Sourcing caveat: Try-scoring minutes could not be confirmed for either team. Lineups added via Rugby League Project team-sheet data, which returned clean non-sequential shirt numbers for both teams (e.g. James Roby at 14 and James Graham at 17 on the St Helens bench, matching their known early-career squad numbers), cross-checked against the tries list above.
Paul Wellens and Leon Pryce (St Helens) — Lance Todd Trophy shared
Match report
St Helens retained the Challenge Cup with a comprehensive 30-8 win over Catalans Dragons, who became the first French club to reach a Challenge Cup final. Ade Gardner's brace of tries underpinned the Saints' attacking dominance, while Sean Long's reliable boot put the result out of reach. Catalans, in their maiden Wembley appearance, responded with tries from Younes Khattabi and Justin Murphy but could never threaten a comeback. The shared Lance Todd Trophy award to Paul Wellens and Leon Pryce reflected an unusually even distribution of Saints' influence across the pitch. The match confirmed St Helens as the dominant force of the era and marked a symbolic milestone for the sport's growing continental reach. 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 106th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “St Helens,” the 11th Challenge Cup title for the club. The result is recorded in this site's full results table alongside every other Challenge Cup final played since the competition's 1896/97 inception, cross-referenced against the venue and attendance figures gathered for that table.
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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