2023 RFL Championship
| 2023 RFL Championship | |
|---|---|
| Duration | 4 February – 15 October 2023 |
| Teams | 14 |
| Matches played | 194 |
| Points scored | 8,875 |
| Highest attendance | 4,879 Bradford Bulls v Keighley Cougars (2 July 2023) |
| Lowest attendance | 684 Newcastle Thunder v Keighley Cougars (18 June 2023) |
| Average attendance | 2,012 |
| Attendance | 380,375 |
| Broadcast partners | Viaplay Sports |
| 2023 season | |
| Promoted to Super League | London Broncos |
| League Leaders' Shield | Featherstone Rovers |
| Relegated to League One | Newcastle Thunder Keighley Cougars |
| Biggest home win | Featherstone Rovers 76–4 Whitehaven (19 February 2023) |
| Biggest away win | Whitehaven 0–60 Featherstone Rovers (2 July 2023) |
| Top point-scorer | Cory Aston Sheffield Eagles (182) |
| Top try-scorer | Lachlan Walmsley Halifax Panthers (30) |
The 2023 RFL Championship, (officially known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons), was a professional rugby league club competition. Fourteen clubs – thirteen from England and one from France – competed to gain promotion to the 2024 Super League, while avoiding relegation to the 2024 League One season.
The seasons comprised 27 rounds in the regular season with the top six teams taking part in the play-offs.
The champions were London Broncos who after finishing fifth in the regular season, won the play-off grand final against Toulouse Olympique.
Featherstone Rovers won the League Leader's Shield finishing the regular season 12 points ahead of their nearest rivals, Toulouse.
Newcastle Thunder and Keighley Cougars were relegated to League One.
Teams
[edit | edit source]Team changes
[edit | edit source]The following teams changed division since the 2022 season:
To Championship
[edit | edit source]Promoted from League One
Relegated from the Super League
From Championship
[edit | edit source]Promoted to the Super League
Relegated to League One
Clubs
[edit | edit source]
Rule changes
[edit | edit source]Changes in the operational rules were announced on 1 February 2023.[1]
On-field, the main change is that teams awarded a penalty for an offence at a scrum can now kick for goal. Previously such penalties were differential precluding the team from kicking for goal. The green card process has been clarified so that if the referee calls "time off" for a player to receive medical attention, the player must leave the pitch for two minutes. Teams will be allowed to name an 18th player (fifth interchange player) in the squad who can play if three or more players are withdrawn due to failing a head injury assessment (HIA).
Off-field the graduated return to play process that applies after a player has suffered a concussion will be a minimum of 12 days (up from 11 in 2022).
Changes have also been made to the disciplinary process where the periods of suspension for the various grade of offences have been reduced but the use of fines increased.[2]
Results
[edit | edit source]Table
[edit | edit source]| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | File:Fevcolours.svg Featherstone Rovers | 27 | 25 | 0 | 2 | 1079 | 295 | +784 | 50 | League Leaders Shield and qualify for semi-finals |
| 2 | File:ToulouseRLcolours.png Toulouse Olympique | 27 | 19 | 0 | 8 | 834 | 385 | +449 | 38 | Semi-finals |
| 3 | File:Bullscolours.svg Bradford Bulls | 27 | 16 | 1 | 10 | 677 | 572 | +105 | 33 | Eliminators |
| 4 | File:Sheffeagles colours.svg Sheffield Eagles | 27 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 780 | 560 | +220 | 32 | |
| 5 | File:Broncoscolours.png London Broncos | 27 | 16 | 0 | 11 | 600 | 552 | +48 | 32 | |
| 6 | File:YorkRLFCcolours.png York Knights | 27 | 15 | 0 | 12 | 557 | 557 | 0 | 30 | |
| 7 | File:Batley colours.svg Batley Bulldogs | 27 | 15 | 0 | 12 | 506 | 519 | −13 | 30 | |
| 8 | File:Faxcolours.svg Halifax Panthers | 27 | 14 | 1 | 12 | 690 | 572 | +118 | 29 | |
| 9 | File:Widnes colours.svg Widnes Vikings | 27 | 13 | 0 | 14 | 619 | 654 | −35 | 26 | |
| 10 | File:Swintoncolours.svg Swinton Lions | 27 | 9 | 0 | 18 | 426 | 739 | −313 | 18 | |
| 11 | File:Barrowcolours.svg Barrow Raiders | 27 | 8 | 1 | 18 | 471 | 672 | −201 | 17 | |
| 12 | File:Haven colours.svg Whitehaven | 27 | 8 | 0 | 19 | 481 | 809 | −328 | 16 | |
| 13 | File:Cougscolours.svg Keighley Cougars | 27 | 8 | 0 | 19 | 506 | 837 | −331 | 16 | Relegation to League One |
| 14 | File:Gthundercolours.svg Newcastle Thunder | 27 | 5 | 1 | 21 | 415 | 918 | −503 | 11 |
Rules for classification: 1) Competition points; 2) Points difference; 3) Points percentage (points scored/points conceded x 100)
Play-offs
[edit | edit source]Team bracket
[edit | edit source]{{#lst:2023 RFL Championship season results|2023tb}}
Week 1: Eliminators
[edit | edit source]{{#lst:2023 RFL Championship season results|2023e}}
Week 2: Semi-finals
[edit | edit source]{{#lst:2023 RFL Championship season results|2023sf}}
Week 3: Grand Final
[edit | edit source]{{#lst:2023 RFL Championship season results|2023gf}}
Player statistics
[edit | edit source]Top 10 try scorers
[edit | edit source]
.svg){kind=link}
Top 10 goal scorers
[edit | edit source]| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England Jake Shorrocks | File:Wcatscolours.svg Toulouse Olympique | 105 |
| 2 | England Cory Aston | File:Sheffeagles colours.svg Sheffield Eagles | 96 |
| 3 | England Dec Patton | File:Bullscolours.svg Bradford Bulls | 74 |
| 4 | England Ryan Shaw | File:Barrowcolours.svg Barrow Raiders | 68 |
| 5 | France Louis Jouffret | File:Faxcolours.svg Halifax Panthers | 62 |
| 6 | England Josh Rourke | File:Faxcolours.svg Whitehaven RLFC | 60 |
| 7 | France Mark Kheirallah | File:Fevcolours.svg Featherstone Rovers | 59 |
| 8 | England Oliver Leyland | File:Broncoscolours.png London Broncos | 58 |
| 9 | England Dan Abram | File:Swintoncolours.svg Swinton Lions | 48 |
| 10 | New Zealand Nikau Williams | File:Newcastle colours.svg Newcastle Thunder | 44 |
Top 10 points scorers
[edit | edit source]Discipline
[edit | edit source]Red cards
[edit | edit source]
Yellow cards
[edit | edit source]
- As of 1 October 2025[3]
Broadcasting
[edit | edit source]The 2023 Championship season was the second of two seasons televised under a broadcasting deal between the Rugby Football League and Premier Media Broadcasting agreed in October 2021.[4][5] In late 2022, Viaplay Group acquired Premier Media Broadcasting for £30 million, and subsequently took over operations of Premier Media Broadcasting's channels and rebranded them to Viaplay Sports.[6] Viaplay Group broadcast the Championship's Monday evening games, along with two Summer Bash games and all five play-off games, via their Viaplay Sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[4][5] All matches broadcast on Viaplay Sports, including the Championship Grand Final, were broadcast on Fox League in Australia throughout the season.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- Betfred Championship at Rugby Football League