2012 Carnegie Challenge Cup

Duration	9 rounds
Highest attendance	79,180
Broadcast partners	BBC Sport
Winners	Warrington Wolves
Runners-up	Leeds Rhinos
Biggest home win	Wigan Warriors 98-4 North Wales Crusaders
Biggest away win	Myton Warriors 4-94 Halifax
Lance Todd Trophy	Brett Hodgson

The 2012 Challenge Cup (also known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 111th staging of the most competitive European rugby league tournament at club level and was open to teams from England, Wales, Scotland and France. It began its preliminary stages in January 2012.

The pools in the preliminary round were dropped.

Wigan Warriors were the reigning champions, but lost 28–39 to Leeds Rhinos in the semi-finals, who avenged last season's final defeat. However, they went on to lose their third consecutive final, the second of which to the Warrington Wolves 18 - 35.

Preliminary round

A total of 44 teams played a preliminary-round tie. The clubs involved included 22 NCL Divisions 1 and 2, 5 regional league winners, the Yorkshire and Lancashire County Cup winners, 1 Cumberland ARL nomination and the British Police. Also in the draw were the Scottish champions and a Welsh representative, 4 teams from the 2011 Rugby League Conference National, 6 Student teams and a North West League representative.

The draw for the preliminary and first round were made on 19 December 2011.^[1]

Round 1

The 22 winners from the preliminary round then progress to the first round where 11 games were drawn. Due to the amount of postponed matches, ties (other than Egremont v Leeds Met and Castleford Lock Lane v Sharlston) were played a week later on 25 February.

Round 2

The 11 first-round winners then progressed to round two where they met the 14 National Conference League Premier teams and the three Armed Forces teams who entered at this stage to total 28 teams to be drawn into 14 games.

The draw for the second round were made on 27 February 2012 aboard HMS Illustrious and was carried out by Commanding Officer, Captain Martin Connell, who drew the home teams and the away teams were pulled out by England Head Coach Steve McNamara.^[4]

The second-round ties were played on the weekend of 10 and 11 March.

Round 3

A total of 14 community clubs would progress to round three, where they would be joined by the Co-operative Championships clubs as well as Toulouse Olympique and Lézignan Sangliers.

Cumbrian Rugby League stars Sol Roper and Rob Purdham conducted the draw for the third round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup at Whitehaven's Recreation Ground on 13 March. Roper, a scrum-half who played in two Wembley finals with Workington Town in 1955 and 1958, drew the home teams and former Whitehaven and London Broncos player Purdham drew the away teams.^[5]

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Egremont Rangers	14–22	Oldham R.L.F.C.	23 March 2012 20:00	Recreation GroundA	Joe Cobb	468
Doncaster	57–10	Sharlston Rovers	24 March 2012 15:00	Keepmoat Stadium	Chris Leatherbarrow	496
Gateshead Thunder	28–10	York Acorn	24 March 2012 15:00	Thunderdome	Peter Brooke	179
London Skolars	26–43	Leigh Centurions	24 March 2012 15:00	New River Stadium	Matthew Kidd	367
Oulton Raiders	8–58	Sheffield Eagles	24 March 2012 15:00	Rapid Solicitors StadiumB	Warren Turley	1,020
Wath Brow Hornets	22–24	South Wales Scorpions	24 March 2012 15:00	Recreation GroundA	J Bloem
North Wales Crusaders	28–10	Toulouse Olympique	24 March 2012 19:45	Racecourse Ground	George Stokes	567
Bradford Dudley Hill	6–58	Keighley Cougars	25 March 2012 14:00	Cougar ParkC	B Robinson	840
Hunslet Old Boys	12–86	Featherstone Rovers	25 March 2012 14:00	Bigfellas StadiumD	Tom Crashley	785
Hunslet Hawks	34–14	Royal Navy	25 March 2012 14:00	South Leeds Stadium	Ronnie Laughton	302
Swinton Lions	66–0	Siddal	25 March 2012 14:00	Leigh Sports Village	D Sharpe	404
Barrow Raiders	32–22	Lézignan Sangliers	25 March 2012 15:00	Craven Park	Greg Dolan	1,340
Dewsbury Rams	84–12	Thatto Heath Crusaders	25 March 2012 15:00	Tetley's Stadium	C Kendall	606
East Hull	20–48	Rochdale Hornets	25 March 2012 15:00	Spotland StadiumE	Dave Merrick	303
Myton Warriors	4–94	Halifax	25 March 2012 15:00	The ShayF	J Callaghan	1,011
Whitehaven	52–6	Hunslet Warriors	25 March 2012 15:00	Recreation Ground	Scott Mikalauskas
Workington Town	6–22	Batley Bulldogs	25 March 2012 15:00	Derwent Park	Jamie Leahy	601
York City Knights	40–14	Hull Dockers	25 March 2012 15:00	Huntington Stadium	Gareth Hewer	346
Source:[2][3]

