2009–10 RFU Championship

2009–10 RFU Championship
Countries	England
Champions	Exeter Chiefs
Runners-up	Bristol
Relegated	Coventry
Attendance	402,209 (average 2,260 per match)[a 1]
Highest attendance	11,550 Bristol at home to Exeter Chiefs on 26 May 2010
Lowest attendance	200 Birmingham & Solihull at home to Doncaster Knights on 17 February 2010
Top point scorer	Gareth Steenson (Exeter Chiefs) 280 points
Top try scorer	Blair Cowan (Cornish Pirates) Errie Claassens (London Welsh) Matthew Jess (Exeter Chiefs) 14 tries
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The 2009–10 RFU Championship was the 1st season (of the professionalised format) of the second division of the English domestic rugby union competitions, played between August 2009 and May 2010. The league had been restructured from the 16 teams of the previous season down to just 12.^[1] New teams included Bristol who had been relegated from the Guinness Premiership 2008–09 and Birmingham and Solihull who had been promoted from National Division Two 2008–09.^[2][3] As well as a decrease in teams, the league would now consist of three parts - a standard league section, promotion/relegation pools and then playoffs to determine who would go up as champions.

During this season, Exeter Chiefs won promotion to the Aviva Premiership 2010–11 by beating Bristol in the playoff final.^[4] This marked Exeter's first ever promotion to the Premiership, which they would later win in 2017.

Despite finishing 11th of 12 after the first stage Coventry were relegated to the 2010–11 National League 1 as they finished bottom of the relegation pool.^[5]

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bedford Blues	Goldington Road	6,000	Bedford, Bedfordshire
Birmingham & Solihull	Sharmans Cross[b 1]	2,500	Solihull, West Midlands
Bristol	Memorial Stadium	12,100	Bristol
Cornish Pirates	Recreation Ground	9,000	Camborne, Cornwall
Coventry	Butts Park Arena[b 2]	4,000	Coventry, West Midlands
Doncaster Knights	Castle Park	3,075	Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Exeter Chiefs	Sandy Park	10,000	Exeter, Devon
London Welsh	Old Deer Park	5,850	Richmond, London
Moseley	Billesley Common	3,000+	Birmingham, West Midlands
Nottingham	Meadow Lane[b 3]	19,588	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Plymouth Albion	The Brickfields	6,500	Plymouth, Devon
Rotherham Titans	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Notes

2009–10 RFU Championship table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	B	Pts	Qualification
1	Bristol	22	19	0	3	630	337	+293	16	92	Promotion playoffs
2	Exeter Chiefs	22	19	0	3	699	360	+339	12	88
3	London Welsh	22	14	1	7	483	376	+107	9	62[a]
4	Bedford Blues	22	12	1	9	581	436	+145	9	59
5	Nottingham	22	12	0	10	539	520	+19	11	59
6	Cornish Pirates	22	11	1	10	555	463	+92	9	55
7	Doncaster Knights	22	10	0	12	394	386	+8	8	48
8	Plymouth Albion	22	10	1	11	389	462	−73	6	48
9	Moseley	22	10	0	12	444	543	−99	6	46	Relegation playoffs
10	Rotherham Titans	22	7	0	15	451	520	−69	15	43
11	Coventry	22	5	1	16	346	565	−219	5	12[b]
12	Birmingham & Solihull	22	0	1	21	293	836	−543	4	−9[b]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 2 February 2010.

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 20 January 2010.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 20 January 2010.

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 10 February 2010.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 11 February 2010.

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 24 February 2010.

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• Game rescheduled from 28 December 2009.

• Game rescheduled from 28 December 2009.

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2010.

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• Game rescheduled to 19 December 2009.

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• Game rescheduled from 2 January 2010.

• Game rescheduled from 2 January 2010.

• Game rescheduled from 30 January 2010.

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• Game rescheduled from 15 January 2010.

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Winner of Pool A to play Runner-Up of Pool B, and Winner of Pool B to play Runner-Up of Pool A.

Group A:

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
1	Bristol	6	5	0	1	189	86	4	24
2	Bedford	6	4	0	2	154	125	4	20
3	Cornish Pirates	6	2	0	4	98	158	2	10
4	Plymouth Albion	6	1	0	5	57	129	1	5

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Group B:

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
1	Exeter	6	4	0	2	181	86	4	20
2	London Welsh	6	4	0	2	108	110	2	18
3	Nottingham	6	2	0	4	98	141	2	10
4	Doncaster	6	2	0	4	108	158	1	9

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Bottom club in Group C relegated to National League 1

Group C:

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
1	Rotherham	6	5	0	1	188	116	7	27
2	Moseley	6	2	0	4	153	132	7	15
3	Birmingham & Solihull	6	3	0	3	158	169	3	13*
4	Coventry (R)	6	2	0	4	82	164	2	10

• Birmingham & Solihull deducted 2 points for fielding an unregistered player

Coventry are relegated to National League 1.

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 24 April 2010.

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The semifinals were one-off single ties held between the winner of Group A and the runner-up of Group B, and the winner of Group B and the runner-up of Group A. The matches took place at the home ground of the group winners.

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The two-legged final took place at the home grounds of the two clubs involved, rather than at Twickenham.

Exeter Chiefs win the Championship and earn promotion to the 2010–11 Premiership.^[4]

• Figures include playoff semi finals and final

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bedford Blues	14	39,364	2,812	4,067	1,642	47%
Birmingham & Solihull	12[a 2]	7,984	665	1,407	200	23%
Bristol	16	94,752	5,922	11,550	4,305	49%
Cornish Pirates	14	42,157	3,011	5,654	1,560	33%
Coventry	14	17,473	1,248	2,003	618	29%
Doncaster Knights	14	20,243	1,446	2,174	1,011	47%
Exeter Chiefs	16	77,670	4,854	10,021	3,477	49%
London Welsh	14	18,604	1,329	2,240	520	23%
Moseley	14	13,652	975	1,564	749	33%
Nottingham	14	16,978	1,213	1,796	790	6%
Plymouth Albion	14	37,448	2,675	4,430	1,384	41%
Rotherham Titans	14	15,884	1,135	1,610	521	45%

^[9][10]

• Player stats include playoff games as well as regular season games. Also note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.