The 2022 Women's Challenge Cup (sponsored as the 2022 Betfred Women's Challenge Cup) was the 10th staging of the Rugby Football League's cup competition for women's rugby league clubs. The competition was won by St Helens who beat Leeds Rhinos 18–8 in the final at Elland Road 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 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.
+ Seeding pots for group stage draw Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Castleford Tigers Leeds Rhinos St Helens York City Knights Featherstone Rovers Huddersfield Giants Warrington Wolves Wigan Warriors Barrow Raiders Bradford Bulls Leigh Miners Rangers Wakefield Trinity British Army Hull FC Oulton Raidettes Widnes Vikings
+ Groups Group A Group B Group C Group D St Helens Warrington Wolves Barrow Raiders British ArmyLeeds Rhinos Huddersfield Giants Leigh Miners Rangers Hull FCYork City Knights Wigan Warriors Bradford Bulls Widnes VikingsCastleford Tigers Wakefield Trinity Featherstone Rovers Oulton Raidettes
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 and Gemma Bonner.
Group A + Group A fixturesHomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee Barrow Raiders 0–68 St Helens13 March 2022, 14:00 Craven Park British Army 8–50 Warrington Wolves Aldershot Military Stadium St Helens 88–0 British Army27 March 2022, 14:00 Totally Wicked Stadium Warrington Wolves 36–16 Barrow Raiders Halliwell Jones Stadium Warrington Wolves 0–54 St Helens3 April 2022, 14:00 Halliwell Jones Stadium Barrow Raiders 38–0 British Army Craven Park Source:
Group B + Group B fixturesHomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee Huddersfield Giants 8–38 Leeds Rhinos 12 March 2022, 12:00 John Smiths Stadium Leigh Miners Rangers 72–0 Hull FC 13 March 2022, 14:00 Twist Lane Hull FC Leeds Rhinos colspan=3 Leigh Miners Rangers 6–46 Huddersfield Giants 27 March 2022, 14:00 Twist Lane Leeds Rhinos 92–0 Leigh Miners Rangers3 April 2022, 14:00 Headingley Hull FC 0–114 Huddersfield Giants MKM Stadium Source:
Group C + Group C fixturesHomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee Dewsbury Moor 0–78 York City Knights 13 March 2022, 14:00 Dewsbury Moor Sports Club Bradford Bulls 6–44 Wigan Warriors 13 March 2022, 17:00 Horsfall Stadium York City Knights 46–0 Wigan Warriors 20 March 2022, 12:00 York Community Stadium Wigan Warriors 62–0 Dewsbury Moor 27 March 2022, 12:00 Robin Park Arena Bradford Bulls 4–76 York City Knights 27 March 2022, 14:00 Odsal Stadium Dewsbury Moor 4–22 Bradford Bulls 3 April 2022, 14:00 Source:
Group D + Group D fixturesHomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee Castleford Tigers 10–32 Wakefield Trinity13 March 2022, 14:00 The Mend-A-Hose Jungle Oulton Raidettes 10–30 Featherstone Rovers Oulton Raidettes 40–0 Castleford Tigers27 March 2022, 14:00 Wakefield Trinity 0–32 Featherstone Rovers Belle Vue Featherstone Rovers 86–0 Castleford Tigers3 April 2022, 14:00 Post Office Road Wakefield Trinity 12–14 Oulton Raidettes Belle Vue Source:
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.
+ Quarter-finalsHomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee St Helens 24–0 Huddersfield Giants 10 April 2022, 14:00 Totally Wicked Stadium Leeds Rhinos 40–0 Warrington Wolves 10 April 2022, 14:00 Headingley Rugby Stadium York City Knights 92–2 Oulton Raidettes 10 April 2022, 14:00 York Community Stadium Featherstone Rovers 12–10 Wigan Warriors 10 April 2022, 18:00 Post Office Road Source:
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. Team 1ScoreTeam 2Match InformationDate and TimeVenueReferee York City Knights 24–26 Leeds Rhinos 24 April 2022, 14:30 Halliwell Jones Stadium St Helens 82–0 Featherstone Rovers 24 April 2022, 17:30 Source:
Final The final was played at Elland Road, Leeds 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 Round Match Date Broadcast method Group stage match, week 1 Barrow Raiders v St Helens 12 March 2022 Broadcast live on BBC Red Button Group stage match, week 2 York City Knights v Wigan Warriors 20 March 2022 Broadcast live on Our League Group stage match, week 3 Wakefield Trinity v Oulton Raidettes 3 April 2022 Broadcast live on Our League Quarter-final Featherstone Rovers v Wigan Warriors 10 April 2022 Broadcast live on Our League Semi-final York City Knights v Leeds Rhinos 24 April 2022 Broadcast live on BBC Red Button St Helens v Featherstone Rovers Final St Helens v Leeds Rhinos 7 May 2022 Broadcast live on BBC Two
See also 2022 Men's Challenge Cup
Notes
References