1995–96 League Cup (rugby league)

1995–96 League Cup

Structure

National knockout championship

Number of teams

Winners

Wigan

Runners-up

St Helens

< 1994–95	Seasons

This was the twenty-fifth and final season of the rugby league League Cup, known for sponsorship purposes as the Regal Trophy.

The last ever final was won by Wigan, who beat local rivals St Helens 25-16 at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield. The attendance was 17,590.

Background

This season saw a reduction in the number of entrants, the number decreasing to forty-two.

The inclusion of two French clubs continued, but the number of invitations to the top junior clubs was reduced by six from eleven last season, to just five this season.

The ten first round winners added to the twenty-two clubs given byes, gave a total of entrants into the second round of thirty-two. There were no drawn matches during this season's competition

Competition and results^[1]^[2]

Round 1 (a preliminary round)

Involved 10 matches and 20 clubs with 22 byes

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes
1	Sat 30 Sep 1995	Leigh	16-19	AS Saint Estève	Hilton Park	1543	1
2	Sat 30 Sep 1995	Ryedale-York	24-22	Pia	Ryedale Stadium	531	2
3	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Barrow	29-11	Park Amateurs	Craven Park	520	3
4	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Bramley	20-17	Woolston Rovers	Clarence Field, Kirkstall (or York) see note	350	4, 5
5	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Carlisle	38-10	Doncaster Dragons	Gifford Park	435	6
6	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Chorley Borough (2)	92-0	Nottingham City	Victory Park	425
7	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Highfield	48-18	Hemel Stags	Valerie Park, Prescott	220	7
8	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Hull KR	72-6	Blackpool Gladiators	Craven Park (2)	1087
9	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Hunslet Hawks	34-24	Ellenborough Rangers	Elland Road	247	8
10	Sun 1 Oct 1995	Swinton	44-20	West Hull	Gigg Lane	500	9
		Batley		bye
		Bradford Northern		bye
		Castleford		bye
		Dewsbury		bye
		Featherstone Rovers		bye
		Halifax		bye
		Huddersfield		bye
		Hull F.C.		bye
		Keighley Cougars		bye
		Leeds		bye
		London Crusaders		bye
		Oldham Bears		bye
		Rochdale Hornets		bye
		St Helens		bye
		Salford		bye
		Sheffield Eagles		bye
		Wakefield Trinity		bye
		Warrington		bye
		Whitehaven		bye
		Widnes		bye
		Wigan		bye
		Workington Town		bye

Round 2

Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 11 Nov 1995	Keighley Cougars	14-42	St Helens	Cougar Park	3737		^[3]
2	Sat 11 Nov 1995	Workington Town	30-14	AS Saint Estève	Derwent Park	1376	1
3	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Batley	21-14	Wakefield Trinity	Mount Pleasant	1522
4	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Bradford Northern	22-0	Sheffield Eagles	Odsal	3353
5	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Bramley	4-22	Hunslet Hawks	Clarence Field, Kirkstall (or York) see note	650	10
6	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Carlisle	19-18	Castleford	Gifford Park	850
7	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Chorley Borough (2)	10-68	Warrington	Victory Park	1236		^[4]
8	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Dewsbury	17-6	Barrow	Crown Flatt	662
9	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Halifax	20-18	Swinton	Thrum Hall	2994
10	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Huddersfield	22-21	Featherstone Rovers	Alfred McAlpine Stadium	2337
11	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Hull F.C.	56-18	Ryedale-York	Boulevard	2411		^[5]
12	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Hull KR	10-14	Rochdale Hornets	Craven Park (2)	1548
13	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Leeds	46-22	Salford	Headingley	7589
14	Sun 12 Nov 1995	London Crusaders	82-0	Highfield	Barnet Copthall	512
15	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Widnes	32-8	Oldham Bears	Naughton Park	3472		^[6]
16	Sun 12 Nov 1995	Wigan	68-26	Whitehaven	Central Park	6133		^[2]

