The 2021–22 RFU Championship Cup was the third season of the annual

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 it ...

Championship Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

competition for second tier,

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

clubs playing in the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve 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 ...

. The competition returned after a 14-month hiatus, following the cancellation of the previous year's tournament and the mid season cancellation of the 2019–20 tournament.

Competition format

The competition format is two-legged knockout ties with a first round of five matches, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The Championship winners,

Ealing Trailfinders Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club is an English professional rugby union club based in West London. The club's first team are the current champions of the RFU Championship but will remain in that league due to ineligibility for promotion to Premi ...

received a bye to the quarter-finals. The first round matches took place on 9 April, following the final round of Championship fixtures. In the competition's inaugural season, the RFU had set out the pool matches in a regional format to encourage derby games, but this year's competition format is more loosely structured.

Participating teams and locations

First round

First leg

Second leg

*Jersey Reds win 111 – 21 on aggregate * Doncaster Knights win 56 – 46 on aggregate * Hartpury University win 96 – 66 on aggregate * Coventry win 52 – 49 on aggregate * Bedford Blues win 90 – 33 on aggregate ----

Knock-out stage

The four overall winners from round 1 along with the best two losing teams and Ealing Trailfinders will contest the two-legged quarter-finals. The competition will then be played in a single-leg straight knockout format.

Quarter-finals

1st leg

2nd leg

* Jersey Reds won 49 - 34 on aggregate * Cornish Pirates won 71 – 69 on aggregate * Ealing Trailfinders won 87 – 45 on aggregate * Coventry won 62 – 53 on aggregate ----

Semi-finals

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Final

References

External links

RFU
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 RFU Championship Cup RFU Championship Cup 2021–22 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2021–22 RFU Championship