Chinnor have no league fixtures after October 19th until November 30th.

Presumably there will be a Cup competition during this period ?

There are two big gaps, which are the autumn internationals and the six nations.

We assume the cup will happen in those periods.

But, if you are knocked out, you are going to need to find friendlies to cover the end of the second gap.

Welcome to the Champ.

It's s**te.

I note the Prem have fixtures on the weekend of 25/27th Oct - so that will be blank for us.

Part 1 - 5 week block with 2 reserve weeks

26-Oct-24	Reserve
02-Nov-24	Cup Week 1
09-Nov-24	Cup Week 2
16-Nov-24	Reserve
23-Nov-24	Cup Week 3

Part 2 - 7 week block including 1 reserve week quarter, Semi,  and final. 

01-Feb-25	Cup Week 4
08-Jan-25	Cup Week 5
15-Feb-25	Cup Week 6
22-Feb-25	Reserve
01-Mar-25	Cup Quarter Final
08-Mar-25	Cup Semi Final
15-Mar-25	Cup Final

Anyone knocked out  after 15 Feb will have 4 blank weeks before next league fixture on 22 March 

And of course, the odds are that most of the 8 quarter finalists will be Premiership sides.

So all championship clubs should plan for four blank weekends.

That's very harsh.

On s**te.

Ealing was the only side in the top two of a pool last season.

Coventry was the only other side to beat a Premiership side.

The Premiership clubs have first call on all loan players, so the Championship sides are not at their strongest.

Admittedly, the timing is different, last season the Premiership sides were using the matches as pre-season games, so they were not resting players.

It would be great if the top two teams in each pool went through to the knockouts. I think that would keep the pool stages interesting until the very end and would hopefully mean more Champ representation in the knockout rounds. 

We do have quarter-finals this year, so it is the top two - out of six - in each pool.

Doncaster Knights home fixture announcement 

Seems to me that any team with less than 30 fixtures per season (40 hours playing time) will be looking down the barrel of a financial shotgun. 

Been there, done that, still have the Treasurer's psychological scars)

There are only 22 teams competing (presumably) so there can’t be 4 pools of 6. There are meant to be 6 games each but I can’t work out how the format will work without a couple of championship teams being shafted and losing out on a home game (again).

Maybe something like 2 pools of 6, 2 of 5 and they do that weird thing they’ve done before in cups where your pool plays all your games against another pool (so the 2 6s all play each other and the 2 5s). In the 5 team leagues, you play one team from the other pool home and away to make up the extra fixture (likely against someone from your own league). It would be 3 prem, 3 champ in the 6s and 2 prem 3 champ in the 5s. Top 2 from each group through. Everybody would be guaranteed one home game against a prem team, a couple of lucky teams would get 2. Purely speculation but can’t see how else it morks. Unless it is just 3 pools of 4 from the championship without prem involvement…

I've never heard anyone else mention your curious 'playing time' concept FHLH. It's a bit like deciding you'll charge spectators per hour when they arrive at the gate, rather than having an overall admission price.

With 6 cup (pool) games and 22 in the league, no club would play fewer than 30 games, unless they only organised 1 pre-season match.

The format is different, as the Premiership have more weeks to fill, as they are not fitting round the World Cup.

So we have nine weeks of Cup - six pools mathes three knock oput rounds which most of us will not feature in.

There are also three reserve weeks, one immediately before the cup fixtures, and one in each round of pool matches.

So we have:

Five rounds of league matches

Reserve

Two cup games

Reserve

One round of cup

Five rounds of League

Two week break for Christmas/ New Year

Two rounds of League

Three rounds of Cup

Reserve Week

Three weeks of twidling thumbs / knock out rounds

Five rounds of league including Easter

Reserve Week

Five rounds of league

The Championship starts two weeks later than the National Leagues and ends five weeks later - overlapping with the county season.

But at least we do not have the Papa John Cup to deal with.

No sinister reason, just trying to put the playing time into context, especially as grounds are empty and unused perhaps 75% of the year or more. Makes ground sharing between sports something to actively consider with financial pressures at the forefront of people's minds.

Blues also beat Leicester Tigers.

