Challenge Cup (Rugby League) - Current Structure

Current 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:

  • Preliminary Round: Amateur teams from around the United Kingdom will be split into two pools.
  • First round: Amateur teams from around the United Kingdom. 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 three French sides, and the twenty one semi-professional British clubs from the Rugby League National Leagues enter the draw with the fourteen winners from the second round.
  • Fourth round: The fourteen Super League teams join the competition with the eighteen third round winners.
  • Fifth round: Last 16
  • Quarter Finals: Last eight
  • Semi Finals: (played at neutral venues)
  • Final

Read more about this topic:  Challenge Cup (Rugby League)

Famous quotes containing the words current and/or structure:

    “Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The structure was designed by an old sea captain who believed that the world would end in a flood. He built a home in the traditional shape of the Ark, inverted, with the roof forming the hull of the proposed vessel. The builder expected that the deluge would cause the house to topple and then reverse itself, floating away on its roof until it should land on some new Ararat.”
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)