National League Cup
From Freepedia
The National League Cup is a rugby league competition for clubs in Great Britain's National Leagues. For the period 2005-7 it will be sponsored by train operating company Northern Rail, and will be known the Northern Rail Cup
In 2003 and 2004 the competition was known the Arriva Trains Cup (named for sponsors Arriva Trains Northern), whilst in 2002 (the first year of the competition) it was titled the Buddies Cup, after a soft drinks manufacturer.
Contents |
Structure
The National League cup was first held in 2002 as was part of the redevelopment of the Northern Ford Premiership competition - 18 teams took part. The 2003 and 2004 competitions were for the 20 clubs in the new National Leagues One and Two. The 2005 competition saw four teams from National League enter the competition.
Each competition has featured an initial group stage, with groups based upon regions; In 2002 there were 3 goups of six (East, West and Central), in 2003 there were four groups (North, East, West and Central) of five teams each, while in 2004 there were five groups (North, East, West, Pennine, Yorkshire) of four teams each. Each club plays each other home and away, plus some cross group games to make a total of ten games before the top club from each group progresses to the knockout stages, plus lucky losers (this has been decided differently in different years).
There were no cross-group games in the 2005 competition; each team therefore played only six games in the group stages, with the top team from each of the first five groups progressing to the quarter-final directly. The second-placed team in each of these groups, plus the top team from group six (the group of teams from National League 3) played an additional round to determine the remaining three spots in the quarter-finals.
List of finals
| Year | Winners | Score | Runner-up | Venue | Attendance |
| 2002 | Huddersfield Giants | 32 - 6 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Lionheart Stadium, Featherstone | 4,352 |
| 2003 | Salford City Reds | 36 - 19 | Leigh Centurions | Spotland, Rochdale | 6,486 |
| 2004 | Leigh Centurions | 42 - 14 | Hull Kingston Rovers | Spotland, Rochdale | 4,383 |
| 2005 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 18 - 16 | Castleford Tigers | Bloomfield Road, Blackpool | 9,400 |
See also
- Rugby League National Leagues
- Northern Ford Premiership
- Challenge Cup
- 2005 Northern Rail Cup
- Trans-Pennine Cup
External links
| | Image:Uk flag large.png |
|---|---|
|
Competitions | |
|
National teams | |
|
Former competitions | |
