The 2015–16 National League 2 South is the seventh season (29th overall) of the fourth tier (south) of the English domestic

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

competitions since the professionalised format of the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

was introduced. There was talk of this being the last season in this format due to RFU changes to tier four which were supposed to result in a restructuring of the league from two regional divisions (north and south) to three (north, south-east and south-west) for the 2016–17 season but this seems to have been put on hold due to protests from the northern clubs who stood to lose revenue from a smaller fixture list. New faces to the division include Old Albanians (relegated from

National League 1 National One (last season known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Leagu ...

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

and

Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...

(both promoted from

National League 3 London & SE Regional 1 South East (up until 2022-23 known as London & South East Premier and up until 2016-17 known as National League 3 London & South East) is a level five league in the English rugby union system. It is one of six leagues at this level. ...

) and Redingensians Rams (promoted from

National League 3 South West Regional 1 South West (formerly South West Premier and National League 3 South West) is a level five league in the English rugby union system. It is one of six leagues at this level. When this division began in 1987 it was known as South West D ...

). The league system is 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and additional bonus points being awarded for scoring 4 or more tries and/or losing within 7 points of the victorious team. In terms of promotion the league champions are promoted to

while the second-placed team play-off against the second-placed team from

National League 2 North National League 2 North is one of three, level four leagues in the English rugby union system and provides semi-professional competition for teams in the northern half of England, the North. The remainder of England is covered by the two counte ...

(at the home ground of the club with the superior league record) for the final promotion place. During the course of the season the two league derby games between the Launceston and

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

also double up as the Cornish Super Cup with Redruth being the defending 2014–15 champions. Redruth retained the cup, winning the Christmas fixture at the Recreation Ground 17 – 0 before winning away at Polson Bridge 34 – 17 to take the cup 51 – 17 on aggregate. After a truly dreadful season, Launceston were the first team to be relegated, losing 13 – 19 away to relegation rivals Southend Saxons on the 5 March 2016 with seven games still left to play. The relegation of the Cornish club was not surprising to many of the fans at Polson Bridge as they had lost almost a full team to

Plymouth Albion Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Club are a rugby union club who play in Plymouth, England. The present club was founded in 1920 from a merger between Plymouth RFC (founded 1876) and Devonport Albion RFC (founded 1876). Since 2003 they have pl ...

during the pre-season — victims of both Albion's relegation from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

and that the Albion director of rugby,

Graham Dawe Richard Graham Reed Dawe (born 4 September 1959 in Tavistock) is a former English rugby union footballer and the former coach of Plymouth Albion. He played for Bath Rugby, Sale Sharks, Plymouth Albion and Launceston. Dawe earned 5 caps f ...

, having coached (and subsequently signed) many of the Launceston players while in charge of the

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

team that had won the

2015 Bill Beaumont Cup The 2015 Bill Beaumont Cup, also known as Bill Beaumont Cup Division One, was the 115th version of the annual, English rugby union, County Championship organized by the RFU for the top tier English counties. Each county drew its players from ru ...

. This, coupled by the club being on their third head coach in a little over a year, contributed to what was perhaps the worst season in the club's league history with the club failing to win a game and conceding over 1,000 points (it was also one of the poorest performances in National League 2, comparable with Newbury in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

who at least managed to win a game). The remaining relegation places were much more keenly contested with Southend Saxons — who had only just survived the previous season — being the next team to be relegated with three games to go after losing 36 – 15 away to high flying

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. The third and final relegation place fell to

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp Br ...

— who had finished 6th the previous season — losing 32 – 20 away to relegation rivals Worthing Raiders in round 29 of the competition, to condemn the Surrey-based club to the drop with one game still to go. Launceston would drop to

while Southend and Dorking would go into

. While the relegation spots were fairly cut and dried, the championship went right to the wire, being keenly contested by two sides — Cambridge and Old Albanian — who were way ahead of the trailing pack. Cambridge ended up the league champions by just two points, after both sides won their last games, having almost blown it the week before by losing their derby fixture against Bury St Edmunds, but managed to claim two bonus points during the defeat. This, combined with Cambridge's home and away victories against Old Albanian, meant that they claimed the title and a return to National League 1 after a three-year absence. After just missing out on the league title, Old Albanian had a second shot at promotion when they hosted the promotion playoff game against

2015–16 National League 2 North The 2015–16 National League 2 North is the seventh season (29th overall) of the fourth tier of the English domestic rugby union competitions since the professionalised format of the second division was introduced. There was talk of this being th ...

runners up,

Sedgley Park Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford and south of Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury. Historic counties of Eng ...

, with home advantage given due to having the superior league record. Old Albanian proved their class by defeating the northern side, 24 - 0, and returned to the

2016–17 National League 1 The 2016–17 National League 1, known for sponsorship reasons as the SSE National League 1 was the eighth season of the third tier of the English rugby union system, since the professionalised format of the second tier RFU Championship was introd ...

after just one year away.

