Women's Challenge Cup
Women's rugby league competition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Women's Challenge Cup is a rugby league knockout competition organised by the Rugby Football League. The competition started in 2012.
Current season or competition: 2026 Women's Challenge Cup | |
The women's, men's, and wheelchair Challenge Cup trophies | |
| Sport | Rugby league |
|---|---|
| Instituted | 2012 |
| Inaugural season | 2012 |
| Country | England Wales |
| Winners |  Wigan Warriors (2026) |
| Most titles | St Helens (8 titles) |
| Website | Women's Challenge Cup |
| Broadcast partner | BBC |
| Related competition | Women's Super League Women's Championship |
History
2012–2016: Foundations
The Rugby Football League's Women's Challenge Cup was set up in 2012[1][a] to run alongside the men's competition to give women's rugby teams more competitive games and to give the sport a bigger profile by attaching it to the Challenge Cup. Most teams in the first few years were community clubs and had no links to professional men's clubs. In 2014 the RFL set up an amateur league for the women's game, to help more women's teams get regular game time.[5]
2017–2020: Exposure
In 2018 the competition started to receive a much higher profile, with the final being broadcast live on the BBC Sport website.[5][6] In 2019 bookmakers Coral agreed to sponsor the competition – in addition to their sponsorship of the men's Challenge Cup – and it was also announced that the final of the 2019 Cup would be played as part of a triple-header with the semi-finals of the men's 2019 Challenge Cup at the University of Bolton Stadium on 27 July 2019.[5][7] The 2019 competition also saw the introduction of a new trophy commissioned by the RFL.[5][8] In 2020, the competition was suspended after the first round and later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][10]
2021–present: Restructuring
In the 2021 competition, entry was restricted to the ten teams in the Super League.[11] The following year the competition expanded to 16 teams (12 Super League, three Championship and one Super League South) and a group stage was introduced with the top two teams from the four groups advancing to the quarter-final stage.[12] The competition was reduced to 12 teams in 2025.[13]
Finals
List of teams by number of wins
| Club | Wins | Runners up |
Winners | Runners up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  St Helens[A] | 8 | 2 | 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 | 2025, 2026 |
| 2 |  Leeds Rhinos | 2 | 3 | 2018, 2019 | 2022, 2023, 2024 |
| 3 | Wigan Warriors | 2 | 0 | 2025, 2026 | |
| 4 |  Bradford Bulls[B] | 1 | 3 | 2017 | 2012, 2013, 2014 |
| 5 |  Featherstone Rovers | 1 | 2 | 2012 | 2015, 2017 |
| 6 |  Castleford Tigers | 0 | 2 | 2018, 2019 | |
| 7 |  Leigh Miners Rangers | 0 | 1 | 2016 | |
 York City Knights | 0 | 1 | 2021 |
Challenge Shield
Between 2012 and 2019 teams that were knocked out of the cup in the early rounds went on to compete in the Challenge Shield competition.[30] In 2021, with entry to the Challenge Cup restricted, the Rugby Football League launched a Women's League Cup for teams outside of the Super League and Championship.[31] In 2022, the League Cup was opened to teams from the Championship, with the two sides that did not progress from the group stage of the Challenge Cup entering the League Cup at the quarter-final round.[32] In 2024, the League Cup also included a League Plate competition[33] and these were renamed as the Challenge Shield and Challenge Plate in 2025.[34]
| Year | Winning team | Score | Losing team | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 |  Widnes Vikings |
40–10 |  Stanningley |
[35] |
| 2013 | Normanton Knights | 34–14 | Featherstone Rovers |
[36] |
| 2014 | Featherstone Rovers |
64–14 | Stanningley |
[37] |
| 2015 | unknown | |||
| 2016 |  Thatto Heath Crusaders Reserves |
62–6 | Whitley Bay Barbarians | [38] |
| 2017 | York City Knights |
26–24 |  Army |
[39] |
| 2018 | Bradford Bulls |
44–16 | Stanningley |
[40] |
| 2019 | Army |
40–4 | York City Knights |
[41] |
