The 1996 Challenge Cup was the 95th staging of the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

tournament. Known as the

Silk Cut Silk Cut is a British brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Gallaher Group, a division of Japan Tobacco. The packaging is characterised by a distinctive stark white packet with the brand name in a purple, blue, red, silver, wh ...

Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from

, it was the first Challenge Cup of the summer era. The tournament featured 40 teams playing 42 games, the culmination of which was the final at London's

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

between

Super League I The year 1996's Stones Bitter Super League I was the official name for the 102nd season of top-level rugby league football, and the first year of Europe's new championship: Super League. It is also the first season of rugby league to be played i ...

teams St. Helens and

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

Prize money

The following is a table of prize amounts received by each club depending on which round of the Challenge Cup was reached. No prizes were awarded in the first two rounds of the competition, but amateur clubs who reached the Third Round each received £1,000.

First round

Second round

Third round

Fourth round

Fifth round

Quarter Final

Semi finals

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Final

The 1996 tournament's final featured

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

clubs St. Helens and

, and was played on Saturday, 27 April at London's

before a crowd of 78,550. The match was refereed by Stuart Cummings and at half time Bradford led 14-12. Trailing 26-12 from the 53rd to the 57th minute, St Helens overcame this 14-point deficit, the biggest in Challenge Cup final history for a winning team, to prevail by 40-32. This also made it the highest-scoring Challenge Cup final in history. Bradford's 32 points set a new record for most points scored in a Challenge Cup final-losing team. Bradford's scrum half back,

Robbie Paul Robert Rawiri Hunter-Paul (born 3 February 1976) is a New Zealand former rugby league footballer. He has since become a business owner and television pundit, runninXtra Mile Marketing an inbound and digital marketing company. Robbie retired fr ...

, became the fourth player ever to achieve what was a Challenge Cup final record of three tries, and was awarded the

Lance Todd Trophy The Lance Todd Trophy is a trophy in rugby league, awarded to the annual Challenge Cup Final's man of the match. Introduced in 1945–46, the trophy was named in memory of Lance Todd, the New Zealand-born player and administrator, who was killed in ...

for man-of-the-match.

References

{{1996 in rugby league Challenge Cup St Helens R.F.C.