1995–96 Regal Trophy

The 1995–96 Regal Trophy was a British rugby league knockout tournament. It was the 25th and final season that the competition was held, and was the seventh staging of the competition since it was renamed the Regal Trophy.

The last 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

Round 1
Involved 10 matches and 20 clubs with 22 byes

Round 2
Involved 16 matches and 32 clubs. The 10 winners of the first round were joined by the 11 Championship clubs and 11 First Division clubs in the second round.

Round 3
Involved 8 matches and 16 clubs

Quarter-finals
Wigan won their tie against Widnes after extra time.

Semi-finals
The semi-final between St Helens and Warrington was originally scheduled to take place on 30 December 1995, but was postponed due to a frozen pitch. The result in the rescheduled fixture was a record defeat for Warrington.

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

The road to success
This tree excludes any First round fixtures

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

5 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject 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)

8 * Ellenborough Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from the Ellenborough suburb of Maryport, Cumbria

9 * West Hull are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull

10 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the venue as Clarence Street, York. At the time Bramley were playing their home matches at Clarence Field, Kirkstall, Leeds

11 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject gives the attendance as 4,180, but Hull official archives gives 4,180 and St Helens official archives give 5,102

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.