The 2021 RFL League 1 is a professional

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competition played in the

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and is the third tier of the sport for

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

(RFL) affiliated clubs. The sponsors for the league are the bookmakers,

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and the league will continue to be known as the Betfred League 1.

Teams

The 2020 season was declared ''

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'' due to the COVID-19 pandemic as was the 2020 Championship season, there was therefore no teams relegated to League 1 for 2021. Due to restructuring in the Championship and Super League,

Newcastle Thunder The Newcastle Thunder are a professional rugby league club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in the Betfred Championship competition, the second tier of rugby league in the United Kingdom. They play their home matches at Kingsto ...

were promoted to the Championship and with the planned entry of

Ottawa Aces Cornwall R.L.F.C. is an English professional sports, professional rugby league team based in Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall. They will play their home matches at Penryn RFC's Memorial Ground. History 2019–20: Ottawa Aces It was first ...

to the league deferred until 2022, the number of teams to compete in League 1 for 2021 was reduced to 10.

Stadiums and locations

Fixtures and results

The season consisted of 18 rounds with each of the 10 teams playing each other home and away. Promotion and play-off details together with the fixture list were originally due to be announced early in 2021 but this announcement was delayed after a meeting on 13 January 2021 at which the start of the season was delayed to at least Spring. On 22 January it was announced that the proposed start date for the competition is the weekend of 8–9 May. Anticipating that the continuing COVID-19 situation may affect the season, the RFL decided that league position would be based from the outset on win percentage (number of wins divided by number of games played) rather than by competition points as is normal in the league. Postponements were allowed if a team had seven or more players unavailable due to COVID-19 related reasons (e.g. having returned a positive test result or required to isolate following contact with an infected person). In the event of a postponement the clubs were to try and find a new date to play the match otherwise it would be cancelled. Golden point extra time was not used during this season except in the play-offs. The fixture list was released on 14 February and the promotion arrangements on 4 March.

Regular season table

The team finishing top of the league after the regular season was automatically promoted to the Championship for 2022 with the teams finishing 2nd to 6th taking part in a five-team play-off structure culminating in the promotion play-off final, the winner of which would also be promoted to the Championship. Teams had to complete 70% of their league fixtures to qualify for the play-offs.

Play-offs

The play-off structure and dates were confirmed on 20 August and used the same five-team play-off structure used in 2019. Matches were played on four consecutive weekends commencing 17 September.

Team bracket

Awards

The end of year awards for the 2021 League 1 season were announced on 29 September 2021.

References

{{League 1 RFL League 1 2021 in English rugby league

RFL League 1 RFL League One (for sponsorship reasons currently known as the Betfred League One) is a professional rugby league competition based in the United Kingdom. Part of the British rugby league pyramid, the competition features clubs from England an ...