Round 3

Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 25 Nov 1995	London Crusaders	18-22	Halifax	Barnet Copthall	800
2	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Batley	22-35	Warrington	Mount Pleasant	1754		^[4]
3	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Dewsbury	14-26	Rochdale Hornets	Crown Flatt	927
4	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Huddersfield	0-32	Wigan	Alfred McAlpine Stadium	6026		^[2]
5	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Hull F.C.	26-38	St Helens	Boulevard	4180	11	^[3]^[5]
6	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Hunslet Hawks	17-22	Carlisle	South Leeds Stadium	1355
7	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Leeds	42-28	Bradford Northern	Headingley	10093
8	Sun 26 Nov 1995	Workington Town	8-32	Widnes	Derwent Park	2500		^[6]

Round 4 - Quarterfinals

Involved 4 matches with 8 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Att	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 9 Dec 1995	Widnes	23-28	Wigan	Naughton Park	3771	12	^[2]^[6]
2	Sun 10 Dec 1995	Leeds	44-22	Carlisle	Headingley	5130
3	Sun 10 Dec 1995	St Helens	46-18	Halifax	Knowsley Road	7419		^[3]
4	Sun 10 Dec 1995	Warrington	38-20	Rochdale Hornets	Wilderspool	2731		^[4]

Round 5 – Semifinals^[7]

Involved 2 matches and 4 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Sat 30 Dec 1995	St Helens		P		Warrington	Knowsley Road			13	^[2]"
2	Sat 6 Jan 1996	Wigan		38-18		Leeds	Central Park	10075			^[2]

Round 5 – Semifinal replays

Involved 1 match and 2 clubs

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
1	Thu 4 Jan 1996	St Helens		80-0		Warrington	Knowsley Road	10647		14	^[3]^[4]

Final

Game No	Fixture Date	Home Team		Score		Away Team	Venue	Att	Rec	Notes	Ref
	Saturday 13 January 1996	Wigan		25-16		St Helens	Alfred McAlpine Stadium	17590		15, 16, 21	^[3]^[8]

Teams and scorers^[8]^[9]

Wigan	№	St Helens
Gary Connolly	1	Steve Prescott
Jason Robinson	2	Joey Hayes
Va'aiga Tuigamala	3	Scott Gibbs
Kris Radlinski	4	Paul Newlove
Martin Offiah	5	Anthony Sullivan
Henry Paul	6	Karle Hammond
Shaun Edwards	7	Bobbie Goulding
Neil Cowie	8	Apollo Perelini
Martin Hall	9	Keiron Cunningham
Terry O'Connor	10	Ian Pickavance
Scott Quinnell	11	Chris Joynt (note 17)
Mick Cassidy	12	Simon Booth (note 18)
Simon Haughton	13	Dean Busby
?? Not used	14	Vila Matautia (for Ian Pickavance 25-mins) - Ian Pickavance (returned to replace Dean Busby 58-mins) (note 19)
Barrie McDermott (for Scott Quinnell 59-mins)	15	Andy Northey (for Anthony Sullivan 47-mins) (note 20)
Graeme West	Coach	Eric Hughes
25	score	16
	Scorers
	Tries
Henry Paul (2)	T	Joey Hayes (1)
Va'aiga Tuigamala (1)	T	Paul Newlove (1)
Kris Radlinski (1)	T	Keiron Cunningham (1)
	Goals
Henry Paul (4)	G	Bobbie Goulding (2)
	Drop Goals
Shaun Edwards (1)	DG
Referee		Russell Smith (Castleford)
Man of the match		? - ? - ?
Competition Sponsor		Regal

Scoring - Try = four (4) points - Goal = two (2) points - Drop goal = one (1)

Prize money

As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :-

Finish Position	Cash Prize	No. receiving prize	Total Cash
Winner	?	1	?
Runner-up	?	1	?
semi-finalist	?	2	?
loser in Rd 3	?	4	?
loser in Rd 2	?	8	?
Loser in Rd 1	?	16	?
Loser in Prelim Round	?	10	?
Grand Total