Notes

A.^ Game switched to Recreation Ground (Whitehaven)^[6]
B.^ Game switched to Rapid Solicitors Stadium (Wakefield)^[7]
C.^ Game switched to Cougar Park (Keighley)^[8]
D.^ Game switched to Bigfellas Stadium (Featherstone)^[9]
E.^ Game switched to Spotland (Rochdale)^[10]
F.^ Game switched to The Shay (Halifax)^[11]

Round 4

The draw for round 4 took place at 8.50pm on 26 March 2012 and was conducted by Challenge Cup winners Andy Gregory and Lee Crooks.^[12] The games took place over the weekend of 13, 14 and 15 April 2012 with BBC Sport showing the tie between Widnes Vikings and St. Helens and for the first time Sky Sports televised the Featherstone Rovers v Castleford Tigers.^[13]

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Leeds Rhinos	38–18	Wakefield Trinity Wildcats	13 April 2012 20:00	Headlingley Carnegie Stadium	R Silverwood	7,140
Swinton Lions	70–10	Gateshead Thunder	14 April 2012 14:00	Leigh Sports Village	W Turley	415
Featherstone Rovers	23–16	Castleford Tigers	14 April 2012 15:00	Bigfellas Stadium	B Thaler	4,165
South Wales Scorpions	28–84	Halifax	14 April 2012 15:00	The Shay	R Hicks	879
Widnes Vikings	38–40	St. Helens	14 April 2012 17:30	Stobart Stadium	J Child	3,069
Keighley Cougars	18–44	Warrington Wolves	15 April 2012 14:00	Cougar Park	T Roby	2,196
London Broncos	72–4	Dewsbury Rams	15 April 2012 14:00	Twickenham Stoop	M Tomason	652
Bradford Bulls	72–6	Doncaster	15 April 2012 15:00	Odsal Stadium	J Leahy	3,210
Hull F.C.	16–42	Huddersfield Giants	15 April 2012 15:00	KC Stadium	T Alibert	8,327
Hull Kingston Rovers	18–20	Catalans Dragons	15 April 2012 15:00	MS3 Craven Park	P Bentham	7,000
Hunslet Hawks	18–21	Batley Bulldogs	15 April 2012 15:00	South Leeds Stadium	G Hewer	664
Leigh Centurions	68–18	Rochdale Hornets	15 April 2012 15:00	Leigh Sports Village	C Leatherbarrow	1,229
Oldham R.L.F.C.	26–14	Barrow Raiders	15 April 2012 15:00	Whitebank Stadium	D Merrick	773
Whitehaven	18–58	Salford City Reds	15 April 2012 15:00	Recreation Ground	S Ganson	751
Wigan Warriors	98–4	North Wales Crusaders	15 April 2012 15:00	DW Stadium	G Stokes	4,198
York City Knights	12–50	Sheffield Eagles	15 April 2012 15:00	Huntington Stadium	R Laughton	551
Source:[2][3]

Round 5

The draw, which took place at 3:00pm on 16 April 2012^[14] had an Olympic and Paralympic theme with the last 16 teams drawn by two athletes who were hoping for medal success at London 2012, Johanna Jackson and Louis Speight. Round 5 took place over the weekend of 28 and 29 April 2012,^[15]

