Championship 2020/21 season to begin in March

The Greene King IPA Championship will commence the 2020/21 season on the weekend of 6th March, 2021, it has been confirmed.

The league will be split into two conferences.  Teams will play home and away within their conference producing 10 competition rounds, subsequent to which there will be a two-leg playoff final between the winner of each league to determine the team that will earn promotion to the Gallagher Premiership for the 2021/22 season.

 
The conferences will be determined by standings when the 2019/2020 season ended in March 2020; with Saracens taking the place of Newcastle Falcons and Richmond replacing Yorkshire Carnegie.

 
Therefore, the two Conferences will be:

 
Conference A:    
Saracens, Cornish Pirates, Ampthill, Jersey Reds, London Scottish, Hartpury University

 
Conference B:    
Ealing Trailfinders, Coventry, Nottingham, Bedford Blues, Doncaster Knights, Richmond

 
A small number of Championship clubs have returned to training operating under the elite sport framework and may arrange pre-season friendlies ahead of the restart in early March.