The RFU Championship Cup is an 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 its m ...

competition introduced by the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

(RFU) in 2018 to provide a cup competition for English second tier 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 ...

, following the disbanding of the

British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009 ...

at the end of the 2017–18 season. The Championship Cup was initially scheduled to take place for at least two seasons.

History

Between 2009 and 2018, English tier 2 clubs played in the

. The British and Irish Cup was initially a strong and interesting competition, but this started to change at the end of the 2013–14 when the Scottish clubs decided to pull out due to fixture congestion, and then in 2014–15 the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; cy, Undeb Rygbi Cymru) is the Sports governing body, governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running ...

(WRU) made the controversial decision to switch their club representatives to select XV sides based on the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

clubs. These changes saw a decline in interest in the competition, mirrored by falling attendances. The death knell sounded when the English Championship clubs pulled out at the end of the 2017–18 season, deciding to create their own competition. At the same time as the demise of the British and Irish Cup, the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

also had its final season with the Welsh Pro14 sides pulling out due to difficulties faced with putting out competitive teams. With both competitions ending there seemed to be an opportunity for both the English Premiership and Championship clubs to form their own competition. This never materialised as the Premiership sides announced the new Premiership Cup competition, featuring tier 1 sides only. In June 2018 the RFU announced the Championship Cup. While the RFU hailed the new competition as a positive step for the second tier, with a regionalised format encouraging derby rivalries, reaction from Championship club supporters was muted, with many feeling an opportunity was missed to create a meaningful competition combining the 24 professional sides in England, and others expressing dissatisfaction with a format that would see some clubs face each other four times a season. Positive reactions included the cup being used by clubs as a mid-season break in which first team players can be rested, with fringe players getting game time.

Format

The current competition format is a

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

followed by a

knockout stage A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. The group stage consists of three (roughly) regional groups of four teams each playing home and away matches. Group matches run for six consecutive weeks through November to December following a break in the

league campaign. The top two sides in each group, plus the two best third-placed teams, progress to the knockout stage, with the best-ranked sides receiving home advantage in the quarter-finals. The four winning quarter-finalists progress to the semi-finals with the winners playing in the final in May.

Finals

References

External links

RFU
{{Rugby union in England Rugby union cup competitions in England RFU Championship 2018 establishments in England Recurring sporting events established in 2018

History

Format

Finals

See also

References

External links