The last final was won by Wigan, who beat local rivals St. Helens 25-16 at the McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield.
[7] 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.
[9] [11][12] As part of the sponsorship deal and funds, the prize money awarded to the competing teams for this season is as follows :- This tree excludes any First round fixtures 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 [13][14] 5 * 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)[15] 8 * Ellenborough Rangers are a Junior (amateur) club from the Ellenborough suburb of Maryport, Cumbria[16] 9 * West Hull are a Junior (amateur) club from Hull 10 * RUGBYLEAGUEproject[1] gives the attendance as 4,180, but Hull official archives[5] gives 4,180 and St Helens official archives[3] give 5,102 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.