賽程

DateR主隊 vs 客隊-
03/30 15:00 10 安普希爾 vs 伊靈Trailfinders View
04/05 16:00 17 Cornish Pirates vs 伊靈Trailfinders View
04/05 18:45 17 倫敦蘇格蘭人 vs 哈特伯瑞學院 View
04/05 18:45 17 諾丁漢 vs 貝德福德布魯斯 View
04/05 19:00 17 考文垂 vs 劍橋 View
04/06 14:00 17 Caldy vs 安普希爾 View
04/06 16:00 17 澤西 vs Doncaster Knights View
04/13 13:30 18 哈特伯瑞學院 vs Cornish Pirates View
04/13 14:00 18 貝德福德布魯斯 vs 安普希爾 View
04/13 14:00 18 劍橋 vs 倫敦蘇格蘭人 View
04/13 16:00 18 伊靈Trailfinders vs 澤西 View
04/14 13:30 18 Doncaster Knights vs Caldy View

結果

Date R 主隊 vs 客隊 -
03/23 16:00 16 安普希爾 vs 澤西 CANC
03/23 15:00 16 劍橋 vs 諾丁漢 15-20
03/23 15:00 16 伊靈Trailfinders vs 倫敦蘇格蘭人 52-35
03/23 15:00 16 貝德福德布魯斯 vs Caldy 27-14
03/23 14:30 16 哈特伯瑞學院 vs 考文垂 17-47
03/23 14:30 16 Doncaster Knights vs Cornish Pirates 27-27
03/15 19:45 9 諾丁漢 vs 倫敦蘇格蘭人 31-28
03/10 14:30 15 Cornish Pirates vs 安普希爾 33-14
03/09 16:00 15 澤西 vs Caldy CANC
03/09 15:00 15 劍橋 vs 貝德福德布魯斯 12-22
03/09 14:30 15 考文垂 vs 伊靈Trailfinders 34-32
03/09 13:00 15 倫敦蘇格蘭人 vs Doncaster Knights 20-34

Wikipedia - RFU Championship

The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising eleven clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when English clubs were first organised into leagues.

History

Precursor competitions (1987–2009)

The governing body for rugby union in England, the RFU, first allowed league hierarchies in 1987. This came nearly a century after leagues were first established in football and cricket, England's other two principal team sports.

The RFU's reluctance to allow leagues was based on a perceived threat to the sport's amateurism regulations: competitive leagues were seen as making clubs more likely to use incentives to attract and retain the best players.

When formalised leagues were finally permitted in the 1987–88 season, the second level was known as 'Courage League National Division Two'. The league has since had several different names before becoming the RFU Championship in the 2009–10 season.

Name of second-level competition First season Last season
Courage League National Division Two 1987–88 1996–97
Allied Dunbar Premiership Two 1997–98 1999–2000
National Division One 2000–01 2008–09

Origins (2008)

In November 2008, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) published a plan for a new professional tier below the Premiership. The 12-team Championship replaced the 16-team National Division One.

Level of men's rugby Name of competition in 2008–09 Name of competition in 2009–10 Number of teams in 2008–09 Number of teams in 2009–10
Level 1 Guinness Premiership Guinness Premiership 12 12
Level 2 National Division One RFU Championship 16 12
Level 3 National Division 2 National League 1 14 16

To enable Level 2 to transition from 16 teams to 12, the RFU proposal called for five teams to be relegated at the end of the 2008–09 season. The relegated teams would play in the third level of rugby, known as 'National Division 2' in 2008–09 and to be known as 'National League 1' in 2009–10.

Additionally, one team would be relegated from the Premiership (Level 1 to Level 2), one team would be promoted to the Premiership (Level 2 to Level 1), and one team would be promoted from National Division 2 (Level 3 to Level 2).

The RFU Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the new proposal, and the first Championship season started the following year, in 2009.

RFU Championship (2009–present)

Promotion to the Premiership

Automatic promotion to the Premiership has not been a consistent feature of the RFU Championship. A playoff tournament was used to decide promotion between the 2009–10 and 2016–17 seasons, as well as in the 2020–21 season.

In seasons without a promotion playoff (2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20), the team at the top of the league was automatically promoted to the Premiership.

Season Number of playoff teams
2009–10 8
2010–11
2011–12
2012–13 4
2013–14
2014–15
2015–16
2016–17
2017–18 No play-offs
2018–19
2019–20
2020–21 2
2021–22 No play-offs
2022–23

The RFU plans to reintroduce possible promotion at the end of the 2023–24 season, by means of a play-off between the top placed team in the Championship and the bottom placed side in the Premiership.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2019–20 season to be prematurely ended. Final standings were based on a "best playing record formula" and promotion and relegation remained for the 1st and 12th placed clubs respectively.

The 2020–21 season was impacted by the aforementioned pandemic and as a consequence, a shorter season kicked off in spring 2021. The reduced season saw each team play each other once only with the top two teams entering a two-legged promotion playoff. There was no relegation due to cancellation of National League 1.

In February 2021, a moratorium on relegation from the Premiership into the Championship was approved and it was confirmed that the RFU were working on a review of the minimum standards criteria for promotion and the league structure from 2021–22. The moratorium was extended for a further two years in June 2021 and also could include promotion from the Championship at the end of the 2022–23 season if there was promotion in the previous season. There was also no relegation from the Championship in 2021–22.

Competition funding

The RFU Championship clubs were in dispute with the RFU over funding for the competition and claimed that each club was owed £77,000 for the past three seasons, and will be owed a further £120,000 over the next four seasons. The clubs believed they should have received £295,000 in 2009–10, rising to £400,000 by 2015–16 and further believe there was a breach of contract on the part of the RFU. The RFU stated that the original funding was an estimate and by 2015–16 the figure will be £359,400. When the RFU announced the hiatus of promotion play-offs, it also announced funding increases from both itself and the Premiership, including a new system which ties some of the new funding to each Championship side's performance in the league season. The extra funding provided prior to 2016–17 was removed prior to the 2020–21 season.

Sponsorship

For sponsorship reasons, the competition was officially known as the Greene King IPA Championship between the 2013–14 and 2020–21 seasons.

英格蘭橄欖球冠軍聯賽是一個傳統的橄欖球聯賽,每年在英格蘭舉行。這個聯賽是英格蘭最高級別的橄欖球比賽,吸引了來自全國各地的頂尖球隊參賽。

這個冠軍聯賽是一個激烈的比賽,球隊們在多個場次中進行對抗,爭奪冠軍的榮譽。比賽的規則符合國際橄欖球聯合會的標準,並且遵循傳統的橄欖球比賽規則。

這個冠軍聯賽吸引了大量的觀眾和球迷,他們為自己支持的球隊加油助威。比賽場地通常是大型體育場,提供了舒適的觀賞環境和現代化的設施。

英格蘭橄欖球冠軍聯賽不僅僅是一個比賽,它也是一個展示橄欖球運動精神和技巧的平台。球員們展現出他們的力量、速度和技巧,為觀眾帶來了精彩的比賽。

這個冠軍聯賽的冠軍隊伍將獲得榮譽和獎杯,並且有機會代表英格蘭參加國際橄欖球比賽。這個聯賽不僅提升了球隊和球員的聲譽,也促進了橄欖球運動在英格蘭的發展和普及。