Wheelchair Challenge Cup
Current season or competition:
2024 Wheelchair Challenge Cup
The women's, men's, and wheelchair Challenge Cup trophies
SportWheelchair rugby league
Instituted2015[1]
Inaugural season2015
Country England
 France
 Scotland
 Wales
Winners Catalans Dragons (2023)
Most titles Halifax Panthers (4 titles)
Broadcast partnerBBC Red Button
(final only)
Related competitionRFL Wheelchair Super League

The Wheelchair Challenge Cup is a wheelchair rugby league competition organised by the Rugby Football League. In 2024, the format of the competition changed to a knockout tournament.[2] It had previously been played with a round-robin format from which the top two teams advanced to the final in 2021 and 2023, and the top four teams advanced to semi-finals in 2022.[3][4][5]

Finals

List of finals
Year Winning team Score Losing team Venue Ref.
2015 Halifax Panthers ?–? Mersey Storm unknown [6][7]
2016 Halifax Panthers 92–48 Leeds Rhinos Huddersfield Sports Centre [8][9]
2017 Halifax Panthers 110–48 Leeds Rhinos [10]
2018 Halifax Panthers 62–18 Dundee Dragons Richard Dunn Sports Centre, Bradford [11]
2019 Leeds Rhinos 74–46 Argonauts English Institute of Sport, Sheffield [12]
2020 Tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Leeds Rhinos 60–26 Argonauts English Institute of Sport, Sheffield [13]
2022 Leeds Rhinos 48–34 Catalans Dragons Allam Arena, Hull [14][15]
2023 Catalans Dragons 66–20 Leeds Rhinos English Institute of Sport, Sheffield [16]

Results by club

Team Winners Runners-up
Halifax Panthers 4 0
Leeds Rhinos 3 3
Catalans Dragons 1 1
Argonauts 0 2
Dundee Dragons 0 1
Mersey Storm 0 1

Challenge Trophy

In 2018, the Rugby Football League introduced a Plate competition as part of the Challenge Cup.[17] It was planned to continue in 2019,[18] but was instead replaced by the inaugural Wheelchair Challenge Trophy.[19] The Challenge Trophy is played alongside the Challenge Cup, for teams outside the Super League. This was originally played as a separate competition,[20] but in 2024 it was announced that the two finalists would qualify to take part in the Challenge Cup.[2]

List of finals
Year Winning team Score Losing team Venue Ref.
2018 Hereford Harriers 63–32 North Wales Crusaders Richard Dunn Sports Centre, Bradford [11]
2019 Gravesend Dynamite 75–48 Hull FC English Institute of Sport, Sheffield [21]
2020 Tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Gravesend Dynamite 19–12 Warrington Wolves Warrington
2022 Gravesend Dynamite 82–40 Mersey Storm Allam Arena, Hull [22]
2023 Gravesend Dynamite 88–8 Sheffield Eagles English Institute of Sport, Sheffield [23]


See also

References

  1. ^ "Wheelchair Rugby League 2015". www.rugby-league.com. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Format and fixtures revealed for Betfred Wheelchair Challenge Cup". www.rugby-league.com. 1 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Leeds Rhinos and Argonauts to meet in Wheelchair Challenge Cup Final". www.rugby-league.com. 7 June 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Leeds Rhinos to face Catalans Dragons in 2022 Betfred Wheelchair Challenge Cup Final". www.rugby-league.com. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Wheelchair Challenge Cup takes centre stage as Rugby League Inclusion Festival heads to Hull". www.rugby-league.com. 10 July 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Challenge Cup round up". www.rugby-league.com. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  7. ^ "Season Review". Spider-Y. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016.
  8. ^ "Halifax win 2016 Wheelchair RL Challenge Cup". www.rugby-league.com. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Wheelchair Challenge Cup final set for Huddersfield". www.rugby-league.com. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  10. ^ "Brown scores 15 tries as Halifax win Wheelchair Challenge Cup". www.rugby-league.com. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  11. ^ a b "Halifax retain Wheelchair Challenge Cup title". www.rugby-league.com. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  12. ^ Hall, Ben (19 August 2019). "Rhinos Wheelchair Rugby League team win Challenge Cup". Leeds Rhinos Foundation. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  13. ^ "Halliwell's Five Tries Inspire Leeds To Betfred Wheelchair Challenge Cup Triumph". The Sportsman. 15 August 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  14. ^ Hall, Ben (June 26, 2022). "Rhinos slay Dragons to win third Wheelchair Challenge Cup in a row".
  15. ^ "University to host Wheelchair Challenge Cup Final". www.hull.ac.uk. June 24, 2022.
  16. ^ "Catalans Dragons 66-20 Leeds Rhinos: French side clinch Wheelchair Challenge Cup final victory". Sky Sports.
  17. ^ "Wheelchair RL boasts growth for 2018". www.rugby-league.com. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  18. ^ "Give Wheelchair Rugby League a try at the 2019 Season Launch this weekend". www.rugby-league.com. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  19. ^ "Hull FC Wheelchair Rugby League". Hull F.C. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  20. ^ "Leeds to face Catalans in 2023 Betfred Wheelchair Challenge Cup Final". www.rugby-league.com. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  21. ^ "Wheelchair Challenge Cup triumph for Leeds Rhinos". www.rugby-league.com. 17 August 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  22. ^ "Rugby League Challenge Trophy success leaves Gravesend Dynamite on a roll as they prepare for 10th season of wheelchair rugby action". Kent Online. 23 July 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  23. ^ Ltd, Go Media. "Wheelchair Trophy Final Report". Sheffield Eagles.
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