York will host Toulouse Olympique in this year’s Championship Grand Final on Sunday, October 5 (2pm KO), with the game to be broadcast live free-to-air via The Sportsman’s YouTube channel.
Mark Applegarth’s York side have already lifted both the 1895 Cup and the League Leaders’ Shield this term.
Having beaten Halifax Panthers 30-18 in their semi-final on Saturday, the Knights have now won 20 games in a row across all competitions, and were able to sit back on Sunday as Toulouse Olympique and Bradford Bulls battled out the other semi-final tie.
The Bulls, who finished third on the ladder, produced a stunning first-half display over in the South of France to lead 16-0 at half-time.
But Olympique, who earned home advantage with a second-placed finish, battled back and scored 24 unanswered points in the second half to turn the tie on its head.
Bradford refused to give in lightly, and when Jayden Okunbor dived over in the corner with four minutes remaining, there were just four points in it at 24-20.
That though is how it ended, with Jordan Lilley knocking on at the play-the-ball to hand Toulouse the ball back with 90 seconds remaining and the Bulls not having long enough left on the clock to stage any late heroics.
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Toulouse have now knocked Bradford out of the play-offs three years on the spin, and have been involved in the Grand Final in each of their last four seasons spent in the Championship.
Olympique have made the second tier showpiece in 2021, 2023, 2024 and now 2025. The year missing in that run, 2022, was spent in Super League having beaten Featherstone Rovers in the 2021 Grand Final.
If York get the job done next Sunday, they will follow Wakefield’s path in scooping all three major honours on offer at second tier level, a feat Trinity achieved last season by beating Toulouse in the Grand Final at Belle Vue.
Following that game, Wakefield’s return to Super League was rubber-stamped by IMG, and both of the sides involved in this year’s Grand Final are hoping for the same outcome.
As well as the £100,000 on offer in prize money for the winner of next weekend’s showpiece, there are an additional 0.25 grading points up for grabs.
The clash at the LNER Community Stadium will be the first in a double-header of Grand Finals next Sunday.
Wigan Warriors and St Helens play out the showpiece in the Women’s Super League at The Brick Community Stadium later in the day, with that game getting underway at 5.30pm.