The 2011 Challenge Cup (also known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 110th staging of the most competitive European rugby league tournament at club level and was open to teams from England, Wales, Scotland, France and Russia. It began its preliminary stages in January 2011. The

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 a ...

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warringto ...

were the reigning champions, but lost 24 - 44 at home to the

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

in the quarter finals, who went on to win the title after beating

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 Head ...

28 - 18 in the final.

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 organisa ...

chief executive Nigel Wood reported that in 2011 Challenge Cup viewing figures on BBC Television had increased by 21.3 per cent compared to 2010 and are 26.8 per cent higher than they were in 2009.

Preliminary round

The draws for the Preliminary and First Round was made on 7 December 2010. Ties were played on 8–10 January with some ties played on 15–16 January.

Pool A

Pool B

Round 1

First Round played weekend of 22 January with some ties played weekend of 29 January and 5 February. The match between Kells and Bradford Dudley Hill took place on 12 February.

Pool A

Pool B

Round 2

The draw for the Second Round was made on 24 January. Ties played weekend of 5 February with some ties played weekend of 12 February. The match between Fryston Warriors and Bradford Dudley Hill took place on 19 February.

Pool A

Pool B

Round 3

Third Round draw was made on 15 February. Ties were played on weekend of 5 March.

Round 4

Fourth Round draw was made on 20 March. Ties were played on weekend of 7 May.

Round 5

Quarter finals

Semi finals

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Final

The two sides with the most Challenge Cup Final appearances had only met twice before, Wigan winning both times (

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

). Leeds had played in the previous year's Challenge Cup final loss, but it was the Wigan's Warriors' first visit to the new Wembley Stadium. Abide with me was sung by Rhydian Roberts. The game was broadcast by BBC with

John Kear John Kear (born 25 November 1954) is an English professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Widnes Vikings in the Betfred Championship and the Wales national rugby league team. He also works as a pundit for BBC Sport and is a ...

and Dave Woods commentating, as well as additional commentary from

Tanya Arnold Tanya Arnold (born 3 January 1977) is a British sports journalist and former television presenter for BBC Look North. She was a presenter of the Rugby League World Cup 2022. In 2012 she joined the Super League Show, as one of Britain's first fema ...

Clare Balding Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is an English broadcaster, journalist, and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport, is the current president of the Rugby Football League (RFL) and formerly presented the ...

, Jonathan Davies, Robbie Hunter-Paul,

Justin Morgan Justin Morgan (February 28, 1747 – March 22, 1798) was a U.S. horse breeder and composer. He was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and by 1788 had settled in Vermont. In addition to being a horse breeder and farmer, he was a teacher o ...

and Brian Noble. The

English national anthem There is no agreed national anthem of England but it is usually defaulted in the absence of agreement to be —" God Save the King"— in 2016 some MPs felt that England should have its own distinct anthem with the result that there have been ...

was then sung before referee Phil Bentham, overseeing his first Challenge Cup final, blew time on and Leeds's captain Kevin Sinfield kicked off.

UK Broadcasting rights

Selected matches were televised solely by the BBC, for the last time. The following season the BBC and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

shared a selected round 4 and round 5 match and the BBC televising two quarter final matches and Sky Sports televising the other two quarter finals. The BBC still televised the semi finals and the final. ¹ Except Northern Ireland. ² Except Scotland which was televised live on BBC Two Scotland.

References

External links

*
Challenge Cup
on the

's website''
Official Website
{{2011 in Rugby League Challenge Cup

2011 in French rugby league 2011 in Welsh rugby league 2011 in Russian sport 2011 in Scottish sport