Winners Wigan Dates 30 Sep 1995 – 13 Jan 1996 Number of teams 42 | Runners-up St Helens Champion Wigan Warriors | |
Structure National knockout championship | ||
This was the twenty-fifth and final season of the rugby league League Cup, known for sponsorship purposes as the Regal Trophy.
Contents
- Background
- Round 1 a preliminary round
- Round 2
- Round 3
- Round 4 Quarterfinals
- Round 5 Semifinals
- Round 5 Semifinal replays
- Teams and scorers
- Prize money
- The road to success
- Postscript
- Entrants and number of cup wins
- References
The last ever final was won by Wigan, who beat local rivals St Helens 25-16 at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield. The attendance was 17,590.
Background
This season saw a reduction in the number of entrants, the number decreasing to forty-two.
The inclusion of two French clubs continued, but the number of invitations to the top junior clubs was reduced by six from eleven last season, to just five this season.
The ten first round winners added to the twenty-two clubs given byes, gave a total of entrants into the second round of thirty-two. There were no drawn matches during this season's competition
Round 1 (a preliminary round)
Involved 10 matches and 20 clubs with 22 byes
Round 2
Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs
Round 3
Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs
Round 4 - Quarterfinals
Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs
Round 5 – Semifinals
Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs
"|1||Sat 30 Dec 1995||St Helens||||P||||Warrington||Knowsley Road||||||13
Round 5 – Semifinal replays
Involved 1 match and 2 clubs
Teams and scorers
Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1)
Prize money
As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-
The road to success
This tree excludes any First Round fixtures
Postscript
To date, this was the last season for the John Player sponsored trophy competitions, which had taken place annually since its inauguration in the 1971-72 for a period of 25 seasons.
It was unfortunately such a short period for what was intended to be the "League Cup" and that very few of the professional clubs managed to have their name inscribed on the trophy, or even reach the semi-final stage
The reasons given by the ruling body, the Rugby Football League for the competition's demise, were that it was deemed the trophy was adding to fixture congestion for more successful sides and a clean sweep was needed to herald the "Summer Rugby" image of the game.
Entrants and number of cup wins
This table list all the semi-professional clubs which have entered the competition and reached at least the semi-final stage, the number (and dates) of their cup final wins, cup final runner-up spots, and losing semi-final appearances.
Note - several stats taken from records of the now defunct "The Rugby League Record Keepers Club" documents