Five months on from Hull KR’s Challenge Cup final triumph over Warrington Wolves at Wembley Stadium, the draw for 2026’s competition has now been made, with Bedford Tigers facing Medway Dragons in the first round.
Rugby League Southern Conference side, Bedford Tigers will host last season’s London and South East champions, Medway with the winners going on to face a tantalising away trip to Championship side, North Wales Crusaders in round two.
The first and second round draws for the Challenge Cup have been regionalised in order to help with travel costs.
Bedford Tigers enjoyed a far more successful season in the Southern Conference League throughout 2025, finishing third in the regular calendar with nine wins from 14 league games, before succumbing 30-10 to a strong Hammersmith Hill Hoists side in the play-off semi-finals.
The improvement from the season before, where the Tigers won just three league games to finish seventh, is a stark one and now the Tigers will be hoping for a Challenge Cup run, and a chance to test themselves against Championship opposition.
The Tigers have never progressed past the first round having been defeated comfortably at Distington in Cumbria in 2020, before losing out to Brentwood Eels in 2023.
This is therefore the first time that The Tigers will host a Challenge Cup match, as one of just four Southern Conference League sides to enter the tournament this year.
The second round will combine 17 first round winners with the 21 Betfred Championship clubs, to produce 19 ties.
Super League sides enter the competition in the third round, and will be seeded but guaranteed to face an away tie against a Championship or community club.
The Tigers are in a far better position for their crack at the 2026 version after their best ever campaign last season.
Director of Rugby, Rob Ashton is looking forward to another opportunity to progress to face rugby league’s big teams:
“Playing in the Challenge Cup is huge for the players. Not many will get the chance to do it in their careers and there’s already a buzz building in the group”, said Ashton.
“We’re generating a lot of momentum at the moment, and for the club it’s another huge step in the right direction. We’ve made no secret of how aspirational we are and we need to be on these stages and raising our profile”, he added.
Bedford Tigers are now in tier three of a restructured rugby league pyramid, but they will still be competing in the Southern Conference league, and hoping to go a couple of steps better than their semi-final play-off loss in 2025.
“We enjoyed an up shift in local support last year”, adds Ashton.
“We will be looking forward to seeing those faces down again this year as well as growing the supporter base, with the aim of reapplying for the ringfenced professional game, so there is a lot going on and an exciting time for Bedford rugby all round”.
The first round of the Challenge Cup will take place across the weekend of 10 and 11 January 2026, with the Tigers’ home games played at Bedford Ath on Wentworth Drive, with a potential second round scheduled to take place on either 24 or 25 January.
