The 2021–22 RFU Championship was the thirteenth season of 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 ...

, the professional second tier of rugby union in England. It featured ten English teams and one from

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

are the reigning champions and were promoted to the Premiership.

Structure

In a return to the structure used prior to 2020–21, the eleven teams played each of the other teams twice. There was no end of season play-off and as no team met the minimum standards criteria, no team was promoted to

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

. For the second consecutive year no team was relegated from the league.

RFU funding

For the second year in a row each club will receive approximately £161,500 in funding from the RFU as part of the reduction of funding introduced ahead of the 2016–17 season. Last season, following news of the funding change, several clubs announced a switch to a

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

business model.

Teams

Ten of the eleven teams played in last season's competition.

having beaten Ealing Trailfinders in the 2020–21 final were promoted into

with no team relegated. London Scottish returned to the league following a one-year hiatus due to the costs associated with the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. They intended to leave the Athletic Ground ahead of this season, however it was later confirmed they would remain at the Athletic Ground.

Table

Fixtures & results

Fixtures for the season were announced by the RFU on 22 July 2021. The season commenced on 17 September and the final round of matches are due to take place in mid-March.

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

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

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Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Rounds 10, 12 & 14 (rescheduled matches)

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Rounds 13 & 17 (rescheduled matches)

Round 21

Rescheduled matches

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Rescheduled matches

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Rescheduled matches

Attendances

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Most points

Source:

Most tries

Source:

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 RFU Championship

RFU Championship seasons