The road to success

This tree excludes any First Round fixtures

Second Round		Third Round		Fourth Round		Semi Finals		Final


Workington Town	30

AS Saint Estève	14
		Workington Town	8

		Widnes	32
Widnes	32

Oldham Bears	8
				Widnes	23

				Wigan	28
Huddersfield	22

Featherstone Rovers	21
		Huddersfield	0

		Wigan	32
Wigan	68

Whitehaven	26
						Wigan	7

						Leeds	15
Leeds	46

Salford	22
		Leeds	42

		Bradford Northern	28
Bradford Northern	22

Sheffield Eagles	0
				Leeds	44

				Carlisle	22
Bramley	4

Hunslet Hawks	22
		Hunslet Hawks	17

		Carlisle	22
Carlisle	19

Castleford	18
								Wigan	25

								St Helens	16
Hull F.C.	56

Ryedale-York	18
		Hull F.C.	26

		St Helens	38
Keighley Cougars	14

St Helens	42
				St Helens	46

				Halifax	18
London Crusaders	82

Highfield	0
		London Crusaders	18

		Halifax	22
Halifax	20

Swinton	18
						St Helens	14

						Warrington	9
Batley	21

Wakefield Trinity	14
		Batley	22

		Warrington	35
Chorley Borough (2)	10

Warrington	68
				Warrington	38

				Rochdale Hornets	20
Dewsbury	17

Barrow	6
		Dewsbury	14

		Rochdale Hornets	26
Hull KR	10

Rochdale Hornets	14

Notes and comments

1 * AS Saint Estève was a French rugby league team from Perpignan, which in 2000 it merged with nearby neighbours XIII Catalan to form Union Treiziste Catalaneto compete in the Super Leagueas the Catalans Dragons.
2 * Pia are a French League Club playing at Stade Daniel-Ambert
3 * Park Amateurs were a Junior (amateur) club from Halifax
4 * Woolston Rovers are a Junior (amateur) club from Warrington, becoming Warrington Woolston Rovers in 2003 and Warrington Wizards in 2002. the ground is the old Warrington Home Ground of Wilderspool ^[10]^[11]
5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the venue as Clarence Street, York. At the time Bramley were playing their home matches at Clarence Field, Kirkstall, Leeds
6 * Doncaster Dragons were now playing at Belle Vue
7 * Hemel Stags are a semi professional club based in Hemel Hempstead and playing at the Pennine Way stadium (capacity 2000)^[12]
8 * Ellenborough Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from the Ellenborough suburb of Maryport, Cumbria^[13]
9 * West Hull are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull
10 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the venue as Clarence Street, York. At the time Bramley were playing their home matches at Clarence Field, Kirkstall, Leeds
11 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject^[1] gives the attendance as 4,180, but Hull official archives^[5] gives 4,180 and St Helens official archives^[3] give 5,102
12 * after extra time - 16-16 at full time
13 * Postponed due to heavy frost. This match would have been televised by BBC but the replayed game wasn't shown
14 * Warrington record defeat, at the time
15 * This was the last ever Regal Trophy Final.
16 * St Helens sacked their coach Eric Hughes following this loss.
17 * St Helens Heritage archives^[9] shows Chris Joynt as numbered position 12, whereas Wigan official archives^[8] shows the player as No 11
18 * St Helens Heritage archives^[9] shows Simon Booth as numbered position 11, whereas Wigan official archives shows the player as No 12
19 * St Helens Heritage archives^[9] shows Vila Matautia as numbered position 15, whereas Wigan official archives^[8] shows the player as No 14
20 * St Helens Heritage archives^[9] shows Andy Northey (for Anthony Sullivan 47 min) as numbered position 14, whereas Wigan official archives^[8] shows the player as No 15
21 * The McAlpine Stadium is the home ground of Huddersfield Town and Super League side, Huddersfield Giants. The stadium is 40% owned by Kirklees Metropolitan Council and 60% by the two clubs, hosted its first match in August 1994 and seats 24,499 people along with hospitality boxes and conference rooms. Since opening the stadium has been sponsored by/known as the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, and more lately the Galpharm Stadium/John Smith's Stadium, and is a multi-use sports stadium in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England.

