Sourcing caveat: Individual try-scoring minutes could not be confirmed from available sources and are omitted. Lineups added via Rugby League Project team-sheet data, re-queried per-team after an initial combined fetch showed a shirt-number collision (Danny Arnold and Andy Leathem both returned as "10"); the per-team re-fetch resolved these to Arnold 14 and Leathem 17. Bradford's team sheet as sourced lists only 12 of the 13 starting positions (one starting front-row prop alongside Brian McDermott could not be confirmed) plus 4 bench players; that twelfth starting slot is omitted rather than guessed. Robbie Hunter-Paul is the same player referred to as "Robbie Paul" in the tries list above. A later pass specifically chased the missing prop via Rugby League Project's own match page, Wikipedia's 1996 Challenge Cup and 1996 Bradford Bulls season articles, and a general web search; none of these supplied a Bradford squad list complete enough to identify the player with confidence. Jon Hamer — a long-serving Bradford front-rower confirmed by an independent interview (Total Rugby League) to have "played alongside Brian McDermott at Bradford" and to have still been at the club in 1996 — surfaced as a candidate via Rugby League Project's own match page, which names him in an unnumbered front-row team-change note, but this could not be corroborated as a start (rather than a substitute appearance) or matched to a shirt number by any source checked, and his Rugby League Project career record shows only minimal 1996 first-team involvement, which cuts against him being a cup-final starter. Given that ambiguity, the twelfth starting slot remains omitted rather than filled with an unconfirmed guess.
Tries: Danny Arnold (2 tries); Steve Prescott (2 tries); Simon Booth; Keiron Cunningham; Apollo Perelini; Ian Pickavance Goals: Bobbie Goulding (4 goals)
Robbie Paul (Bradford Bulls) — Lance Todd Trophy, a rare case of the award going to a player on the losing side, on the strength of his hat-trick of tries
Match report
The 1996 final was the first Super League-era Wembley showpiece and remains the highest-scoring Challenge Cup final in history. Bradford led 14-12 at half-time and had built a 26-12 lead by the 53rd minute, but St Helens produced the biggest comeback by an eventual winner in the final's history, overturning a 14-point deficit to win 40-32. Robbie Paul became only the fourth player to score a hat-trick of tries in a Wembley final, and despite finishing on the losing side he was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy. Bradford's 32 points also set a record for the most points scored by a losing team in a Challenge Cup final. The match is widely regarded as one of the greatest finals in the competition's history. Since Super League's 1996 launch, the Challenge Cup has continued to sit alongside the league championship as one of English rugby league's two most prestigious domestic honours, with the final remaining a fixture at Wembley Stadium (barring occasional relocations) and continuing to draw some of the largest single-match crowds anywhere in the sport. Since 1946/47, the competition's individual award, the Lance Todd Trophy, has been presented to the final's outstanding player, voted for by a panel of media representatives at the final whistle — on several notable occasions the trophy has gone to a player on the losing side, an unusual honour that reflects the award's focus on individual performance rather than simply reflecting the final scoreline. This was the 95th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “St Helens,” the 6th Challenge Cup title for the club.
Early rounds feature amateur and community clubs alongside professional ones; team names are linked only where this site has a team page for that exact club, matching the same safety-first approach used for the Final's own results table.
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