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Portrait of The Rugby League Challenge Cup

General knowledge · Sport

The Rugby League Challenge Cup

First contested 1896–97

Sport — rugby league's knockout competition

Rugby league's knockout cup, first contested in the 1896–97 season, only two years after the Northern Union broke from the Rugby Football Union at the George Hotel in Huddersfield. Batley beat St Helens 10–3 in the first final at Headingley; since 1929 the final has usually been played at Wembley, and the man of the match receives the Lance Todd Trophy. Wigan are much the most successful club, with a record twenty-two wins including eight in succession between 1988 and 1995.

How to spot them

  • ▸A Wembley final in late spring, months before the league season ends
  • ▸The Lance Todd Trophy for man of the match, first awarded in 1946
  • ▸Wigan's eight consecutive wins, 1988 to 1995
  • ▸Abide with Me sung before kick-off, as at the football final

Key facts

Batley beat St Helens 10–3 at Headingley in April 1897, fifteen men a side, with a drop goal worth four points (1897)

The first final, watched by 13,492; the trophy was presented by Louisa Waller, wife of the Northern Union president

The first rugby final of any code staged at the new Wembley, in 1929, when Wigan beat Dewsbury 13–2 (1929)

41,500 attended; the fixture has been identified with Wembley ever since

The man-of-the-match award commemorates a New Zealander who played for Wigan, managed Salford and was killed in a car crash in fog coming home from Home Guard duty in 1942 (1946)

The Lance Todd Trophy, first won by Billy Stott of Wakefield. Todd's Salford side were nicknamed Les Diables Rouges in France

In 1968, on a flooded Wembley pitch, the man of the match slipped and missed a conversion in front of the posts in the last minute, losing his side the match 11–10 (1968)

The Watersplash Final. Don Fox of Wakefield Trinity had already been voted the award before the kick; Leeds won

Wigan won it in eight successive seasons from 1988 to 1995 (1995)

The Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards side, at the height of Wigan's dominance

The original trophy was retired in 2001 as too fragile to be lifted, after 104 years (2001)

Chris Joynt of St Helens was the last captain to raise it; a replica has been presented since

Wigan beat Hull Kingston Rovers 40–10 at Wembley on 30 May 2026, a twenty-year-old half-back scoring twice on his debut there (2026)

A record twenty-second win; Jack Farrimond took the Lance Todd Trophy

The early rounds draw in community amateur clubs and armed forces sides alongside the professionals

One of the few knockouts in Britain that runs all the way down its own pyramid

Key ideas

  • The competition predates the modern name of the sport: it was launched by the Northern Union in 1896, nine years before the name rugby league came into use in England.

Quick-fire facts

  • •The first competition was held in the 1896–97 season; Batley beat St Helens 10–3 at Headingley on 24 April 1897
  • •The original trophy was made by Fattorini's of Bradford, the firm that also made the FA Cup trophy of 1911
  • •The final has been played at Wembley since 1929, apart from wartime and the years of the stadium's rebuilding
  • •The Lance Todd Trophy, for man of the match in the final, was first awarded in 1946 to Billy Stott of Wakefield Trinity
  • •Lance Todd was a New Zealand-born Wigan player and Salford manager, killed in a car crash on 14 November 1942
  • •Don Fox won the Lance Todd Trophy in 1968 despite missing the last-minute conversion that cost Wakefield the final
  • •Wigan hold the record with 22 wins, including eight in a row from 1988 to 1995
  • •Salford's single win, in 1938, came under Lance Todd's management
  • •The 2026 final, on 30 May at Wembley, ended Wigan 40, Hull Kingston Rovers 10
  • •Jack Farrimond, a 20-year-old half-back, won the 2026 Lance Todd Trophy on his Wembley debut

Drill it — 8 cards

1 / 8new card

Sources