General information for those unfamiliar

The council of the Rugby Football League voted to introduce a new competition, to be similar to The Football Association and Scottish Football Association's "League Cup". It was to be a similar knock-out structure to, and to be secondary to, the Challenge Cup. As this was being formulated, sports sponsorship was becoming more prevalent and as a result John Player and Sons, a division of Imperial Tobacco Company, became sponsors, and the competition never became widely known as the "League Cup"
The competition ran from 1971-72 until 1995-96 and was initially intended for the professional clubs plus the two amateur BARLA National Cup finalists. In later seasons the entries were expanded to take in other amateur and French teams. The competition was dropped due to "fixture congestion" when Rugby League became a summer sport The Rugby League season always (until the onset of "Summer Rugby" in 1996) ran from around August-time through to around May-time and this competition always took place early in the season, in the Autumn, with the final usually taking place in late January
The competition was variably known, by its sponsorship name, as the Player's No.6 Trophy (1971–1977), the John Player Trophy (1977–1983), the John Player Special Trophy (1983–1989), and the Regal Trophy in 1989.

Postscript

To date, this was the last season for the John Player sponsored trophy competitions, which had taken place annually since its inauguration in the 1971-72 for a period of 25 seasons.
It was unfortunately such a short period for what was intended to be the "League Cup" and that very few of the professional clubs managed to have their name inscribed on the trophy, or even reach the semi-final stage
The reasons given by the ruling body, the Rugby Football League for the competition's demise, were that it was deemed the trophy was adding to fixture congestion for more successful sides and a clean sweep was needed to herald the "Summer Rugby" image of the game.

Records from the John Player trophy competition^[14]^[15]^[16]

Record	No.	No.	cup winner	runner-up
In Final	Record
	Most appearances	9	Wigan
		8	Widnes
		7	Warrington
	Most wins	8	Wigan
		4	Warrington
	Most consecutive wins	2	Wigan (3 times)	85-86, 86-87, 88-89, 89-90, 94-95, 95-96
	Most consecutive appearances	4	Wigan	92-93, 93-94, 94-95, 95-96
	Highest Score	40-10	Wigan	v Warrington 1994-95
	Highest Agg score	40-10	as last
	Lowest Agg score	3-2	Bradford Northern	v Widnes 1974-75
	Widest margin	33-2	Castleford	v Wigan 1993-94
	Biggest Attendance		25,326 - Boothferry Park	Hull KR v Hull F.C. 1981-82
	Smallest Attendance		4,512 - The Willows	Castleford v Blackpool Borough 1976-77
	Highest Receipts		unknown - but possibly	£94,874 - Widnes v Wigan 1988-89

Individual in a final
	Most tries	3	Ellery Hanley	Wigan v Halifax 1989-90
	Most goals	8	Frano Botica	Wigan v Warrington 1994-95
		6	Derek Whitehead	Warrington v Rochdale Hornets 1973-74
	Most points	16 (8g)	Frano Botica	Wigan v Warrington 1994-95
		15 (6g+1t)	Derek Whitehead	Warrington v Rochdale Hornets 1973-74

In competition
	Highest Score	142-4	Huddersfield	v Blackpool Gladiators (Sat '26-11-1994)
	Other record scores at the time	138-0	Barrow	v Nottingham City (Thu '24-11-1994)
		2-92	Runcorn Highfield	v Wigan (Sun '13-11-1988)
		90-12	Wakefield Trinity	v Highfield (Tue '27-10-1992)
		82-0	Widnes	v Dewsbury (Sun '30-11-1986)
		2-70	Batley	v Leigh (Sun '24-11-1985)
		64-0	Whitehaven	v Doncaster (Sun '18-11-1984)
		17-68	Carlisle	v Leigh (Sun '20-11-1983)
		67-11	Hull KR	v Oldham (Sun '24-'09-1978)
		9-51	Blackpool Borough	v Leeds (Sun '24-'09-1972)
	Highest score v junior club	88-5	Castleford	v Millom (Sun '16-'09-1973)
	Highest winning margin	138	see above
	Highest aggregate score	146	see above
Players Records
	Most tries	9	Greg Austin	Huddersfield v Blackpool Gladiators 1994-95
		6	Steve Rowan	Barrow v Nottingham City 1994-95
		6	Vincent Gribbin	Whitehaven v Doncaster 1984-85
	Most goals	17	Darren Carter	Barrow v Nottingham City 1994-95
		17	Geoffrey "Sammy" Lloyd	Castleford v Millom 1973-74
	Most points	43 (17g+3t)	Geoffrey "Sammy" Lloyd	Castleford v Millom 1973-74
		42 (17g+2t)	Darren Carter	Barrow v Nottingham City 1994-95

