Championship (rugby league)

Championship

Country	England
Other club(s) from	France
Founded	2003
Number of teams	12
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	Super League
Relegation to	League 1
Domestic cup(s)	Challenge Cup
League cup(s)	Championship Shield
Current champions	Leigh Centurions (4th Title)
Most championships	Leigh Centurions (4 Titles)
TV partners	Sky Sports
Website	championship
2017

The Championship, known as the Kingstone Press Championship after its title sponsor Kingstone Press Cider, is a professional rugby league competition based in the United Kingdom. It acts as the country's second-tier competition below the Super League, and has a system of promotion and relegation with the third-tier competition, League 1. It is organized by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in the UK, and currently consists of 12 teams. The current champions are Leigh Centurions.

The current incarnation of second division rugby league in England dates to 2003, when the Northern Ford Premiership was split into National League One and National League Two. In 2009 the league names were changed to the Championship and Championship 1, with the latter being rechristened League 1 in 2015.

History

1902–1973: Establishment and regular competition

Second division rugby league competitions in the United Kingdom have been played at various times since 1902, and have been in place annually since 1973. When Super League began in 1996, the second division continued to operate a system of promotion and relegation with the new competition. In 1999 the second-tier competition below the Super League was renamed the Northern Ford Premiership (NFP) when Northern Ford Dealers acquired the naming rights.

2002–2008: National Leagues

In 2003, the NFP was re-organised into National Leagues One and Two. Teams that finished in the top ten league positions of the 2002 Northern Ford Premiership joined National League One and the bottom eight joined National League Two. They were joined by London Skolars from the Rugby League Conference, who entered National League Two, and York City Knights, who replaced the defunct York Wasps (who had folded mid-season in 2002) and also joined National League Two in 2003, creating two ten-team leagues which operated a system of promotion and relegation between themselves while also maintaining the promotion and relegation between National League One and Super League. At the same time, National League Three was created with teams from the Rugby League Conference and from the British Amateur Rugby League Association amateur leagues. It was intended that there would be promotion and relegation between National League Two and National League Three when League Three became more established, however this never eventuated.

The record crowd for a club game at this level of competition was set in 2008 at the Stobart Stadium when Widnes Vikings defeated Salford City Reds 20–18 in front of 8,189. The crowd record for regular season attendance was also broken in 2008 with an average of 2,205 spectators at each game.

2015–Present: Super 8s

In 2013, Super League clubs agreed to reduce the number of clubs in the competition to 12 and return to an amended system of promotion and relegation with a 12-club Championship competition. These changes came into effect for the 2015 season.^[1]

Under the amended structure, the 12 Super League and 12 Championship clubs play a regular season of 23 rounds, including a Magic Weekend for both divisions. Following the conclusion of their regular league seasons, the 24 clubs then compete in a play-off series where they split into 3 divisions of 8 based upon league position:^[2][3]

• The bottom 4 Super League clubs and the top 4 Championship clubs compete in The Qualifiers. They play each other once (either home or away) to determine which four of the clubs will compete in Super League the following year.
• The remaining (bottom 8) Championship clubs compete for the Championship Shield and to avoid relegation to League 1. Two clubs will be relegated each year.

Clubs

Championship clubs
Colours	Club	Established	Location	Stadium	Capacity*
	Batley Bulldogs	1880	Batley, West Yorkshire	Mount Pleasant	7,500
	Bradford Bulls	1907	Bradford, West Yorkshire	Odsal Stadium	27,491
	Dewsbury Rams	1898	Dewsbury, West Yorkshire	Crown Flatt	5,800
	Featherstone Rovers	1902	Featherstone, West Yorkshire	Post Office Road	8,000
	Halifax	1873	Halifax, West Yorkshire	The Shay	14,000
	Hull Kingston Rovers	1882	Hull, East Yorkshire	Craven Park	12,000
	London Broncos	1980	Ealing, London	Trailfinders Sports Ground	3,176
	Oldham Roughyeds	1876	Stalybridge, Greater Manchester	Bower Fold	6,500
	Rochdale Hornets	1866	Rochdale, Greater Manchester	Spotland	10,000
	Sheffield Eagles	1984	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	TBA
	Swinton Lions	1866	Sale, Greater Manchester	Heywood Road	5,400
	Toulouse Olympique	1937	Toulouse, Haute-Garonne	Stade des Minimes	4,066

