The 2022–23 División de Honor was the 56th season of the División de Honor, the top flight of Spanish 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 ...

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

won its sixth title in seven years, its twelfth overall, defeating Aparejadores in the final.

Competition format

The season took place between October and May. Points were awarded as follows: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 bonus point is awarded to a team scoring 4 tries or more in a match *1 bonus point is awarded to a team that loses a match by 7 points or fewer Each team plays twelve games - one game against each opponent. Then the league divides into two groups: the top six teams will progress to Group A and the remaining seven teams will progress to Group B. The teams play the other members of their groups once more, meaning Group A teams play a further five games and Group B teams play a further six. As before, eight teams will progress through to the playoffs, meaning the top two teams from Group B will qualify along with the six teams from Group A. As the division has an extra team, two teams will be automatically relegated (instead of one) and the team finishing eleventh will contest a playoff against the runner-up from the División B playoffs. The division is made up of thirteen teams this season instead of the usual twelve after controversy during the 2021-22 season.

La Vila La Vila Joiosa () is a coastal town and municipality in the Province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. The town is known to the locals simply as La Vila. It is the historic and administrative capital of the ''c ...

and

Gernika Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

finished eleventh and twelfth in 2021-22, but

Alcobendas Alcobendas () is a municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. It forms an urban continuum with the neighbouring municipality of San Sebastián de los Reyes. The affluent residential area of La Moraleja lies within the municipal lim ...

were automatically relegated for fielding an ineligible player. This earned La Vila a reprieve from relegation. Initially,

were set to be relegated, but they argued that Alcobendas' point reduction meant the Madrid side technically finished bottom, and that they were therefore denied their rightful opportunity to play off against the runner-up from the Division B playoffs,

Belenos RC Belenos Rugby Club, known as Pasek Belenos for sponsorship reasons, is a Spanish rugby union team based in Avilés, in the region of Asturias (Spain). For the season 2019/2020 they play in División de Honor B, second most important league in Span ...

. The Spanish Rugby Federation ruled that denying either team - Gernika or Belenos - a place in the top flight would be unfair.

Promotion and relegation

The second-tier División de Honor B is made up of three regional groups. The top eight teams across the three groups play off; the champion is promoted to División de Honor, at the expense of the team which finishes last in the División de Honor. The runner-up plays a further playoff against the team which finishes 11th in the top flight.

Teams

were relegated while Pozuelo and

were promoted. Gernika were given a reprieve despite finishing bottom of the table last year, meaning the division grew to 13 members.

Standings

First phase

Second phase

Group A Group B

Playoffs

Copa del Rey

The Copa del Rey's format was changed. The teams finishing in the top six after the first phase of the league qualified for the Copa del Rey. The team finishing third played the team finishing sixth, while the team finishing fourth faced the team finishing fifth.

Playoffs

The winners of these two games progressed to the semifinal draw with the top two.

Semifinals

The final was won by Valladolid in May, setting them on the path to a league and cup double.

Final

Relegation playoff

The relegation playoff was played over two legs by Pozuelo, the team finishing 10th in División de Honor, and Independiente, the losing team from División de Honor B promotion playoff final. Pozuelo won 170–46 on aggregate and retained their place in the División de Honor for the 2023–24 season.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Division de Honor de Rugby Rugby union in Spain 2021-22