Fixtures for the tenth season of the Greene King IPA Championship season have today been confirmed alongside the announcement of a new domestic competition – the Championship Cup – which will come into action next season.
London Scottish will open up their season with a mouth-watering tie against arch rivals and co-inhabitants of The Athletic Ground, Richmond. The London derby will also conclude the 2018/19 campaign. Scottish were victorious the last time the two sides met after a late Jake Sharp penalty.
The Greene King IPA Championship will be played over 22 rounds, beginning 31 August-2 September and culminating on the last weekend of April next year. Fixture dates are yet to be confirmed but the weekend that the games will take place on have been scheduled and established. London Scottish will announce in the next two weeks the exact dates the games shall take place on.
Following playing Richmond on the opening day of the season, the Exiles will host their first home game of the season against Ealing Trailfinders. A potential early rematch for returning Hall of Famer Mark Bright with his old side. The scots will head over Kew Bridge to Vallis Way in Round 12 in the weekend commencing 19th January.
London Scottish will host fellow exiles London Irish in Round 6 and will head to the Madjeski Stadium in Round 16. Newly-promoted side Coventry will head to the RAG in Round 17 with the Scots heading to Butts Park in Round 7.
Greene King IPA Championship chairman Geoff Irvine commented, “the standard of rugby last season was excellent and the competition for the meritocracy money proved to be very successful in sustaining a high level of interest in the Championship throughout the season in the absence of the play-offs.”
The full PDF of the Greene King IPA Championship and Championship Cup fixtures for the 2018/19 season can be downloaded HERE
Following the decision of the Championship clubs to withdraw from the British & Irish Cup at the end of last season, for the next two seasons clubs will compete in the Championship Cup which follows a league cup format and encourages local derbies.
For its inaugural season, teams will be split into three pools based on clubs’ geographic locations and will play across six rounds.
The pool stage fixtures are scheduled in one block and will be played before Christmas allowing clubs to focus on the Championship Cup consistently over a six week period.
The top two teams from each pool together with the two best runners up across the three pools will all proceed to the quarter-finals which will be followed by the semi-finals and a final which will take place in May next year.
RFU director of professional rugby, Nigel Melville said, “the introduction of the Championship Cup competition next season is a positive step forward for our tier two clubs. We worked closely with the clubs to develop a competition that would encourage exciting local derbies and also give the clubs more game time outside of the 22 Championship rounds, which in turn will strengthen the development opportunities and competition among clubs in this country.”
The full PDF of the Greene King IPA Championship and Championship Cup fixtures for the 2018/19 season can be downloaded HERE
