Hull KR won the Challenge Cup for the first time since 1980, beating Warrington Wolves 8–6 at Wembley with a converted try in the closing minutes.
The 124th Challenge Cup Final brought Warrington Wolves and Hull Kingston Rovers to Wembley Stadium on Saturday 7 June 2025, the centrepiece of rugby league’s finals day in London.
The Challenge Cup was instituted in 1896, in the season after the northern clubs split from rugby union, and its final was first staged at Wembley in 1929. The stadium has been its London home ever since, home turf to none of the clubs that contest it. The competition is open to clubs down to the fifth tier, with amateur sides qualifying through the early rounds, and Abide with Me has opened the final for generations. In 2025 Lizzie Jones sang it, ten years after her first appearance.
Hull KR had reached nine finals and won only one, the Hull derby of 1980, and had lost the 2023 final to Leigh on golden point. Warrington, winners in 2019, were back a year after losing the 2024 final to Wigan.
Wigan beat St Helens 42–6 in the women’s final earlier that afternoon, their first Challenge Cup. In the men’s final Warrington led 6–2 through a Josh Thewlis try until Tom Davies grounded Tyrone May’s grubber kick in the closing minutes, and Mikey Lewis converted to win it 8–6 before 63,278. Warrington’s Marc Sneyd still took the Lance Todd Trophy, his third, a joint record.