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Oldham R.L.F.C.	0–76	St. Helens	27 April 2012 20:00	Langtree Park	B Thaler	5,742
Featherstone Rovers	16–32	Wigan Warriors	27 April 2012 20:00	Bigfellas Stadium	R Silverwood	4,082
Warrington Wolves	32–16	Bradford Bulls	28 April 2012 14:40	Halliwell Jones Stadium	J Child	5,505
Catalans Dragons	68–6	Sheffield Eagles	28 April 2012 18:30 CET	Stade Gilbert Brutus	R Hicks	7,000
Leigh Centurions	19–18	Halifax	29 April 2012 14:00	Leigh Sports Village	P Bentham	2,182
Batley Bulldogs	16–22	London Broncos	29 April 2012 14:00	Mount Pleasant	T Alibert	1,025
Salford City Reds	10–16	Leeds Rhinos	29 April 2012 15:00	City of Salford Stadium	S Ganson
Huddersfield Giants	52–0	Swinton Lions	29 April 2012 15:00	Galpharm Stadium	T Roby	2,617
Source:[2][3]

Quarter finals

The quarter finals took place over the weekend of 12 and 13 May 2012. Two games were shown live on the BBC^[15] and one on Sky Sports. The draw took place on 1 May 2012 at 8:20am BST, and was broadcast on BBC 5 Live.

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Attendance
Leigh Centurions	12–60	Leeds Rhinos	11 May 2012 20:00	Leigh Sports Village	Ben Thaler	5,290
Wigan Warriors	18–4	St. Helens	12 May 2012 14:30	DW Stadium	Richard Silverwood	12,864
Catalans Dragons	22–32	Warrington Wolves	13 May 2012 16:10 CEST	Stade Gilbert Brutus	Steve Ganson	11,000
Huddersfield Giants	50–14	London Broncos	13 May 2012 17:00	Galpharm Stadium	James Child	2,574
Source:[2][3]

Semi finals

The semi-finals took place on 14 and 15 July 2012 at neutral venues and both games were televised by the BBC.^[16] The draw took place on 13 May after the Catalans-Warrington match on BBC Two with the draw made by Ian Millward and Brian Noble

^[2][3]

Note:
A.^ Match originally scheduled for 17:30 kick-off, but was delayed by 15 minutes due to BBC's coverage of Scottish Open golf over-running.

Final

The final was played on 25 August 2012 at Wembley Stadium with a 14:30 kick off time and was shown live on BBC One.^[15] The game was a repeat of the 2010 Challenge Cup final, where Warrington beat Leeds 30–6. In the final the Warrington Wolves won the Challenge Cup for a third time in four years, beating Leeds 35–18.^{[2][3][19][20]}

Teams:

Warrington: Brett Hodgson, Chris Riley, Ryan Atkins, Stefan Ratchford, Joel Monaghan, Lee Briers, Richie Myler, Garreth Carvell, Mickey Higham, Chris Hill, Trent Waterhouse, Ben Westwood, Ben Harrison
Replacements: Adrian Morley (c), Michael Monaghan, Paul Wood, Tyrone McCarthy Coach: Tony Smith
Tries: Monaghan, Waterhouse, Riley, Atkins, McCarthy, Hogdson. Goals: Hodgson (5).

Leeds: Zak Hardaker, Ben Jones-Bishop, Kallum Watkins, Carl Ablett, Ryan Hall, Kevin Sinfield (c), Stevie Ward, Kylie Leuluai, Rob Burrow, Jamie Peacock, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Brett Delaney, Ryan Bailey
Replacements: Ian Kirke, Shaun Lunt, Darrell Griffin, Jimmy Keinhorst Coach: Brian McDermott
Tries: Kirke, Watkins (2) Goals: Sinfield (3).

UK Broadcasting rights

The tournament was jointly televised by the BBC and Sky Sports on the first of their five-year contracts.

• Only in England and Wales.

Sky Sports televised the round-4 match between Featherstone Rovers and Castleford Tigers on 12 April 2012 and the round-5 match between Featherstone Rovers and Wigan Warriors on 27 April 2012 as well as a quarter-final.

References

External links

• Challenge Cup official website
• 2012 Challenge Cup Coverage at the Guardian