The 2018–19 RFU Championship Cup was the inaugural season of the annual

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

Championship Cup The Championship Cup (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), 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 Frenc ...

competition for second tier,

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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 Eng ...

. It was formed following the discontinuation 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 inaugural winners were

Ealing Trailfinders Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club is an English professional rugby union club based in West London. The club's first team are the reigning RFU Championship champions of 2024–25 but were considered ineligible for promotion to Premiership Rugby a ...

who defeated

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

23–17 in the final held at the

Trailfinders Sports Ground Trailfinders Sports Ground (TFSG) is a rugby ground in West Ealing, London, England, which is the home of Ealing Trailfinders rugby union. London Broncos rugby league club spent one final season at the ground, having been based at TFSG on a ...

. It was a deserved victory for Ealing, who were the best side in the competition, and was their second win in a cup competition in two seasons, having won the

the previous season. Runner-up London Irish, who had won the Championship league title a few weeks earlier, missed out on a notable double.

Competition format

The competition format was 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 concentr ...

followed by a

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

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

league campaign. The top two sides in each group, plus the two best third-placed teams, progressed to the knockout stage, with the best ranked sides receiving home advantage in the quarter-finals. The four winning quarter-finalists progressed to the semi-finals with the winners playing in the final in May 2019.

Participating teams and locations

Group stage

Group 1 (North)

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

Group 2 (London & South East)

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

Group 3 (South West & Midlands)

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

Knock-out stage

The eight qualifiers were seeded according to performance in the pool stage - with the three pool winners making the top three seeds along with the best runner-up as seed number 4, and the next two runners-up and two best 3rd-placed teams making up the other four seeds. The top four seeds hosted the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5 format. However, if two teams qualified from the same pool they could not be drawn together. Teams were ranked by: :1 – competition points (4 for a win, 2 for a draw) :2 – where competition points are equal, greatest number of wins :3 – where the number of wins are equal, greatest number of tries scored :4 – where the number of tries are equal, aggregate points difference :5 – where the aggregate points difference are equal, greatest number of points scored :6 – where the greatest number of points are equal, least red cards :7 – if red cards are equal, then ranking will be decided by the toss of a coin

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Attendances

Individual statistics

* Points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

;Largest home win — 54 points 59 – 5 London Irish at home to Hartpury College on 9 December 2018 ;Largest away win — 31 points 38 – 7 Jersey Reds away to Richmond on 1 December 2018 ;Most points scored — 64 64 – 17 London Irish at home to Cornish Pirates on 18 November 2018 ;Most tries in a match — 9 (3) London Irish at home to Cornish Pirates on 18 November 2018
London Irish at home to Hartpury College on 9 December 2018
Ealing Trailfinders at home to Cornish Pirates on 24 February 2019 ;Most conversions in a match — 7 (2) London Irish at home to Cornish Pirates on 18 November 2018
London Irish at home to Hartpury College on 9 December 2018 ;Most penalties in a match — 5 Cornish Pirates at home to Bedford Blues on 11 November 2018 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Jersey Reds at home to Ealing Trailfinders on 8 December 2018

Player

;Most points in a match — 20 (2) Jack Macfarlane for Jersey Reds at home to Richmond on 24 November 2018

Jordan Burns Jordan Kennedy Burns (born August 28, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the KW Titans of the Basketball Super League (North America), Basketball Super League. He played college basketball for the Colgate Raiders men's basketb ...

for Ealing Trailfinders at home to Cornish Pirates on 24 February 2019 ;Most tries in a match — 4 (2) Jack Macfarlane for Jersey Reds at home to Richmond on 24 November 2018

for Ealing Trailfinders at home to Cornish Pirates on 24 February 2019 ;Most conversions in a match — 7 Jacob Atkins for London Irish at home to Hartpury College on 9 December 2018 ;Most penalties in a match — 5

Javier Rojas Alvarez Javier Rojas Alvarez (born 15 April 1991 in Tucumán) is an Argentine rugby union footballer playing as a fullback or as a centre. He currently plays for the Cornish Pirates in the English RFU Championship. He previously played for a number o ...

for Cornish Pirates at home to Bedford Blues on 11 November 2018 ;Most drop goals in a match — 1 Aaron Penberthy for Jersey Reds at home to Ealing Trailfinders on 8 December 2018

Attendances

;Highest — 3,627 Ealing Trailfinders at home to London Irish on 4 May 2019 ;Lowest — 267 Ealing Trailfinders at home to Nottingham on 2 February 2019 ;Highest average attendance — 2,147 Bedford Blues ;Lowest average attendance — 506 Yorkshire Carnegie

Notes

References

External links

RFU
{{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 RFU Championship Cup RFU Championship Cup 2018–19 rugby union tournaments for clubs 2018–19 RFU Championship

Competition format

Participating teams and locations

Group stage

Group 1 (North)

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Group 2 (London & South East)

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Group 3 (South West & Midlands)

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Attendances

Individual statistics

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Season records

Team

Player

Attendances

Notes

See also

References

External links