The 2022 Women's Challenge Cup (sponsored as the 2022 Betfred Women's Challenge Cup) was the 10th staging of 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 ...

cup competition A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for women's

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 ...

clubs. The competition was won by St Helens who beat

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

18–8 in the final at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

on 7 May.

Format

The competition has a different format from previous years. Instead of being a straight knockout tournament, the first stage was played using a single round-robin format with the top two teams from four groups advancing to the quarter-final stage, at which point knockout format was resumed. Entry was limited to the 12 teams of the

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

plus three Championship teams; Hull FC, Oulton Raidettes and Widnes Vikings; together with the Army women's team. Each team was seeded into one of four pots with one team from each pot being drawn into each group. On 6 March 2022 Widnes Vikings withdrew from the competition and were replaced by another Championship side, Dewsbury Moor.

Group stage

The draw for the group stages was made on 7 December at Elland Road, Leeds. Making the draw were footballers

Jermaine Beckford Jermaine Paul Alexander Beckford (born 9 December 1983) is an English Football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his career as a trainee at Chelsea, and played for Wealdstone, Uxbridge, Leeds United, ...

and

Gemma Bonner Gemma Bonner (born 13 July 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for Liverpool, as well as the England women's national football team. Bonner began her career with her hometown club Leeds United, before spending ...

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals are scheduled for the weekend of 9/10 April. The teams topping each group will have home advantage in the quarter-finals.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was made on 10 April with the matches played on 24 April as a double header at Warrington's Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Final

The final was played at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

on Saturday 7 May 2022. The match formed part of a triple-header with the semi-finals of the men's Challenge Cup. The attendance of 5,888 was a new record attendance for a women's rugby league match in Great Britain.

Details

Broadcast matches

Notes

References

{{2022 in rugby league RFL Women's Challenge Cup

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 ...