RFL 1895 Cup

The Rugby Football League 1895 Cup is an annual rugby league knockout tournament for clubs in the Championship.

There have been many cup competitions for the lower leagues of rugby league. In 2002 the Championship Cup was founded for Championship and League 1 clubs to compete in along with the Challenge Cup, with the aim to give the lower league clubs a competition they can realistically win. The Championship Cup folded in 2013 in anticipation for the 2015 league restructuring. There was no replacement for Championship clubs, though the League 1 Cup ran from 2015-2017 for teams from that league.

The new competition, named in honour of the founding of the Northern Union in 1895, was put to the Championship and League 1 clubs 1895, to start in the 2019 season. The inaugural 2019 tournament involved a qualifying first round for the eight League 1 clubs which entered, followed by a straight knock-out when the winners of that round joined the twelve Championship sides to make a last-16. The final was played at Wembley on 24 August immediately after the 2019 Challenge Cup final.

However, this format lasted only one season as the 2020 competition did not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With Covid-19 still affecting the 2021 season, a new format which merged the early rounds of the tournament with the Challenge Cup was approved. In 2021, the four sides which progressed from the second round of the Challenge Cup also qualified for the 1895 Cup semi-finals. An adapted version of this format was played in 2022 and 2023, to reflect the re-expansion of the Challenge Cup after Covid. In this version, the five qualifiers - including any amateur teams - from the fifth round of the Challenge Cup would qualify for the 1895 Cup. Any teams who reached the sixth round of the Challenge Cup would qualify directly to the semi-finals of the 1895 Cup, with two of the remaining qualified teams drawn into a play-off round before the semi-final stage.

A refreshed format for the 2024 Cup separated it back out from Challenge Cup, as the need to limit games post-Covid was reduced. This format introduced a group stage, into which thirteen Championship and eight League One clubs entered. The group stage consisted of seven groups of three, with winners and the best performing runners-up qualifying for the knock-out competition from the quarter-final stage.

The format was revised again for 2025, becoming a knockout competition. The 11 League One clubs competed in two preliminary rounds to produce four qualifiers to take part in the last 16, where they were joined by the 12 Championship clubs. In the 2026 season, following the merger of League One with the Championship, a similar format was announced for the 2026 competition with three matches in the preliminary round. The three Championship clubs still competing in the Challenge Cup were exempted from the draw for this round.

In June 2019 it was announced that the cup would be sponsored by AB Sundecks, owned by former Leigh Centurions chairman Derek Beaumont.

• 1895 Cup: Rugby Football League