The 2021 RFL 1895 Cup, known as the 2021 AB Sundecks 1895 Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the second playing of the

RFL 1895 Cup The 1895 Cup is a British rugby league competition for clubs in the Rugby League Championships. History There have been many cup competitions for the lower leagues of rugby league. In 2002 the Championship Cup was founded for Championship (rugb ...

, a

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 the United Kingdom. The competition is for the professional clubs who play in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and League 1 (the second and third tiers of rugby league in the United Kingdom) and was played between March and July 2021. The final was played as a

curtain raiser A curtain raiser is a short performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raised the curtain". The fashio ...

to the

2021 Challenge Cup Final The 2021 Challenge Cup Final was the 120th final of rugby league's Challenge Cup knock-out competition. It took place on 17 July 2021 at Wembley Stadium between Castleford Tigers and St Helens. Background The 2021 Challenge Cup Final was ...

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 ...

, London on 17 July 2021. The cup was won by

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship (rugby league), Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rover ...

who beat

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC (known as the York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Knights played their home games at Huntington Stadium before moving to Bootham Crescent. ...

41–34. Featherstone's Craig Hall won the Ray French Award for player of the match.

Format

With the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

(RFL) anticipating that the 2021 season would be affected to some degree by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the decision was taken in December 2020 for the early rounds of the Challenge Cup to also act as the early rounds of the 1895 Cup. This was made possible by amateur teams, who would normally compete in the Challenge Cup, being excluded from that tournament in 2021, such that only teams eligible for the 1895 Cup were competing in rounds 1 and 2 of the Challenge Cup. The four teams progressing into the third round of the Challenge Cup, in which teams from Super League entered, also became the semi-finalists of the 1895 Cup.

Teams

Three League 1 sides were able to enter the competition;

Barrow Raiders The Barrow Raiders are a semi-professional rugby league team in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The club was formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club. For the 1995–96 and 1996 seasons the club was known as Barrow Braves, becoming the Ba ...

Keighley Cougars The Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. Keighley's home ground, Cougar Park has a capacity of 7,800. History Early y ...

and

West Wales Raiders The West Wales Raiders were a semi-professional rugby league club based in Llanelli, Wales. They competed in RFL League 1, League 1, the third tier of the British rugby league system, from 2018 until 2022. The club was founded in 2015 as an ama ...

were chosen from those teams who were able to, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, commit to being available for the first round date. They were joined in round 1 by the 13 English clubs from the Championship. French side

Toulouse Olympique Toulouse Olympique or TO XIII is a professional rugby league club in Toulouse, south-west France. Founded in 1937, two years after the French Rugby League Federation, the club is a six-time winner of the French Rugby League Championship. The cl ...

who are the 14th participants in the Championship did not enter either competition.

First round

The draw for the first and second rounds of the competition was made on 11 February 2021. The first round games were played over the weekend of 20/21 March 2021. Due to COVID-19 regulation prohibiting live attendances all the first round games were broadcast live either on the RFL's ''Our League'' app or on the

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''Red Button'' and ''iPlayer'' services or on ''The Sportsman'' online services.

Second round

The second round games took place a week after the first round over the weekend of 27/28 March 2021. All four games were shown free-to-air either via BBC services or via ''The Sportsman''.

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made on 28 April 2021.

Final

Notes

References

{{2021 in rugby league 2021 in English rugby league 2021 in Welsh rugby league RFL 1895 Cup