League 1 Cup

iPro Sport Cup
Current season or competition::
2017 League 1 Cup
Sport Rugby league
Instituted 2015
Number of teams 16
Country  England
 Wales (RFL)
Holders Barrow Raiders (1st title)
Most titles Barrow Raiders
Keighley Cougars
North Wales Crusaders (1 title)
Website Official Site
Related competition League 1
NCL

The League 1 Cup is a knockout cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League for the third division of rugby league in Britain. The cup is contested by the British League 1 teams, as well as two teams from the National Conference League.[1] The final takes place on the same weekend as The Summer Bash, and is the first game of the weekend to be played.

History

In 2013 the Championship Cup was decommissioned after 12 seasons and the Challenge Cup became the only cup competition available to the Championships. In 2015, as part of the new structure a new cup competition was to be introduced, but only available to League 1 clubs and two clubs invited from the National Conference League.[2] The first final was played as the opening game of The Summer Bash at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool.

Format

The first round of the League 1 Cup is split into two pools; Northern regions and South and Midlands regions, all the League 1 clubs and any National Conference League (NCL) clubs invited to enter to make the number of teams up to 16 enter at this stage. A draw is made at the beginning of each round to determine fixtures.

In the first year of the cup, 2015, there were only 14 clubs in League 1 so two NCL clubs were invited to play in the competition. In 2016 and 2017 although there were 16 clubs in League 1, the non-UK based clubs; Toulouse Olympique (2016) and Toronto Wolfpack (2017); decided not to enter the cup so one NCL club was invited to play in their stead.

Other than a regional based first round to reduce travel costs, the cup is a knock-out competition with no seeding. Only the final is played at a neutral venue.

  • First Round: 16 clubs enter
  • Second Round: Last 8
  • Semi Finals: Last 4.
  • Final: Played at Bloomfield Road

Cup Finals

Year Winners Score Runner–up Venue Attendance
2015 North Wales Crusaders 12–8 Swinton Lions Bloomfield Road, Blackpool 8,650[note 1]
2016 Keighley Cougars 22–18 York City Knights 9,521[note 1]
2017 Barrow Raiders 38–32 North Wales Crusaders 11,557[note 1]
  1. 1 2 3 Attendance figure is the total for day 1 of the Summer Bash, not the number of spectators present when the game was played.

Winners

Club Wins Last win Runners-up Last final lost
1 Keighley Cougars120160N/A
2 Barrow Raiders120170N/A
3 North Wales Crusaders1201512017
3 Swinton Lions 0N/A12015
4 York City Knights 0N/A12016

Sponsorship

In February 2015, the RFL announced a 3-Year deal with isotonic soft drink company iPro for the competition to be been known as the iPro Sport Cup.[1]

Period Sponsor Name
2015-2017 iPro iPro Sport Cup

References

  1. 1 2 "The iPro Sport Cup". Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "iPro Sport Cup". Rugby Football League. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
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