Following Saturday’s defeat to Bedford Blues, it now looks almost certain that Scottish will be a member of the bottom four at the end of the season. Unlike National League 1, promotion and relegation from the Championship are not purely dependent on league position. Instead, after the final round of league fixtures, the Championship divides into two play-off pools.

The top eight split off into the promotion play-off, and the bottom four play each other to decide which club is relegated to National League 1.

The promotion play off constitutes a play-off competition between the top eight clubs. The first, fourth, fifth and eighth placed clubs enter Playoff Group A; the second, third, sixth and seventh placed clubs entered Playoff Group B. Each side plays the other sides in their group home-and-away. The two highest placed sides in each division go through to a two-legged semi-final, and the winners play a two-legged final held at the two competing clubs' home grounds.

In the promotion play-offs, rewards for league position come in the form of bonus points in the play-offs. They are awarded as follows: The top two clubs at the end of the regular season will start the play-off on 3 points, the third- and fourth-place clubs will start on 2, the fifth- and sixth-place clubs will start on 1 and the remaining two clubs will start on 0.

The relegation play –offs are subtly different. Rather than bonus points being awarded for league position, points are awarded for the number of wins achieved during the regular season. Therefore, London Scottish will currently take 5 points into the relegation play-offs, one less than Plymouth, equal to Moseley, and four points more than Esher who have one win so far.

Until the main league season is finished, it is impossible to accurately predict the fixtures for the play-offs, as they are dependent on league position. However, a guide to the potential weekends Scottish will be in action can be seen in the table below. Team 9 is the team that finishes the league season in 9th place, team 10 in tenth and so on:
 

Once the regular season finishes on February 25th, the play-off fixtures will be announced during the subsequent week. They will be available on www.londonscottish.com as soon as they are released.