RFU Championship

The RFU Championship, known for sponsorship reasons as the Greene King IPA Championship between 2013–14 and 2019–20, is the second tier of the English rugby union league system and was founded in September 1987. The twelve-side league was known as National Division One and in 2009 changed from semi-professional clubs to fully professional. The 2019 champions were London Irish, winning automatic promotion to Premiership Rugby.
Originally the league required an end-of-season round of two-legged play-offs in which the top eight, from 2012-13 until 2016-17 revised to top four, clubs at the end of the main phase of the season played each other.

History

On 10 November 2008 it was proposed by the Rugby Football Union that the second tier of the English rugby union system should be a fully professional twelve club Championship. The proposal was criticised by the then National League One chairman Geoff Irvine, representing the clubs, who described it as "financial suicide", although six League One clubs subsequently supported the proposal. The proposals required five clubs to be relegated to National Division Two, with only one club being promoted from that division and one club joining the league from the Premiership. On 15 November 2008 the RFU Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the new proposal, which began in September 2009. Under the proposal the RFU paid £2.3 million a year to help fund the change, with future rises due through television rights.
Since 2009–10 season the team that wins the Championship league is not automatically promoted to the Premiership, instead a play-off competition takes place to determine which team is promoted. For the first three seasons the top eight clubs had to enter the play-offs. Since 2012–13 they have been between the top four clubs. If the play-offs winner and/or runner-up fall short of minimum standards criteria for entry to the Premiership no promotion or relegation takes place between the two divisions as to such a club. The RFU have clarified that they will not consider promoting lower-placed sides in the play-offs even if they finished top of the league phase. The play-offs format has been criticised by the media, players and fans alike, resulting in its shortening to the top four clubs after the main part of the season and its abolition for the 2017-2018 season onwards.
Until 2013 a relegation play-off round took place between the four lowest placed clubs in the Championship.

2009–10 season

The 2009–10 RFU Championship season was the first in which the league was fully professional. Silversmiths Thomas Lyte created a new trophy for the launch.
Beginning with the 2009-10 season, the winner of the Championship league isn't automatically promoted to the Premiership. Instead, a play-off competition between the top eight clubs was held to determine the promoted club. The first, fourth, fifth and eighth placed clubs entered Group A; the second, third, sixth and seventh placed clubs entered Group B. Each side played the other sides in their division home-and-away. The two highest-placed sides in each division went through to a single-leg semi-final, and the semi-final winners played a two-legged final. The two legs of the final were played at the two competing clubs' home grounds, rather than at Twickenham.
In the event that the winner of the play-off competition did not meet the minimum standards criteria for entry to the Premiership, there was to be no promotion or relegation between the Championship and Premiership for that season. That did not apply in 2009–10, as the RFU announced before the second leg of the Championship final that both participants, Bristol and Exeter, met the criteria for promotion.
There was also a play-off between the four lowest placed clubs in the Championship to determine who was relegated to National League 1.

Criticism and changes for 2010–11

The formats of both the promotion and relegation play-offs were criticised after that first season. In both phases, all teams began equal, regardless of their performance during the home-and-away season. Moseley, who had been in serious relegation danger after a poor start to the play-offs, were particularly angry about the format because they started the relegation phase equal to the other three teams involved; despite having won ten matches during the season to Birmingham's none. It was also felt that starting all teams equal in the promotion phase gave teams little incentive to win the regular season because there was no reward for a high finish within the top eight. As a result, the following changes were made to the promotion and relegation phases:

In the promotion phase:
* The top two clubs at the end of the regular season started the play-off on 3 points.
* The third- and fourth-placed clubs started on 2 points.
* The fifth- and sixth-place clubs started on 1 point.
* The remaining two clubs started on 0 points.
* The semi-finals changed from one-off to two-legged matches.
In the relegation phase, clubs carried over 1 point for each win in the regular season.
Further changes for 2012–13

The play-off format had been developed to increase club revenues, as each club had been assured of at least two home fixtures after the home-and-away season. However, criticism remained, especially from the best performing clubs, as they had to navigate ten additional fixtures in order to earn promotion. Bristol had particular reason to feel aggrieved; in two seasons under the revamped format, they finished first in the table, but lost in the 2010 play-off final to Exeter and in the 2012 semi-finals to Cornish Pirates.
As a result, the RFU eliminated pool play for both promotion and relegation. Starting with the 2012–13 season and continuing through to 2016–17, the top four clubs at the end of the regular season enter promotion play-offs. The format is the same as the 2011 and 2012 knockout stages, with two-legged semi-finals followed by a two-legged final. This system is identical to that of the Premiership, except that it uses two-legged matches instead of the Premiership's one-off matches. Relegation play-offs were eliminated; the bottom side is now automatically relegated. Bristol's chairman Chris Booy welcomed the changes, telling the BBC,

"We had a mad 10 minutes in Penzance and our whole season fell apart. We've got the system changed and I was one of the main lobbyists for that. I think it will prepare us better because we can manage our squad to be in peak condition for the semis' and the final. A number of teams will be fighting to get into the top four, whereas before they were resting to get into the top eight."

From 2017–18 forward, the RFU will eliminate the promotion play-offs for a minimum of three seasons. The club finishing atop the regular-season table will be automatically promoted to the Premiership, provided said club meets minimum entry criteria.

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 receive £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 end 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.
On 26 June 2013, the RFU and Greene King Brewery announced the Championship's first-ever name sponsorship deal. The competition will officially be known as the Greene King IPA Championship until the end of the 2019–20 season.

2020–21 season

Club	Stadium	Capacity	Area	Previous season
Ampthill	Dillingham Park	3,000	Ampthill, Bedfordshire	5th
Bedford Blues	Goldington Road	5,000	Bedford, Bedfordshire	8th
Cornish Pirates	Mennaye Field	4,000	Penzance, Cornwall	3rd
Coventry	Butts Park Arena	4,000	Coventry, West Midlands	4th
Doncaster Knights	Castle Park	5,000	Doncaster, South Yorkshire	9th
Ealing Trailfinders	Trailfinders Sports Ground	4,000	West Ealing, London	2nd
Hartpury University	Gillman's Ground	2,000	Hartpury, Gloucestershire	10th
Jersey Reds	Stade Santander International	4,000	Saint Peter, Jersey	6th
London Scottish	Athletic Ground, Richmond	4,500	Richmond, London	11th
Nottingham	Lady Bay Sports Ground	3,500	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire	7th
Richmond	Athletic Ground	4,500	Richmond, London	promoted from National League 1
Saracens	Copthall Stadium	10,500	Hendon, Greater London	relegated from Premiership Rugby

Current standings

League results

National One