The 2021 Women's Challenge Cup (sponsored as the 2022 Betfred Women's Challenge Cup) was the 9th edition of the

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

knockout tournament, and the first since the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with the last edition being played in 2019 as the 2020 edition was cancelled. The Cup was won by St Helens who beat

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC, based in York, England. The club play their home games at York Community Stadium and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of Briti ...

36–4 in the final at Leigh Sports Village on 5 June 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom, the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

limited entry to the 2021 competition to the 10 clubs playing in the 2021 Women's Super League. A preliminary round saw the two new teams to the Super League,

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

and

Huddersfield Giants The Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Huddersfield play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league sy ...

, play each other. York City Knights and

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home fixtures at the DIY Kitchen Stadium, Belle Vue (Wakefield), Belle Vue and currently compete in the Super League, the top tier o ...

who finished 7th and 8th in the 2019 Women's Super League contested the other preliminary round tie. The two winning teams advanced to the quarter-finals where the other six teams joined the competition. The preliminary round and the quarter-finals were played at neutral grounds and behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions. The final was played on 5 June as part of a triple-header with the semi-finals of the men's tournament. For the first time the final was shown live on TV as it was shown on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

Preliminary round

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was made on 28 April. All four ties were played on Sunday 9 May.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals were made on 9 May. The ties were played on 22 May as a

double header "Double Header" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of ''The Ren & Stimpy Show''. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on January 7, 1995. Plot Ren and Stimpy are at a bus station late at night. Ren demands to ...

' LNER Community Stadium.

Final

The final of the women's challenge cup, was played at

Leigh Sports Village Leigh Sports Village is a multi-use sports, retail and housing development in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. The centrepiece of the development is a 12,000-capacity stadium which is home to professional rugby league team Leigh Leopards, th ...

, on 5 June 2021 as part of a triple header with the semi-finals of the men's tournament.

Broadcast matches

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Challenge Cup

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2021 in English rugby league

2021 in women's rugby league