The 2022–23 RFU Championship Cup was the fourth and final 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 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 ...
. The competition was won by
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
Jersey Reds
Jersey Reds was a rugby union club based in Jersey, Channel Islands. On 28th September 2023, the club ceased trading and shortly thereafter went into liquidation following the withdrawal of financial support from a key investor.
Until seaso ...
35 - 31 in the final.
It would be the third Championship Cup title for the London club. The competition would merge with the
Premiership Rugby Cup
The Premiership Rugby Cup is an English rugby union knockout cup competition for teams in Premiership Rugby and from the 2023–24 season the RFU Championship. It was created in 2018 to replace the Anglo-Welsh Cup after the withdrawal of the Wels ...
for the following season.
Competition format
The competition format is a pool stage followed by a knockout stage. The pool stage consists of three pools of four teams each playing home and away matches. Pool matches ran from September through to February, on weekends when there is no
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 ...
league fixtures.
The three group winners, along with the best group runner up, qualify for the semi-finals to be held in May.
Participating teams and locations
Pool stage
Pool A
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
Pool B
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
Pool C
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 four qualifiers were seeded according to performance in the pool stage - with the two best performing pool winners being ranked as seeds 1 and 2, while the third group winner and best group runner up were ranked as seeds 3 and 4. The top four seeds hosted the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 4, 2 v 3 format. However, if two teams qualified from the same pool they could not be drawn together. For the final the highest ranked seed would have home advantage.
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
Semi-finals
Final
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
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2022–23 RFU Championship
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 Reds won the league with one match remaining.
...
*
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†...
*
Premiership Rugby Cup
The Premiership Rugby Cup is an English rugby union knockout cup competition for teams in Premiership Rugby and from the 2023–24 season the RFU Championship. It was created in 2018 to replace the Anglo-Welsh Cup after the withdrawal of the Wels ...
References
External links
RFU
{{DEFAULTSORT:2022-23 RFU Championship Cup
RFU Championship Cup
2022–23 rugby union tournaments for clubs
2022–23 RFU Championship