The 2022–23 RFU Championship is the fourteenth season of the
RFU Championship, the professional second tier of rugby union in England. It features eleven 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 ...
.
Jersey Reds won the league with one match remaining.
Structure
The twelve teams will play each of the other teams twice.
The results of the matches contribute points to the league as follows:
* 4 points are awarded for a win
* 2 points are awarded for a draw
* 0 points are awarded for a loss, however
* 1 losing (bonus) point is awarded to a team that loses a match by 7 points or fewer
* 1 additional (bonus) point is awarded to a team scoring 4 tries or more in a match.
Promotion and relegation
Subject to meeting the minimum standards criteria the team finishing top of the league will be 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 ...
, which means there will be no relegation to
National League 1. If the champions do not meet the criteria, and therefore not promoted, one team will be relegated. With both
Wasps
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...
and
Worcester Warriors entering
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people.
** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...
and deemed unable to compete in the Championship the competition will include 12 teams in 2023–24.
On 13 February 2023, the RFU confirmed that only Doncaster Knights were eligible for promotion.
RFU funding
For the third 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.
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 ahead of the 2020–21 season.
Teams
Eleven of the twelve teams played in last season's competition. Having won the
2021–22 National League 1
2021–22 National League 1 is the twelfth season (34th overall) of the third tier of the English rugby union system, English domestic rugby union competitions, since the professionalised format of the RFU Championship, second division was introd ...
,
Caldy were promoted to the Championship. Owing to there being only eleven teams in the Championship last season there was no relegation.
Table
Fixtures & results
Fixtures for the season was announced by the RFU on 24 June 2022.
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
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Rescheduled matches (Round 10)
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Round 12
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Round 13
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Round 14
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Rescheduled matches (Round 10)
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Round 15
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Round 16
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Round 17
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Round 18
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Round 19
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Rescheduled matches
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Round 20
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Round 21
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Round 22
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:[
]
See also
* 2022–23 Premiership Rugby
* 2022–23 RFU Championship Cup
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2022-23 RFU Championship
2
RFU Championship seasons