• *capacity for rugby league games may differ from official stadium capacity.
• Gold – current Champions

Former Championship clubs

Former Championship clubs
Colours	Club	Established	City	Stadium	Capacity*	Seasons
	Leigh Centurions	1889	Leigh, Greater Manchester	Leigh Sports Village	10,000	13
	Doncaster	1959	Doncaster, South Yorkshire	Keepmoat Stadium	15,000	9
	Salford Red Devils	1889	Salford, Greater Manchester	City of Salford Stadium	10,000	2
	Castleford Tigers	1908	Castleford, West Yorkshire	Wheldon Road	14,000	2

Structure

Regular season

The 12 teams compete in the Championship. They play each other once home and away interrupted by the Summer Bash. Two points are awarded for a win and one for a draw. After the 23 rounds the top four teams play the bottom four teams in the Super League in the Qualifiers. The bottom eight teams play each other for the Championship Shield.

Summer Bash

In 2015 the Championship staged its own Magic Weekend held at Bloomfield Road where all 12 Championship clubs play an extra round usually against a rival.^[4]

Stadium	Location	Country	Highest attendance	Average attendance
Bloomfield Road	Blackpool	England	8,650	7,000

Super 8s

• The Qualifiers

The Qualifiers Super 8s sees the bottom 4 teams from the original Super League table mixed with the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to 0 and each team plays 7 games each, playing every other team once. After 7 games each the teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the next years Super League season. the teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team. This one game fixture will see the winner earn a place in the next year Super League season, whilst the loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th will be relegated to the next years Championship competition.

Position	Qualification
1	Super League Place
2	Super League Place
3	Super League Place
4	Million Pound Game
5	Million Pound Game
6	Championship Place
7	Championship Place
8	Championship Place

• Championship Shield

The remaining 8 teams in the Championship who do not make the top 8 will carry the points they earn in the regular season forward and play each other once more. The top four teams will then enter a playoff for the Championship Shield. The bottom 2 teams will then be relegated to League 1.

Position	Qualification
1	Play-off Place
2	Play-off Place
3	Play-off Place
4	Play-off Place
5	Unable to Qualify for Play-offs
6	Unable to Qualify for Play-offs
7	Relegated
8	Relegated

Results

See also Rugby Football League Championship Second Division for winners of the old Second Division.

Year	Grand Final Winners	League Leaders	Promoted	Relegated
2003	Salford	Salford	Salford	Dewsbury
2004	Leigh	Leigh	Leigh	Keighley
2005	Castleford	Whitehaven	Castleford	Barrow Featherstone
2006	Hull KR	Hull KR	Hull KR	Oldham York
2007	Castleford	Castleford	Castleford	Rochdale Doncaster
2008	Salford	Salford	Salford Crusaders	Dewsbury
2009	Barrow	Barrow	N/A	Doncaster Newcastle
2010	Halifax	Featherstone		Keighley Whitehaven
2011	Featherstone	Featherstone	Widnes	Barrow Toulouse
2012	Sheffield	Featherstone	N/A	N/A
2013	Sheffield	Featherstone		York Hunslet
2014	Leigh	Leigh		Barrow Swinton Rochdale North Wales Keighley
Year	Champions	Promoted	Relegated	Championship Shield Winner
2015	Leigh	None	Doncaster Hunslet	Featherstone
2016	Leigh	Leigh	Workington Whitehaven	Bradford
2017	TBD	0-4 teams	2 teams	TBD

Winners

	Club	Wins	Winning years
1	Leigh Centurions	4	2004, 2014, 2015, 2016
2	Salford Red Devils	2	2003, 2008
3	Castleford Tigers	2	2005, 2007
4	Sheffield Eagles	2	2012, 2013
5	Hull Kingston Rovers	1	2006
7	Barrow Raiders	1	2009
8	Halifax	1	2010
9	Featherstone Rovers	1	2011

• Bold – Winners decided by Grand Final

Sponsor

The Championship has had four sponsors since 1995. Between 2003 and 2008 it was called the LHF Healthplan National League 1 before it was renamed the Championship in 2009 and sponsored by Cooperative.

