Challenge Cup
Northern hemisphere rugby league knockout competition
The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Challenge Cup, is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's oldest cup competition in either code of rugby. A concurrent Women's Challenge Cup and Wheelchair Challenge Cup have been held since 2012 and 2015 respectively.
The competition is open to all eligible clubs down to Tier 5. Some amateur clubs have to qualify to enter in Round One while others can apply through the RFL to enter.
The final is traditionally played at Wembley Stadium. Despite having been played at other venues, Wembley is generally seen as the home of the competition. "Abide with Me", sung before the game, has become a rugby league anthem.
The current holders of the Challenge Cup are Wigan Warriors, winning the competition for the 22nd time, beating Hull Kingston Rovers 40-10 in the 2026 Final on the 30th May 2026 at Wembley Stadium.
Wigan are the most successful club in the history of the competition, winning the Cup a record 22 times.
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.
“Challenge Cup” enters the record as northern hemisphere rugby league knockout competition. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Challenge, Northern and hemisphere can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Challenge Cup” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Challenge, Northern and hemisphere provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1059994. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1896, 2012, 2015 and 2026.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Challenge Cup” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.