2011 Challenge Cup

Preliminary Round

The draws for the Preliminary and First Round was made on 7 December 2010. Ties were played on 8–10 January with some ties played on 15–16 January.

Round 1

First Round played weekend of 22 January with some ties played weekend of 29 January and 5 February. The match between Kells and Bradford Dudley Hill took place on 12 February.

Round 2

The draw for the Second Round was made on 24 January. Ties played weekend of 5 February with some ties played weekend of 12 February. The match between Fryston Warriors and Bradford Dudley Hill took place on 19 February.

Round 3

Third Round draw was made on 15 February. Ties were played on weekend of 5 March.

Round 4

Fourth Round draw was made on 20 March. Ties were played on weekend of 7 May.

Final

The two sides with the most Challenge Cup Final appearances had only met twice before, Wigan winning both times (1994 and 1995). Leeds had played in the previous year's Challenge Cup final loss, but it was the Wigan's Warriors' first visit to the new Wembley Stadium. Abide with me was sung by Rhydian Roberts.

The game was broadcast by BBC with John Kear and Dave Woods commentating, as well as additional commentary from Tanya Arnold, Clare Balding, Jonathan Davies, Robbie Hunter-Paul, Justin Morgan and Brian Noble. The English national anthem was then sung before referee Phil Bentham, overseeing his first Challenge Cup final, blew time on and Leeds' captain Kevin Sinfield kicked off.

First half

The first points of the match came in the ninth minute when Wigan, having made their way into Leeds' half of the field, moved the ball through the hands to the right winger Josh Charnley, who side-stepped the defence and crashed over the line. Pat Richards missed the attempted conversion so the score remained 0-4 in favour of the Warriors. Wigan were again attacking from fifteen metres out when their prop Jeff Lima ran onto Paul Prescott's short pass, and into a defensive gap to dive over near the goal posts just before the twenty-four-minute mark. Richards' conversion was successful so Wigan were leading 0-10. In the twenty-eighth minute, Warriors fullback Sam Tomkins was returning the Leeds' kick from within his own ten metres, running across-field before passing the ball out to his brother, right centre Joel Tomkins. Racing down the sideline, he palmed off one defender and had run seventy metres before he stepped back inside and in between the converging Rhinos defenders, continuing on straight to the centre of the goal-line to dive over under the posts for what was described as one of the great Wembley tries. Richards put the kick over so Wigan were in front 0-16.

It took until the thirty-fifth minute for Leeds to get on the scoreboard when, having worked the ball up to within the opposition ten-metre line, they kept the ball alive, moving it quickly though the hands out to left winger Ryan Hall who dived over untouched in the corner. Sinfield's difficult conversion attempt rebounded against the goal post back into the field so Wigan's lead remained 4-16. Only two minutes later, Leeds had made their way back into opposition territory, again keeping the ball alive with deft passing, this time getting it out to right winger Ben Jones-Bishop who barged his way over the try-line to score. Sinfield kicked the conversion successfully, bringing the half-time score to 10-16 in the Warriors' favour.

Second Half

The first eighteen minutes of the second half saw a tight arm-wrestle between the two sides. Then Leeds, having won a scrum from Wigan's error inside their own ten-metre line, moved the ball right to centre Carl Ablett who muscled his way through the defence and onto the try-line. The video referee, Steve Ganson gave the try and Sinfield's goal-kick was wide, leaving the Rhinos trailing the Warriors 14-16. Wigan, having gotten into an attacking position, scored again when Lee Mossop's controversial-looking short pass to Jeff Lima sent the prop forward again crashing over the try line beside the uprights just before the sixty-two-minute mark. Richards converted the try for Wigan to lead 14-22.

With nine minutes of the match remaining, Leeds were down at the opposition's end and on the fifth tackle moved the ball through the hands out to their left winger, Ryan Hall to barge through the defence and over the try-line. Sinfield couldn't kick the sideline conversion so Leeds trailed 18-22. After receiving the kick-off, the Rhinos made a good break through right winger Ben Jones-Bishop, who kicked the ball ahead into the in-goal area where neither of the Leeds or Wigan chasers racing though could secure it. With less than two and a half minutes remaining, the Warriors were on Leeds' ten-metre line when dummy-half Tommy Leuluai ran through some tired marker defence to get over the line. The video referee was called upon to rule that the ball was not lost in the attempted grounding and the try was awarded. Richards converted successfully so the match ended in a Wigan 18-28 victory.

Post-match

The Wigan Warriors had won the Challenge Cup for a record eighteenth time. The Lance Todd Trophy for man-of-the-match was awarded to Wigan prop forward Jeff Lima, who had scored two tries, becoming the fifth New Zealander (and first prop forward since 1980) to win the award. Later, the Rugby Football League found Wigan fullback Sam Tomkins guilty of minor misconduct for an abusive gesture to Leeds fans during the match and fined him £1,000.

UK Broadcasting rights

Selected matches were televised solely by the BBC, for the last time. The following season the BBC and Sky Sports shared a selected round 4 and round 5 match and the BBC televising two quarter final matches and Sky Sports televising the other two quarter finals. The BBC still televised the semi finals and the final.

¹ Except Northern Ireland.

² Except Scotland which was televised live on BBC Two Scotland.