Structure

The league consists of sixteen teams with all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis to make a total of thirty matches each. There is one automatic promotion place, one play-off place and three relegation places. The champions are promoted to the

and the runners-up play the second-placed team in the

with the winner being promoted. The last three teams are relegated to either

depending on the geographical location of the team (in some cases teams may join the Midlands regional leagues).

Participating teams and locations

Twelve of the teams listed below participated in the

2014–15 National League 2 South The 2014–15 National League 2 South is the sixth season (28th overall) of the fourth tier (south) of the English domestic rugby union competitions since the professionalised format of the second division was introduced. New teams to the divisio ...

season; Old Albanians were relegated from the

2014–15 National League 1 The 2014–15 National League 1, known for sponsorship reasons as the SSE National League 1 is the sixth season of the third tier of the English domestic rugby union competitions, since the professionalised format of the second tier RFU Champions ...

(champions) and

(play-off) were promoted from

, Redingensians Rams (champions) were promoted from

League table

Results

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

*Postponed due to adverse weather conditions. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016. ----

Round 17

*Postponed due to unplayable pitch caused by heavy rain. Game rescheduled to 12 March 2016. ----

Round 18

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Round 19

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Round 20

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Round 21

*Postponed due to heavy rain and high winds. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016. *Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016. *Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016. ----

Round 22

*Postponed due to unplayable pitch caused by heavy rain. Game rescheduled to 12 March 2016. ----

Round 23

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Rounds 16 & 21 (rescheduled games)

*Game rescheduled from 6 February 2016. *Game rescheduled from 6 February 2016. *Game rescheduled from 2 January 2016. *Game rescheduled from 6 February 2016. ----

Round 24

*Launceston are relegated. ----

Rounds 17 & 22 (rescheduled games)

*Game rescheduled from 13 February 2016. *Game rescheduled from 9 January 2016. ----

Round 25

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Round 26

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Round 27

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Round 28

*Southend Saxons are relegated. ----

Round 29

*Dorking are relegated. ----

Round 30

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Promotion play-off

Each season, the runners-up in the National League 2 South and

participate in a play-off for promotion to

National Division 1 The National Division 1 is the third tier of rugby league in France, below the Elite Two Championship and above the National Division 2. The season runs from September to April. From season 2012–13 the league was split into regions ''East'' a ...

Old Albanian Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

having the best record hosted the match against the

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

runner-up,

Attendances

*Does not include promotion play-off.

Individual statistics

* Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included). Does not include promotion playoff.

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

;Largest home win — 109 pts 109 - 0 Cambridge at home to Launceston on 2 April 2016 ;Largest away win — 79 pts 79 - 0 Bury St Edmunds away to Launceston on 19 March 2016 ;Most points scored — 79 pts 79 - 0 Bury St Edmunds away to Launceston on 19 March 2016 ;Most tries in a match — 17 Cambridge at home to Launceston on 2 April 2016 ;Most conversions in a match — 12 Cambridge at home to Launceston on 2 April 2016 ;Most penalties in a match — 5 (x3) Worthing Raiders at home to Taunton Titans on 12 December 2015
Canterbury at home to Redingensians Rams on 9 January 2016
Old Elthamians at home to Canterbury on 23 April 2016 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 N/A - multiple teams

Player

;Most points in a match — 30 Oscar Heath for Chinnor at home to Southend Saxons on 30 April 2016 ;Most tries in a match — 5 (x2)

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason, (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in ...

for Taunton Titans at home to Launceston on 12 March 2016

Michael Ayrton Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 16 November 1975)T. G. Rosenthal, "Ayrton , Michael (1921–1975)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008accessed 24 Jan 2015/ref> was a British arti ...

for Cambridge at home to Launceston on 2 April 2016 ;Most conversions in a match — 12 Gerhard Boshoff for Cambridge at home to Launceston on 2 April 2016 ;Most penalties in a match — 5 (x2) Matthew McLean for Worthing Raiders at home to Taunton Titans on 12 December 2015
Tom Best for Canterbury at home to Redingensians Rams on 9 January 2016
Tom White for Old Elthamians at home to Canterbury on 23 April 2016 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 N/A - multiple players

Attendances

;Highest — 1,145 Cambridge at home to Dorking on 30 April 2016 ;Lowest — 72 Barnes at home to Taunton Titans on 2 January 2016 ;Highest Average Attendance — 796 Redruth ;Lowest Average Attendance — 129 Barnes

References

External links

NCA Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:National2 2015–16 2015–16 in English rugby union leagues

Structure

Participating teams and locations

League table

Results

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Rounds 16 & 21 (rescheduled games)

Round 24

Rounds 17 & 22 (rescheduled games)

Round 25

Round 26

Round 27

Round 28

Round 29

Round 30

Promotion play-off

Attendances

Individual statistics

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

Player

Attendances

See also

References

External links