Challenge Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Challenge Cup | |
|---|---|
| Current season or competition: 2008 Challenge Cup |
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| Sport | Rugby league |
| Founded | 1896 |
| No. of teams | 94 |
| Country(ies) |  England France Russia Scotland Wales |
| Most recent champion(s) |
St Helens |
The Rugby League Challenge Cup (as of 2008 known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a knockout cup competition for rugby league clubs across Europe. Originally it was contested only by British teams, but in recent years the entry has been expanded to allow teams from across Europe to take part.
It has been held annually since 1896, with the exception of the duration of the First World War and it involves amateur, semi-professional and professional clubs that compete in it, though lower ranked teams rarely reach the final stages of the competition. For the 2007 competition ninety-four teams entered the tournament.
In previous years the competition has been called the Powergen Challenge Cup but for the beginning of 2007 the cup was named after the competition's primary partner Leeds Metropolitan University's Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education.
The final of the Challenge Cup is one of the most prestigious matches in world rugby league, and is traditionally held at Wembley Stadium, London. Despite London not being an area traditionally associated with rugby league, the final receives a lot of mainstream media coverage and is broadcast to many different countries around the world. Traditionally, Abide With Me is sung before the game, and has become somewhat of a rugby league anthem in the eyes of many.
The current holders of the Challenge Cup are St Helens who defeated the Catalans Dragons 30-8, on 25 August 2007 at Wembley Stadium.
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[edit] History
The clubs that formed the Northern Union had long been playing in local knock-out cup competitions under the auspices of the Rugby Football Union. However, the rugby union authorities refused to sanction a nationwide tournament, fearing that this would inevitably lead to professionalism. After the schism of 1895, the northern clubs were free to go-ahead, and they instigated the Northern Rugby Football Union Challenge Cup. In 1896 Fattorini's of Bradford were commissioned to manufacture the Challenge Cup at a cost of just £60. Fattorini's also supplied three-guineas winners' medals then valued at thirty shillings.
The first competition was held during the 1896-97 season (the second season of the new game), and 56 clubs entered to compete for the trophy. The first final was held at Headingley in Leeds, on the 24th April 1897. Batley defeated St Helens 10-3 in front of a crowd of 13,492 (see picture). It is interesting to note that the St Helens side did not play in a standardised team jersey.
The competition was later interrupted by World War one, though it was held in 1915, when the season that had begun before the war was completed. It was then suspended until the end of hostilities. Initially, the final tie was held at one of the larger club grounds in the north, however, noting the excitement in Huddersfield that the town’s soccer team were playing at Wembley in the FA Cup Final and the increasingly difficulty for any of the rugby league grounds to satisfy spectator demand to see the final tie, the rugby league authorities voted 13-10 to relocate to the recently built Wembley Stadium in London.
The first final held at Wembley was in 1929 when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13-2 in front of a crowd of 41,500. At the start of World War two, rugby league suspended its season immediately, but the Challenge Cup took a single year’s break before restarting, on a limited basis and with the support of the authorities, as part of keeping up morale. The Challenge Cup finals, which took place in the game’s Northern heartland, got big crowds as the game raised money for Prisoners of War and for Lord Beaverbrook’s armaments programme.
In 1946, the Lance Todd Trophy was introduced and awarded to the man of the match. In itself, it is a prestigious trophy presented only at the Challenge Cup Final. The winner is selected by the members of the Rugby League Writers' Association present at the game and the trophy is presented at a celebratory dinner at The Willows, home of the Salford City Reds. On Saturday 26 August 2006 St Helens scrum-half Sean Long became the first player in the history of the Challenge Cup to collect a third Lance Todd trophy following his man-of-the-match performance in the final against Huddersfield Giants. His other Lance Todd trophy wins came in the 2001 and 2004 Challenge Cup Finals.
Until the 1993-1994 season there were very few amateur clubs included in the cup, typically two. For part of the 1980s and the 1992/1993 season the cup was solely for professional clubs. The competition was then opened up to large numbers of amateur clubs.
In 1997, a Challenge Cup Plate took place for teams knocked out in the early rounds of the competition. The final took place at Wembley and was won by Hull Kingston Rovers who beat Hunslet Hawks 60-14.
In recent years the redevelopment of Wembley has led to the Cup Final utilising a variety of venues. The final is one of the biggest rugby league events of the year in Britain, along with the Super League Grand Final. The Challenge Cup final traditionally formed the end to the season, being played in late April or early May. The move to a summer season for rugby league in 1996 did not see the Challenge Cup moved, and it became instead essentially a pre-season tournament, with the final taking place early in the season. Many people felt that this led to a decline in the prestige of the cup. The timing of the competition was altered in 2005, with the first Summer Cup Final held on Saturday August 27 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.
[edit] 2008 Structure
The modern Challenge Cup has 7 rounds prior to the final. Teams are seeded, entering at different stages. The precise format has altered slightly from year to year, however the basic format is as follows:
- First round: Amateur teams from England, Scotland, and Wales. Most of the teams are English and affiliated to BARLA. In 2008 the 54 teams entering at this stage are as follows:
- all 38 teams from the National Conference League
- the winners of the five major regional BARLA leagues
- the British Army
- the Royal Navy
- the Royal Air Force
- the university champions - Leeds Metropolitan University
- the Student Rugby League champions
- six representatives of the Rugby League Conference (including one each from Scotland and Wales)
- Second round: The twenty seven first round winners are joined by a Russian team.
- Third round: A further Russian team, three French sides, and the twenty two semi-professional British clubs from the Rugby League National Leagues enter the draw with the fourteen winners from the second round.
- Fourth round: The twelve Super League teams join the competition with the twenty third round winners.
- Fifth round: Last 16
- Quarter Finals: Last eight
- Semi Finals: (played at neutral venues)
- Final
[edit] List of finals
Note that in the years immediately following the Second World War the final was played over two legs, with the aggregate score being used.
[edit] Lance Todd Trophy
The Lance Todd Trophy is awarded to the Man-of-the-Match in the Challenge Cup Final.
[edit] External links
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