Sports were there that night to cover all the action, led by its legendary presenting team of Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson.
As part of its drive to make the sport more appealing to TV audiences, Sky Sports tried a number of innovations in its debut Super League broadcast, including the players emerging to the field through a tunnel of fireworks and being given individual introductions by Sky Sports commentator ‘Stevo’ at pitchside.
That particular innovation wouldn’t stand the test of time, however Sky Sports has continued as the exclusive live broadcast partner of Super League ever since.
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A crowd of nearly 18,000 saw Paris emerge triumphant on that opening night, with former Eagles player Fred Banquet scoring the first try in Super League history, however it would not last for PSG as the team managed just two more wins in the rest of the season and folded at the conclusion of the 1997 season.
Along with a full replay of the entire live broadcast and the match itself, which will also be simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix, an accompanying ‘live’ blog online will be available to follow via skysports.com/rugbyleague.
As well as Super League Rewind, Sky Sports Arena will also feature a number of classic Sky Sports rugby league documentaries, including Jamie Peacock: Legend of League, Eddie Hemmings: The Voice of Rugby League, Stevo’s Grand Finale and Warriors Down Under.
There will also be highlights of all the classic Grand Finals throughout the day, in Grand Final Gold, and repeat showings of the magazine series We Play League.
Relive the first-ever Super League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Sheffield Eagles in full across Sky Sports from 7pm on Sunday, 28 March, as part of Rugby League Takeover Day.
