Fixtures

DateRHjemme vs Ude-
03/29 19:30 1 Hunslet vs Keighley View
03/30 15:00 1 Newcastle Thunder vs Workington View
03/31 13:30 1 North Wales Crusaders vs Midlands Hurricanes View
03/31 14:00 1 Oldham vs Rochdale View
04/07 13:30 1 North Wales Crusaders vs Newcastle Thunder View
04/07 14:00 1 Hunslet vs Oldham View
04/07 14:00 1 Workington vs Rochdale View
04/14 12:00 1 Oldham vs Cornwall View
04/14 13:00 1 Midlands Hurricanes vs Hunslet View
04/14 14:00 1 Rochdale vs Newcastle Thunder View
04/14 14:00 1 Keighley vs North Wales Crusaders View
04/21 13:30 1 North Wales Crusaders vs Rochdale View

Results

Date R Hjemme vs Ude -
03/24 15:00 1 Rochdale vs Hunslet 24-26
03/24 15:00 1 Keighley vs Workington 58-16
03/24 14:00 1 Midlands Hurricanes vs Newcastle Thunder 70-16
03/24 12:30 1 Cornwall vs North Wales Crusaders 16-40
03/17 15:00 1 Workington vs Oldham 10-48
03/17 14:00 1 Midlands Hurricanes vs Rochdale 28-38
03/17 13:00 1 Keighley vs Cornwall 56-12
03/17 13:00 1 Hunslet vs Newcastle Thunder 48-12
09/24 14:00 1 Doncaster vs North Wales Crusaders 18-6
09/17 14:00 656 Hunslet vs North Wales Crusaders 18-25
09/10 17:00 2 Hunslet vs Doncaster 14-26
09/10 14:00 2 Oldham vs North Wales Crusaders 12-13

Wikipedia - RFL League 1

The Rugby Football League One (known as the Betfred League One) is the third-highest division of rugby league in Britain. It is also the lowest level of professional rugby league in Britain.

Introduced in 2003 as National League 2 it was the first time British rugby league had a third tier since the old Third and Second Divisions merged in 1998. The league was rebranded as Championship 1 in 2009, then League 1 in 2015, and League One in 2022.

The current winners are Dewsbury Rams who won the league for a record third time in 2023.

History

1991–2003: Foundation and regular competition

Third-division rugby league competitions in the United Kingdom have existed periodically since 1991. The current incarnation was created in 2003 when the second-division competition below Super League, the Northern Ford Premiership, was split into National Leagues One and Two. Teams that finished in the top ten league positions of the Northern Ford Premiership at the end of the 2002 season formed National League One, while the remaining eight formed National League Two where they were joined by two additional clubs, London Skolars from the Rugby League Conference and York City Knights, who replaced the defunct York Wasps and also joined National League Two for the inaugural season in 2003.

2004–2009: National Leagues

At the end of the 2005 Super League season, an extra team was relegated to National League One in order to accommodate French side Catalans Dragons' entry to the competition. In turn, an additional team was relegated from National League One to League Two, while Blackpool Panthers were elected to National League Two for the 2005 season to replace the defunct Chorley Lynx, leaving 11 teams in League Two. In order to even up the numbers, the Welsh team Celtic Crusaders were admitted to the competition in 2005, first playing in the 2006 season and increasing the division to twelve teams.

2010–2014: Championship 1

In 2009 Super League was expanded to 14 teams, with two additional teams being promoted from National League One. In turn, two additional teams were promoted from National League Two to National League One at the end of the 2008 season, reducing the number of teams in National League Two to 10. National Leagues One and Two were then rebranded as Championship and Championship 1 respectively, with the change being implemented in time for the 2009 season.

South Wales Scorpions were admitted to Championship 1 for the 2010 season, increasing the number of teams in the league to 11. Blackpool Panthers left the league in 2011, once again reducing the number of teams to 10. In 2013, three new teams were admitted to the league; Hemel Stags, Gloucestershire All Golds and Oxford Rugby League. To facilitate this expansion, in 2012 four teams were promoted to the Championship from Championship 1 and no teams were relegated from the Championship, meaning that the 2013 Championship 1 season was contested by 9 teams.

2015–present: League 1

Keighley Cougars celebrating winning the competition in 2022

In 2014 expansion and restructure took place with 5 teams relegated from the Championship and Coventry Bears added to expand the league to 14 teams, which was then renamed League 1. A new playoff structure was also introduced with two teams being promoted to the Championship. In 2015 the League 1 Cup was introduced as an additional competition for League 1 clubs. In 2016 Toulouse Olympique joined the league, bringing the total number of teams to 15. Toronto Wolfpack joined the league in 2017, bringing the total number of teams to 16.

In 2016, the Super 8s format that had been used in the Super League and Championship was introduced to League 1.

Under the amended structure, the 16 League 1 clubs play a regular season of 15 rounds, playing each other once either home or away. Following the conclusion of their regular league seasons, the 16 clubs then compete in a playoff series where they split into 2 divisions of 8 based upon league position:

  • The top eight League 1 clubs compete in the League 1 Super 8s. They play each other once (either home or away) to determine the champion and the four clubs that will compete in the playoffs for the second promotion place.
  • The remaining clubs compete for the League 1 Shield.

This format remained in use for the 2017 season but on 26 October 2017, it was confirmed that Oxford Rugby League and Gloucestershire All Golds will not compete for the 2018 season, in favour of creating a merged club in Bristol for 2019. This reduces the number of clubs to 14 and for 2018 the Super 8 format has been discarded and instead the teams will play a 26-game season; with home and away fixtures against all the other teams. The club top of the table after 26 games will automatically be promoted to the Championship and those finishing second to fifth will play off for the other promotion spot.

The format was modified for 2019 following an RFL extraordinary general meeting in September 2018. The number of clubs in the division will be reduced to 12 and the top six teams will compete for two promotion places to the Championship. However, on 23 October 2018, Hemel Stags announced that the club was withdrawing from the league for 2019 reducing the number of teams to 11; the RFL indicated that no replacement team is to be sought for the time being. The team finishing top of the 11-team league after the 20-game regular season will automatically be promoted then a series of six further matches will decide the second promotion spot.

Following the aborted 2020 season, the number of clubs was reduced to 10 as Newcastle Thunder were appointed to the Championship and the planned entry of Ottawa Aces was deferred to 2022. Over the close season of 2021–2022 Ottawa Aces decided to relocate to Cornwall and Cornwall R.L.F.C. became the divisions eleventh team for 2022.

A reduction to ten teams happened for 2023 as West Wales Raiders withdrew from the league in December 2022.

Further reductions to the number of teams initially saw the league go from ten to eight teams for the 2024 season, following London Skolars withdrawal from the league in September 2023 and Newcastle Thunders' withdrawal in October 2023. However the league was restored to nine when Newcastle were re-admitted in December 2023.