The 2011

Championship Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

, (known for commercial reasons as the Northern Rail Cup), was the 10th season of the

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football competition for clubs in Great Britain's

Co-operative Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the Rugby Football League Championship Second Division, second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football Lea ...

and Championship One.

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

won the final against Halifax by the score of 20–16. The match was played at Bloomfield Road in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Format

The twenty teams are split up into two pools. Pool A: Featherstone Rovers, Doncaster, London Skolars, Widnes Vikings, Toulouse Olympique, York City Knights, Keighley Cougars, Barrow Raiders, Rochdale Hornets, Dewsbury Rams. Pool B: Swinton Lions, Halifax RLFC, Batley Bulldogs, Leigh Centurions, Gateshead Thunder, Sheffield Eagles, Oldham, Hunslet Hawks, Workington Town, Whitehaven RLFC. Each team played two home games and two away games against teams in their pool. The top four teams in each pool following the conclusion of the group stage fixtures progressed into an open draw for the knock-out quarter-final stage. The competition started on 5 February. Toulouse Olympique competed in the competition for the first time after the withdrawal of

Blackpool Panthers Blackpool Panthers RLFC was an English professional rugby league club based in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire. They played at Bloomfield Road, between 2005-2007, then moved to the Woodlands Memorial Ground owned by Fylde rugby union club. They wer ...

who have entered administration. The

South Wales Scorpions The South Wales Scorpions, known as the South Wales Ironmen in 2017, were a semi-professional rugby league club based in South Wales. They played in the third tier of the British rugby league system (currently known as RFL League 1, League 1) be ...

did not compete

2011 Competition results

Pool 1

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Pool 1 Qualification Table

Source: Northern Rail Cup Table – The RFL
Classification: 1st on competition points; 2nd on match points difference.
Competition Points: For win = 3; For draw = 2; For loss by 12 points or fewer = 1

Pool 2

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Pool 2 Qualification Table

Finals

Finals Tournament Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

The semi-finals took place on 16 and 19 June with Sky Sports broadcasting the Featherstone v Halifax game live on Thursday 16 June.

Final

The Northern Rail Cup Final took place at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool on Sunday 17 July at 17:00 GMT live on Sky Sports, Sky Sports 3. The Match was contested by Halifax RLFC and Leigh Centurions. This was Halifax's first appearance in the National League Cup final and was he fourth time Leigh have appeared in the final after making the finals in 2003 and winning the final in 2004 & 2006. The game was won by Leigh 20 points to 16 with Leigh scoring in the final minute thanks to Tom Armstrong. The victory fulfils the on-field criteria that clubs must meet to be allowed to apply for a

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 ...

licence for the 2015–17 period.

have become the first club to have won the competition on 3 occasions.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080831022046/http://www.therfl.co.uk/index.php * http://www.northernrail.org/northernrailcup {{2011 in Rugby League

National League Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the ...

Championship Cup 2011 in French rugby league