It didn't help last year the the Championship side got 1 home game against Premiership clubs.  Blues were given away games to Sale and Falcons.

There were 5 match days last season, now there are 6.

I would be surprised if it was this format because this would result in playing 2 or 3 champ clubs 4 times in a season and I think they are keen to spread the fixtures around more.

There are more Championship clubs than Premiership clubs, so the Championship clubs cannot play six matches against Premiership clubs - as each Premiership side would need to play 7.2 times.

I think you can create a scheme where each Championship club plays five Premiership clubs, with the two spare Championship sides playing each other.

You could make that two pools.

But I cannot see the Premiership going for that.

The format I suggested had 4 groups where 2 prem teams were in 2 and 3 were in 2. It would guarantee every club 3 home fixtures, at least one of which would be against a prem team (a couple of clubs would get 2) and 3 away fixtures, at least one of which would be against a prem team (some teams 2). It’s relatively fair in that teams in the same group play the same teams (bar one game in the 2 groups of 5), and ensures all 6 fixtures are against different opponents. It also makes qualification for quarters easy to understand; top 2 in each group and no best runners up type scenario.

That was what happened last season and gives five fixtures - as you don't play yourself.

And the way it worked out, the Prem sides got three home games, with the Champ sides getting two.

And Cambridge and Scottish played the two Premiership fixtures away from home.

So they have extended to six rounds.

You could add a round of cross pool matches - but that just gets messy.

The format I suggested a few posts above is entirely cross pool, so would be 6 fixtures and avoids the Cambridge/London Scottish issue from last season.

Wouldn't an obvious step be for Ealing A Trailfinders to give us one more, they probably have the squad to even put out an Ealing B Trailfinders and still do more than ok?

We will have 24 next season, but we will still be deficient in Premiership sides.

Also, who knows how many games the Premiership will want to play.

And the season after that, we might have the Welsh sides.

And I think I have understood the scheme Bluesman suggested with four pools.

Pools A and D have six teams

Pools B and C have five

The teams in the pools of five, play the teams in the pool of six.

So in the first week A1 v B1 C1 v D1

With the spare team in the pool of six playing the matching team in the other pool of six.

So A6 v D6

So if you are in pool B or C you play three Premiership and three Championship sides.

As do the Premiership sides on pools A and D

But the championship sides in the big pools play 2 Premiership and 4 Championship sides.

But as there are three Premiership sides in the pool, it is harder to get into the top two.

I would need to think about how you arrange home and away matches - but it can be done.

Which, having thought about it, is not a bad scheme.

Cambridge RUFC has not sent the first XV to the Town and Gown for about 10 years.

Possibly Army and Navy - but a lot of their best players also play for one of the other teams involved.

And some might not be available - as they do have day jobs.

They are looking for a bridging level between domestic and URC, so 6 to 9 fixtures in international windows may appeal and work well for everyone. 

The two extra teams would only be for one season, as next season we will be 14.

Inviting Glasgow and Edinburgh would probably have been sensible, especially if one was in the same group as London Scottish. 

But it probably needed to have been done much earlier in the process - as presumably needs approval of the URC and World Rugby.

What we don't know is if anyone asked them - or how much money they would want to take part, given they would have three fairly long trips to away games.

Not saying any more atm though, but the format otherwise seems a vast improvement on what's gone before.

If true, that chimes with what I've picked up on.

It would mean five groups of four, with each side playing each other home and away.

No idea how it would progress after that though...

And presumably 2 champ and 2 prem per group. I assume it would be top of each group and 3 best runners up to quarters.

If that's the case, I think it's pretty outrageous. Cambridge and Chinnor are just as much a part of the Champ as all of the other clubs, and have earnt their place at Level 2 on merit. I've never heard anything like this before, and would hope the Champ as a whole would remain united as they have done re Prem 2 and insist that ALL Champ clubs have their day out against the big boys.

The only possible reason I could see as to them not being included may be because they lack the infrastructure to televise games? But I'm sure the same could be said for Caldy and Ampthill, if not several others.

Yes, two Champ, two Prem.

Cov's group is interesting to say the least, but no idea who Bedford are grouped with (so that narrows it down very slightly 😉