Entrants and number of cup wins

This table list all the semi-professional clubs which have entered the competition and reached at least the semi-final stage, the number (and dates) of their cup final wins, cup final runner-up spots, and losing semi-final appearances.

	No.	cup winner	No,	runner-up	No	losing Semi-Final appearances

Barrow			1	1980-81
Blackpool Borough			1	1976-77
Bradford Northern	2	1974-75, 79-81	2	1990-91, 92-93	4	1977-78, 78-79, 88-89, 93-94
Bramley					1	1973-74
Castleford	2	1976-77, 93-94			5	1975-76, 80-81, 89-90,92-93, 94-95
Halifax	1	1971-72	1	1989-90	1	1984-85
Hull F.C.	1	1981-82	2	1975-76, 84-85	3	1980-81, 86-87, 92-93
Hull KR	1	1984-85	2	1981-82, 85-86	3	1972-73, 74-75, 78-79
Leeds	2	1972-73, 83-84	3	1982-83, 87-88, 91-92	3	1971-72, 84-85, 95-96
Leigh					3	1976-77, 83-84, 85-86
Oldham Bears					2	1981-82, 87-88
Rochdale Hornets			1	1973-74	1	1990-91
Salford			1	1972-73	4	1975-76, 79-80, 93-94, 91-92
St Helens	1	1987-88	1	1995-96	8	1971-72, 72-73, 73-74, 83-84, 85-86, 88-89,89-90, 91-92
Swinton					1	1981-82
Wakefield Trinity			1	1971-72	2	1977-78, m79-80
Warrington	4	1973-74, 77-78, 80-81, 90-91	3	1978-79, 86-87, 94-95	2	1982-83, 95-96
Whitehaven					1	1974-75
Widnes	3	1975-76, 78-79, 91-92	5	1974-75, 77-78, 79-80, 83-84, 88-89	5	1976-77, 82-83, 86-87, 90-91, 94-95
Wigan	8	1982-83, 85-86, 86-87, 88-89, 89-90, 92-93, 94-95, 95-96	1	1993-94	1	1987-88

Note - several stats taken from records of the now defunct "The Rugby League Record Keepers Club" documents

References

1 2 3 4 "Rugby League Project".
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Wigan "Cherry and White" archived results".
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Saints Heritage Society - History - Season 1896-97".
1 2 3 4 "Warrington Wolves - Results Archive - 1897".
1 2 3 "HULL&PROUD - Stats - Fixtures & Results 1896/1897".
1 2 3 "Widnes Vikings - History - Season In Review - 1896-97".
↑ "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player S-F archived results".
1 2 3 4 5 "Wigan "Cherry and White" J Player Final archived results".
1 2 3 4 5 "St Helens Heritage archived results".
↑ "Woolston Rovers".
↑ "Warrington Wizards".
↑ "Hemel hempstead Stags".
↑ "Ellenborough Rangers".
↑ Robert Gate (1991). Guinness Rugby League Fact Book. Guinness Publishing. ISBN 978-085112949 5.
↑ Spotter Series. Spotter book of Rugby League Facts. Dorset Publ.
↑ Raymond Fletcher and David Howes (1991). Rothmans Rugby Lague Yearbook 1991-1992. Queen Anne Press. ISBN 0 35617852 8.

External links

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