Duration 9 Rounds Dates 28 Jan 2017 – 26 Aug 2017 | Broadcast partners BBC Sport
Sky Sports Number of teams 72 | |
Biggest home win London Chargers 116 – 0 Bridgend Blue Bulls
(1st Round) Biggest away win Aberdeen Warriors 8 – 62 Pilkington Recs
(1st Round) | ||
The 2017 Challenge Cup, (also known as the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the 116th staging of the Challenge Cup the main rugby league knockout tournament for teams in the European Super League, the British National Leagues and a number of invited amateur clubs.
Contents
The defending champions are Hull FC who beat Warrington Wolves 12–10 in the 2016 final at Wembley Stadium.
The format of the competition is eight knock-out rounds followed by a final. The first two rounds are composed entirely of 32 amateur teams. The eight winners of the second round ties are joined in round 3 by the 16 League 1 teams including for the first time a Canadian team, the Toronto Wolfpack (Toronto will play "home" Challenge Cup games at Manchester Regional Arena). For the fourth round the 12 Championship teams are included in the draw. Round 5 sees four Super League teams entering the competition. These are the four teams that finished in the top four positions of the 2016 Qualifiers and are Huddersfield Giants, Leeds Rhinos, Leigh Centurions and Salford Red Devils. The remaining eight Super League teams join in round 6.
First round
The draw for the first round of the 2017 Challenge Cup was held on 5 January 2017 at The Deep to celebrate the city being named 2017 UK City of Culture and Hull FC’s efforts in 2016 and featured 32 amateur teams from around the United Kingdom including one student team, all three armed services and the police. Home teams were drawn by Lee Radford and the away teams drawn by Dean Andrew, President of the RFL and The RAF.
Fixtures for the first round were played over the weekend of the 28–29 January 2017.
Second round
The second round draw was made on 31 January from the home of amateur team Siddal, who qualified for the second round by defeating Milford Martins 16–14, and will be streamed live on BBC Sport's website. The draw was made by former players, Johnny Lawless and Luke Robinson both of whom played for Siddal before turning professional. Ties were played over the weekend of 11–12 February 2017 with the exception of the game between West Hull and Thatto Heath which was postponed for a week due to a waterlogged pitch.
Third round
The draw for the third round as made on 14 February 2017. The draw was conducted by Super League players Stefan Ratchford and Ryan Brierley. Ties were played 25–26 February 2017.
Fourth round
The winners of the 12 third-round ties are joined in the fourth round by the 12 teams in the Championship. The draw will be made from onboard HMS Bulwark on Tuesday 28 February. The draw will be made by former St Helens player, Paul Sculthorpe and the chairman of the Royal Marine Rugby League Association, Major Jack Duckitt.
Broadcasts
The primary broadcast organisation for the competition is BBC Sport. On 24 January the RFL announced that the BBC would be streaming one tie from each of the first five rounds live on the BBC Sport website with two games from the 6th, 7th and 8th rounds being broadcast live on BBC TV.