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It is officially the start of the new Super League season this weekend, but not quite as you may remember it. The road to Old Trafford begins next Thursday when the reigning champions, Wigan, take on Leigh in a mouthwatering local derby. But before then, all 12 top-flight clubs enter a revamped and remodelled Challenge Cup much earlier than usual.
In recent years, Super League clubs have entered as late as round six. This year, they come into the competition at round three after the Rugby Football League decided to try to pump some magic into the cup’s earlier rounds by guaranteeing all Super League sides would be drawn away at lower-league opposition. However, it hasn’t quite gone to plan.
There are some success stories to be had this weekend. Aspiring Super League side York will play in front of their biggest-ever crowd at home to Hull KR on Friday night, while on Sunday League One side Midlands Hurricanes will enjoy the same against Salford and there is an intriguing and tough-to-call West Yorkshire derby between Championship side Bradford and Castleford.
But a third of the ties involving Super League teams have either been reversed so those sides are now at home, or played at neutral venues instead. The primary reason? Some of those clubs face amateur or community clubs in round three meaning the venues – like Wests Warriors’ home in Acton – are considered short of RFL standards for a tie involving professional teams.
Wests Warriors will instead travel to Headingley to face Leeds Rhinos, a wonderful occasion for the community club, who have an all-expenses-paid trip to one of the game’s giants. But not quite the magical occasion you would have originally had with Leeds travelling to a ground they have never played at before.
“I don’t know much about their facility but Headingley is a good stadium and it’s safe,” the Leeds coach, Brad Arthur, said this week. “We just wanted it to be safe for both teams.” Amateur clubs York Acorn and West Hull have had to move their ties against Hull FC and St Helens to neutral grounds, with Hull KR’s Craven Park Featherstone’s Millennium Stadium now hosting those ties.
The intentions were good with the revamp, but it is clear it hasn’t quite worked: meaning a review is already under way about how best to avoid a repeat – and further pump some life into the cup – in 2026.
“There have been some successes in the format but it’s perhaps not been a perfect solution, so we’ll look at the format and we’ll review it,” the CEO of RL Commercial, Rhodri Jones, tells the Guardian. “It is unlikely that round three will be the week before Super League in 2026. We need to give ourselves more flexibility so the review of the early rounds format is happening already.”
But the problems lie deeper than that. Take Championship heavyweights Halifax, winners in 1987. They drew Catalans at home this weekend but with the tie moved to noon on Saturday for streaming purposes, plus the prospect of no away travelling support from France, this does not represent the money-spinning occasion they were promised.
In fact, they fear they will lose money by opening up their stadium and hosting a Super League side this weekend. With money outside the top flight already scarce at best, that is a worry. “Given the shared gate and the outdated costs remuneration formula, a crowd of at least 850 is required so we don’t actually lose money,” their CEO, Damian Clayton, explains.
“We actually lost money in the previous round against [amateur side] Thatto Heath. I welcomed the initiative by the RFL to bring the Super League clubs into the competition but the majority of those fixtures have been reversed and the games are being played at the Super League clubs’ home venues which I believe compromises the intent of the revamp.”
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With semi-professional clubs risking financial shortfalls just by staging games – at least one more Championship team runs the risk of the same fate as Halifax this week – it is clear something has to be done about the Challenge Cup’s early rounds. That is why the intention behind this revamp has been widely accepted, even if the execution hasn’t quite been perfect.
“I think the idea behind the format change makes sense, and we’re very supportive of it,” the Leigh coach, Adrian Lam, says. His side travel to Cumbria to face Workington on Friday evening. “We’ll give Workington all the respect that they deserve going up there, hence the strength of the squad I’ve chosen.”
Jones adds: “What we’ve tried to do is bring a bit of the romance of the FA Cup, of which Tamworth versus Tottenham is the most recent example.” For clubs like Wests Warriors, their trip to Leeds will be unforgettable. But in terms of captivating a wider audience, it is fair to suggest there is still work to be done to revitalise rugby league’s most prestigious competition.
