UK Women's Challenge Cup: 2026

The women's version is different to the men's. There were eleven teams participating and they played in four groups of three with one group with just two sides. Then it went to the quarter finals with only three teams dropping out. For the two team group, they both qualified, which I found odd.

It didn't make any difference as one team is head and shoulders above the rest of the teams. That is confirmed by the results below. In fact, depth is one thing the women's game in the UK is embarrassingly short of. All about a lack of funding for many clubs.

In the quarter finals, only Huddersfield put up any sort of resistance. In the semi finals, Leeds and Saints was a contest but Wign overran York. Saints won the final two years ago, defeating Leeds. Last year, Wigan won the trophy 42-6. The question was could Saints reverse that? 

Only a rabid Saint's apologist would have thought so. Wigan thrashed them 52-6 after leading 28-6 at the break. The highlights video is below. 

Photo: Wigan Warriors.

UK Men's Challenge Cup: 2026

Sixty seven teams over seven rounds. The last eight assembled for round five, all of the survivors being in the top Super League. The four winners I would have tipped to progress. The same could have been said in round six as cup holders Hull KR defended their title against twenty one times winner Wigan Warriors.

When these two sides met just over a week ago, KR put out a full strength side against a Wigan reserve team. KR cruised home 62-4. This time it was the best Wigan side.

Wigan came in at half time up 10-4 but looked in control. A momentum swing was required by Hull but it never came. Wigan ran away with the final 40-10. To see highlights, there is a video below.  

SOO Women: 2026

The 2026 State of Origin series went to NSW 3-0. The scores were low but NSW had the edge and were clearly the better team this year. Historically that hasn't been the case. If you click here, you will see that before it was called SOO, Queensland were very much the better state. 

Then in 2018, it became the SOO series and has been much more closely contested. It has also expanded to become a three match seres since 2024. As the SOO, NSW now has a 5 to 4 advantage or a 56% win rate. NSW also now has a 63% game win rate. 

Is NSW going to enter a period of superiority? It would be foolish to assume so, but for now they clearly are the stronger state. The highlights of game three can be seen on the video.

France Elite 2: 2025-26

The regular season of the second division in France has concluded. The nine competing sides go into the six team knock out competition. Green shows the top six. 

The League: The top sides changed places at the top, Villegailhenc Aragon (VARL) this time the winners. Two sides that missed out on the finals last year, made it through in 2025-26. Of course, that means two that did last year failed this time around. 

Photo: VARL Facebook (some of their fans celebrating).

The Finals: The top two teams had a bye and then took on the winners of the first knock out round, Pamiers and Realmont. They progressed comfortably, VARL by 56-6 and Palau 40-12.

This was VARL's third consecutive grand final, having lost both. Palua was in its second consecutive final, defeating YARL last year by 20-17. It was third time lucky for VARL, winning 30-18 after leading 12-6 at the break.   

Women's UK Championship: 2026

The 2026 Women’s National Championship will feature 12 teams competing across 11 rounds. The clubs are in the north of England, except obviously for London and Cardiff. Cardiff in particular impresses me. There are no men's teams currently doing what they are in representing the south of Wales in the code. 

The top four teams will progress into the play-offs. That means entering the semi finals, the winners progressing to the division final. The winner will then progress to a promotion play off final. They will take on the lowest club from Super League to try and earn a place in the Betfred Women’s Super League. So there is a promotion to be aspiring to. 

Women's UK Super League: 2026

The 2026 competition will feature eight clubs playing in the first division. Each team will play each other once, making that seven games. Then the top and bottom four will divide off into two divisions of four each. The teams in each new division will play each other twice. 

The winner of the top division wins the league shield and goes straight into the grand final, Second and third will play off to see which one joins them.  

The lower four will also play each other twice, the bottom team then having to play the winner of the Championship (or second divsion) to see if they are relegated and replaced by a team below or if the status quo is maintained. 

The clubs to the right are the eight sides that will contest the 2026 Super League. Wigan will be the team to beat. 

France Lord Derby Cup : 2025-26

The competition was first played during the 1934-35 season. The 85th edition has been completed and the results are below. The orange colour represents Elite 2 teams and green Elite 1.

Villegailhenc-Aragon XIII did some giant killing, making it to the semi final. Last year's losing finalist Albi was the reason for the end of Elite 2 hopes and it was joined by favourite Carcassonne.

The final was a decisive victory for the favourite 44-6 and Albi had to settle for second place again. The first half was close (16-6), but the score ballooned out in the second. 

Recent winners are as follows:

2023: AS Carcassonne

2024: AS Carcassonne

2025: St Estève-Catalan

The video is the Luc Nitard U19 final and Lord Derby final.