London Scottish requested clarification from the RFU Championship Organising Committee on the interpretation of Championship Regulation 3.1(a) several weeks ago during Stage 2 of the Competition (Play-off Stage). The Club then requested urgent clarification before their match versus Moseley last week.

The regulation in question includes the process for determining the position of Clubs in Stage 2 of the Competition (Play-Off Stage) who has an equal number of competition points.

The club felt the regulations were not clear and sought clarification on if matches won in Stage 1 of the RFU Championship are included throughout Stage 2 when deciding a tie break situation between clubs equal on competition points. In a tie break situation, the regulations state the order in which the standings of the club would be decided i.e:
1. Number of competition points
2. If competition points are tied then: Number of wins
3. If Competition points and wins tied: Match Points difference
4. If all of the above tied then the highest total of match points scored “for” by each individual club would be the deciding factor.
5. If all the above did not differentiate the clubs then the aggregate scores in matches between the clubs over the whole season would be taken into account. etc.

The Organising Committee, comprising: Peter Baines (Chairman of the RFU Governance Standing Committee), Rob Andrew (RFU Professional Rugby Director) and Chris Burns (Competitions Manager) met on Wednesday and considered London Scottish’s request. The OC concluded that when determining any position in Stage 2 of the RFU Championship, in the event of equality of competition points, only the number of wins in Stage 2 should be taken into account rather than wins achieved in both Stages 1 and 2 of the RFU Championship competition.