2015 RFL Championship

The 2015 Rugby Football League Championship, known as the Kingstone Press Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the Super League.

Kingstone Press Championship 2015
LeagueChampionship
Duration23 Rounds (Followed by a league split into "Super 8's" for 7 more fixtures.)
Teams12
Highest attendance7,439
Leigh Centurions Vs Bradford Bulls
Lowest attendance300
London Broncos Vs Workington Town
Broadcast partnersSky Sports
2015 Season
Champions Leigh Centurions
Championship Shield Featherstone Rovers
Promotion and relegation
Relegated to League 1 Hunslet Hawks
Doncaster

The 2015 Championship featured twelve teams, who played each other twice in the regular season, once at home and once away, totaling 22 games. The 2015 season also saw for the first time the Summer Bash Weekend, which was played at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool and created an additional round of fixtures. After 23 rounds in both the Championship and the Super League, the two divisions of twelve were split into the Rugby League Super 8s.

Leigh Centurions were the league leaders after 23 rounds and were thus deemed Champions for the 2015 season, while Hunslet Hawks and Doncaster were relegated following the culmination of the Super 8s.

Teams

The competition featured 12 teams, as opposed to the 14 seen in the previous year. The teams consisted of nine of the 14 teams from 2014, the Play-off winner of the 2014 Championship 1 season, which was Hunslet Hawks, and the two sides relegated from 2014 Super League, Bradford Bulls and London Broncos. Keighley Cougars, North Wales Crusaders, Rochdale Hornets, Swinton Lions, and Barrow Raiders who finished in the bottom five in 2015 were relegated into League One for 2015.

Legend
  Reigning champions
  Promoted
  Relegated
Team & Current Season Stadium Capacity 2015 Average Crowd Location
Batley Bulldogs loverugbyleague.com Stadium 6,000 1,605 Batley, West Yorkshire
Bradford Bulls Odsal Stadium 27,000 4,360 Bradford, West Yorkshire
Dewsbury Rams Tetley's Stadium 5,100 1,689 Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
Doncaster Keepmoat Stadium 15,231 1,595 Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Featherstone Rovers Bigfellas Stadium 6,750 2,277 Featherstone, West Yorkshire
Halifax The Shay Stadium 6,561 2,151 Halifax, West Yorkshire
Hunslet Hawks South Leeds Stadium 4,000 1,437 Leeds, West Yorkshire
Leigh Centurions Leigh Sports Village 12,700 3,177 Leigh, Greater Manchester
London Broncos The Hive Stadium 5,176 1,381 Canons Park, London
Sheffield Eagles Owlerton Stadium 4,000 1,640 Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Whitehaven Recreation Ground 7,500 1,527 Whitehaven, Cumbria
Workington Town Derwent Park 10,000 1,448 Workington, Cumbria


Locations of the 2015 RFL Championship teams
Locations of the 2015 RFL Championship teams in West Yorkshire

Season standings
Main article: 2015 RFL Championship season results

The regular league season saw 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 qualified for "The Qualifiers", while the other eight teams contested the "Championship Shield".

Position Club Played Won Drawn Lost Pts for Pts agst Points
1 Leigh Centurions (C) 23 21 1 1 972 343 43
2 Bradford Bulls 23 18 1 4 828 387 37
3 Sheffield Eagles 23 17 0 6 586 451 34
4 Halifax 23 16 0 7 646 377 32
5 Featherstone Rovers 23 13 0 10 633 565 26
6 Dewsbury Rams 23 12 1 10 490 461 25
7 London Broncos 23 12 0 11 538 510 24
8 Workington Town 23 7 1 15 379 671 15
9 Batley Bulldogs 23 7 0 16 421 539 14
10 Whitehaven 23 7 0 16 418 671 14
11 Hunslet Hawks 23 5 0 18 362 769 10
12 Doncaster 23 1 0 22 282 851 2
  Teams qualifying for "The Qualifiers".
  Teams qualifying for "The Championship Shield".
  • The Qualifiers
Main article: 2015 Super 8s

The Qualifiers Super 8's saw the bottom 4 teams from Super League table join the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to 0 and each team plays 7 games each, playing every other team once. After 7 games each the teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the 2016 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team which will earn the winner a place in the 2016 Super League; the loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.

Position Club Played Won Drawn Lost Pts for Pts agst Points
1 Hull Kingston Rovers 7 7 0 0 234 118 14
2 Widnes Vikings 7 5 0 2 232 70 10
3 Salford Red Devils 7 5 0 2 239 203 10
4 Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 7 3 0 4 153 170 6
5 Bradford Bulls 7 3 0 4 167 240 6
6 Halifax 7 2 0 5 162 186 4
7 Sheffield Eagles 7 2 0 5 152 267 4
8 Leigh Centurions 7 1 0 6 146 231 2
  Teams qualifying for Super League 2016.
  Teams qualifying for the "Million Pound Game" to earn a 2016 Super League Place
  Teams relegated to the Championship for 2016
# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
Million Pound Game
F Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 24 – 16 Bradford Bulls 3 October, 14:50 BST Belle Vue R. Silverwood 7,246


  • Championship Shield
Main article: 2015 Super 8s

The third of the three "Super 8" groups saw teams finishing 5th to 12th in the regular Championship table. Like the Super League 8's, these teams retained their original points and played 7 extra games, with the teams finishing in the top 4 places after these extra games contesting play offs similar to Super League, with 1st v 4th and 2nd vs 3rd, with the winners contesting the Championship Shield Grand Final. The two teams finishing at the bottom of this Super 8s group (7th and 8th) were relegated to the League 1 2016 season, and replaced by the two 2015 League One promoted sides.

Position Club Played Won Drawn Lost Pts for Pts agst Points
1 Featherstone Rovers (Q) 30 19 0 11 809 701 38
2 Dewsbury Rams (Q) 30 17 1 12 686 624 35
3 London Broncos (Q) 30 15 0 15 756 674 30
4 Workington Town (Q) 30 11 1 18 587 782 23
5 Batley Bulldogs 30 10 0 20 645 707 20
6 Whitehaven 30 10 0 20 618 921 20
7 Hunslet Hawks (R) 30 8 0 22 518 957 16
8 Doncaster (R) 30 2 0 28 401 1128 4

(Q) Qualified for the Semi Final (R) Relegated to League 1

  Teams qualifying for the Championship Shield 2015 Semi-Finals.
  Teams relegated to 2016 League One.
# Home Score Away Match Information
Date and Time (Local) Venue Referee Attendance
CHAMPIONSHIP SHIELD SEMI-FINALS
SF1 Featherstone Rovers 52 – 14 Workington Town 27 September, 15:00 Post Office Road, Featherstone 1,233
SF1 Dewsbury Rams 18 – 34 London Broncos 27 September, 15:00. Tetley's Stadium, Dewsbury 940
CHAMPIONSHIP SHIELD GRAND FINAL
F Featherstone Rovers 34 – 6 London Broncos Sunday 4 October, 4:30pm Select Security Stadium Chris Campbell 4,179

See also

References
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