Wembley disappointment for Leeds Rhinos women as St Helens win Challenge Cup

Leeds' Lucy Murray is tackled by Eboni Partington and Luci McColm. Picture by Will Palmer/SWpix.com.

The first Women’s Challenge Cup final staged at Wembley ended in disappointment for Leeds Rhinos, but they had the consolation of scoring one of the stadium’s great individual tries.

Leeds were beaten 22-8 by St Helens, who repeated the previous year’s victory to retain the trophy they have held since 2021.

Rhinos matched them in terms of chances created, but Saints were more clinical and the game was effectively won between the 12th and 17th minutes when the Merseyside team ran in three tries, without Leeds touching the ball, to go 16-0 ahead.

Sophie Robinson pulled a try back for Rhinos before the break and soon after it England centre Caitlin Beevers weaved clear from well inside her own half to score a sensational touchdown.

Caitlin Beevers evades St Helens' Phoebe Hook to score a sensatiional try in Leeds' Wembley defeat. Picture by Matthew Merrick/SWpix.com.

Saints, however, added to their earlier tries by Tara Jones, Phoebe Hook and Eboni Partington with one from Shona Hoyle and three Amy Taylor goals completed the scoring.

Leeds coach Lois Forsell admitted Saints were “deserved winners”, but vowed: “We will stick together and we know we will be better for that come the end of the year.”

She said: “We have got a lot of young players and for a lot of players this was their first experience of a big game.

“They have got to hold their heads high and be proud, but there’s lots for us to learn. At the key moments in the game, Saints just edged us in having that composure to stick to what they had to do.

Sophie Robinson celebrates her Wembley try with teammate Ruby Enright. Picture by Will Palmer/SWpix.com.

“We will have a good long chat about where we need to be better. We have got a very good group and a very close group, but we just fell short.”

Leeds Rhinos: Enright, Nuttall, Butcher, Beevers, Robinson, Casey, Greening, Hornby, Earnshaw-Cudjoe, Anderson, Hardcastle, Murray, DSainton. Subs Fain, Hayward, Moxon, Northrop.

St Helens: Harris, Partington, McColm, Paige, Hook, Taylor, Gaskin, Birchall, Jones, Crawl, Hoyle, Rudge, Cunningham. Subs Whitfield, Sams, Williams, Mottershead.

Referee: James Vella (Sydney).