THE schedule has been announced for the early rounds of the Betfred Challenge Cup – with Leigh and the other Super League clubs joining a round earlier this season.

Under the new system all Super League teams will join at the Round 3 stage - effectively the last 32, rather than the last 16 of previous seasons.

And with that they will all be paired away from home against 12 of the remaining 20 Community, League 1 and Championship sides.

This plan was hatched essentially to give non-Super League teams a home payday and for visiting fans to visit a ground off the beaten track.     The Challenge Cup First and Second Round Draw will be held on the evening of Monday, December 2.

The 34 teams in the First Round draw will be confirmed this week.

First Round ties will be played on the weekend of January 11-12.

All the UK teams in Betfred Championship and League One will join the Second Round draw – with ties to be played on the weekend of January 25-26.

Leigh, the 2023 Wembley winners, and the other 11 Betfred Super League teams will join the competition at the Third Round stage on the weekend of February 8-9 with the draw to be held in mid-January.

Leopards fans have two weeks to wait before the full list of Betfred Super League fixtures are released.

The competition’s complete 2025 programme will be published at 8am on Thursday, 21 November.

The full announcement will be preceded by clubs announcing their first home fixtures on the evening of Wednesday, 20 November.

It means that we will know the first two rounds before the full announcement as effectively the first away game is released at the same time.

Leigh will play Catalans Dragons at next season’s Magic Weekend, expected to return to Newcastle after a two-year absence.

All fixtures will be confirmed later this month, but Journal Sport understands the two sides will contest their first Magic meeting.