2016 RFL Championship

Kingstone Press Championship 2016
League Championship
Duration 23 Rounds (Followed by a league split into "Super 8's" for 7 more fixtures.)
Number of teams 12
Broadcast partners Sky Sports
2016 Season
< 2015 Seasons 2017 >

The 2016 Rugby Football League Championship, which will be known as Kingstone Press Championship due to sponsorship by Kingstone Press Cider, will be a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the first tier Super League. The 2015 season is the second season to consist of a new structure combining the championship and super league divisions three quarters of the way through the season.

The 2016 Championship will feature twelve teams, who will all play each other twice in the regular season, once at home, and once away, totalling 22 games. The 2016 season will also see for the first time the "Summer Bash Weekend". This is a 23rd round of fixtures which replicates the Magic Weekend concept, for the Championship sides. After these 23 rounds in both the Championship and the Super League, the two divisions of twelve are split into three divisions of eight. The "Super 8's".

Following the split into the Super 8's, the top four teams in the Championship 2016 will join the bottom four teams of the Super League 2016 in "The Qualifiers". This group will see each team play each other once each, totalling seven extra games, with points reset to zero for the qualifiers. After 7 extra rounds the top 3 teams will earn a place in the Super League competition for 2017, thus either retaining or earning a place in the top competition. The teams finishing 4th and 5th in the qualifiers will play off in an extra fixture, at the home of 4th, for the final place in the 2017 Super League competition. The loser of this fixture, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th, and 8th in the qualifiers will either remain or be relegated and will play in the Championship in the 2016 season.

Teams finishing after 23 rounds in between 5th and 12th in the Championship will play in the third of the three "Super 8" groups, "The Championship Shield". This will see each teams playing each other once more, but with points from the original season retained. Following the additional seven rounds a four team play off will take place pitching 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd, with the winners playing each other in the final to win the new "Championship Shield". The two teams finishing bottom the this group of eight will be relegated to the 2017 Kingstone Press League One, being replaced by two promoted teams from the 2016 League One competition.

Relegation to League One is in place for the 2016 season, which will be the two bottom teams from "The Championship Shield" group after the split, with promotion to the Super League being available to teams finishing in the top four after 23 rounds. All of the teams in the 2016 Championship will also compete in the 2016 Challenge Cup, where they will enter in the third round.

Teams

This year's competition features 12 teams. The teams consist of ten of the 12 teams from 2015, the champion of the 2015 Championship 1 season, Oldham Roughyeds, and the champion of the Championship 1 playoffs, Swinton Lions. Doncaster RLFC and Hunslet Hawks, who finished in the bottom to in 2015 were relegated into League One for 2016.

Legend
  Reigning Champions
  Championship Shield Holders
  Promoted
  Relegated
Team & Current Season Stadium Capacity Location
Batley Bulldogs Fox's Biscuits Stadium 7,500 Batley, West Yorkshire
Bradford Bulls Provident Stadium 27,000 Bradford, West Yorkshire
Dewsbury Rams Tetley's Stadium 5,800 Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
Featherstone Rovers Bigfellas Stadium 8,000 Featherstone, West Yorkshire
Halifax RLFC The MBi Shay 14,000 Halifax, West Yorkshire
Leigh Centurions Leigh Sports Village 12,700 Leigh, Greater Manchester
London Broncos Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club 3,176 Ealing, London
Oldham Roughyeds Bower Fold 6,500 Stalybridge, Greater Manchester
Sheffield Eagles SHU Sports Park 3,000 Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Swinton Lions Park Lane 3,000 Whitefield, Greater Manchester
Whitehaven RLFC Recreation Ground 7,500 Whitehaven, Cumbria
Workington Town Zebra Claims Stadium 10,000 Workington, Cumbria
West Yorkshire
Greater Manchester
Locations of the 2016 RFL Championship teams
Locations of the 2016 RFL Championship teams in West Yorkshire
Locations of the 2016 RFL Championship teams in Greater Manchester

Season results

The regular league season sees the 12 teams play each other twice (one home, one away) over 24 matches. The top four teams at the end of the regular season qualify for "The Qualifiers", while the other eight teams will contest the "Championship Shield".

See also

References

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.