Period	Sponsor	Name
2003–2008	LHF Healthplan	LHF Healthplan National League 1
2009–2012	Cooperative Group	Cooperative Championship
2013–2017	Kingstone Press Cider	Kingstone Press Championship

Media

TV

Sky Sports and Premier Sports shared the TV rights to the Championship between 2008 and 2012. After Sky only showed the Championship and Championship 1 Grand Finals while games were broadcast on Premier Sports until 2013. There was no TV coverage in the Championship in 2014. In 2015 Sky Sports won the rights to show the Championship including The Summer Bash, Championship Shield and The Qualifiers in a seven-year deal.

Period	Broadcaster
2008–2011	Sky Sports Premier Sports
2012–2013	Premier Sports
2014	Sky Sports (Grand Final Only)
2015–2021	Sky Sports

Radio

Regional radio stations have coverage of the Championship clubs but mostly only cover Super League clubs in the same area and give updates of Championship scores and results.

Academies

Reserve League

In 2014 and 2015 Super League clubs were unhappy with the Dual registration system and wanted to form a Under 23 reserve leagues between the Under 19s and 1st team. Wigan, Warrington and St Helens were the first teams to propose the return of the reserve league where players could move from the under 19s and play with professional players before playing in the 1st team. A reserve league was set up in 2016 with a mixture of Super League, Championship and League 1 teams.

Dual registration

Clubs in both the Super League and the Championships benefit from the new dual registration system which was introduced for the 2013 season.^[5] The new system is intended to complement the existing player loan system.

Dual registration refers to an arrangement between clubs whereby a player continues to be registered to his current Super League club and is also registered to play for a club in the Championship. The system is aimed at young Super League players who are thought to be not quite ready to make the step up to ‘week in, week out’ Super League first team duties but for whom first team match experience is likely to be beneficial for their development.

• Only Super League players can be dual registered and the receiving club must be a club in the Championships, meaning that Super League to Super League club dual registrations are not available.
• A dual registered player will be eligible to play and train with both clubs in a format agreed between the clubs, subject to registration, salary cap and competition eligibility rules.
• The player is restricted to playing in one fixture per scheduled round of fixtures in any given week and would not be eligible to play for his Super League club on a Thursday and in a Championship fixture at the weekend, for example.
• A receiving club will be limited to a total of five dual registered players per matchday squad.

Match officials

All rugby league matches are governed by the laws set out by the RFL; these laws are enforced by match officials. Former Super League and International Referee Steve Ganson is the current Acting Head of the Match Officials Department and Technical Director. Former Hull player and Huddersfield Head Coach Jon Sharp was the previous Head of the Match Officials Department of the RFL. Sharp was sacked in July 2015 and took up the role of Head Coach at Featherstone Rovers. He assumed his role at the RFL following Stuart Cummings' departure in March 2013 having previously held the role of Match Officials Coach & Technical Director.

See also

• British rugby league system
• Super League
• Rugby League Conference
• Northern Ford Premiership
• Championship Cup
• Rugby League Reserve Team Championship

References

1. Super League to become a 12-team competition from 2015. Superleague.co.uk (11 July 2013). Retrieved on 20 August 2013.
2. http://media.therfl.co.uk/docs/Policy%20Review%20-%20September%202013.pdf
3. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-league/25780498
4. BBC Sport (19 May 2005). "Super League set for 2009 changes". BBC. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
5. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/feb/09/super-league-championship-dual-registration

External links

• Official Championship website
• RFL Championship coverage
• Scores from Sky Sports
• RugbyLeague.org Championship Fans Forums