2016–17 National League 1

2016–17 National League 1
Countries	England
Date	3 September 2016 – 29 April 2017
Champions	Hartpury College (1st title)
Runners-up	Plymouth Albion
Relegated	Macclesfield, Blaydon
Matches played	240
Attendance	140,695 (average 586 per match)
Highest attendance	2,712 Coventry v Birmingham Moseley (18 December 2016)
Lowest attendance	113 Loughborough Students v Blaydon (7 January 2017) Loughborough Students v Old Albanian (4 February 2017)
Tries scored	1802 (average 7.5 per match)
Top point scorer	Harry Leonard (Rosslyn Park) (265 points)
Top try scorer	Jonas Mikalcius (Hartpury College) (34 tries)
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 National League 1, known for sponsorship reasons as the SSE National League 1 was the eighth season of the third tier of the English rugby union system, since the professionalised format of the second tier RFU Championship was introduced; and was the 30th season since league rugby began in 1987.

Hartpury College were crowned the champions on 11 March 2017 after winning their 25th match and maintaining their 100% record.^[1] The college side went on break more National League 1 records by winning all 30 games and gaining promotion to the highest level in the club's history. Other records by Hartpury included most league points in a season (143), most points scored (1,455), as well as tying with Ealing Trailfinders (2014–15) for most bonus points gained in a season (28).

Due to London Welsh going into liquidation in January 2017 and being expelled from the RFU Championship, only two teams were relegated from National League 1.^[2] On 1 April 2017 newly promoted Macclesfield were the first team to be relegated after they lost 18–21 at home to Plymouth Albion.^[3] The second relegation spot was keenly contested and went to the last game of the season with 14th placed Hull Ionians 3 points ahead of 15th placed Blaydon. In the end Blaydon lost their final game while Hull Ionians won theirs to finish 6 points clear.^[4] It ended a run of 10 years in the 3rd tier for Blaydon.

Structure[]

The league consisted of sixteen teams with all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis to make a total of thirty matches each. There was one promotion place with the champions promoted to the Greene King IPA Championship. There are usually three relegation places with the bottom three teams relegated to either National League 2 North or National League 2 South depending on the geographical location of the team. Due to the expulsion of the championship team London Welsh in January 2017, there was no relegation from the championship and subsequently only two teams relegated from this league.^[5]

Participating teams and locations[]

Twelve of the sixteen teams participated in the preceding season's competition. The 2015–16 champions, Richmond, were promoted to the 2016–17 RFU Championship and replaced by Birmingham Moseley (who changed their name from Moseley prior to the season) and were relegated from the 2015–16 RFU Championship. The three teams relegated last season, were Henley Hawks and Cinderford (both to the 2016–17 National League 2 South) and Wharfedale (2016–17 National League 2 North) – with Wharfedale dropping from the third tier for the first time in 20 years.^[6][7][8] The promoted teams are Cambridge and Macclesfield champions of the 2015–16 National League 2 South and 2015–16 National League 2 North respectively, and Old Albanian who won the promotion play-off against Sedgley Park.^[9][10][11]

League table[]

2016–17 National League 1 Table
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Try bonus	Losing bonus	Points
1	Hartpury College (P)	30	30	0	0	1455	532	923	28	0	148
2	Plymouth Albion	30	24	0	6	879	523	356	17	5	118
3	Ampthill	30	22	0	8	844	584	260	17	3	108
4	Coventry	30	20	1	9	974	733	241	17	2	101
5	Birmingham Moseley	30	20	0	10	854	682	172	15	3	98
6	Rosslyn Park	30	16	1	13	867	682	185	13	7	86
7	Blackheath	30	14	1	15	692	724	−32	13	4	75
8	Esher	30	13	0	17	828	854	−26	16	6	74
9	Old Albanian	30	13	0	17	749	926	−177	14	5	71
10	Darlington Mowden Park	30	13	1	16	695	791	−96	10	5	69
11	Loughborough Students	30	10	1	19	905	966	−61	16	8	66
12	Fylde	30	10	0	20	691	1050	−359	15	4	59
13	Hull Ionians	30	10	1	19	679	944	−265	9	7	58
14	Cambridge	30	8	1	21	779	994	−215	18	6	58
15	Blaydon (R)	30	8	2	20	642	1010	−368	10	6	52
16	Macclesfield (R)	30	4	1	25	579	1117	−538	8	5	31
Points system: 4 points for a win; 2 points for a draw; 1 point if a team loses by seven points or less (losing bonus); 1 point if the team scores four or more tries in a match (try bonus) If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background is the promotion place. Pink background are relegation places. Updated: 29 April 2017 Source: "National League 1". NCA Rugby.

Fixtures[]

Round 1[]

^[12]

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Round 2[]

^[13]

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Round 3[]

^[14]

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Round 4[]

^[15]

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Round 5[]

^[16]

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Round 6[]

^[17]

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Round 7[]

^[18]

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Round 8[]

^[19]

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Round 9[]

^[20]

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Round 10[]

^[21]

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Round 11[]

* Hartpury is the first team (in the top three divisions) to win a bonus point in eleven consecutive matches.^[22]

^[23]

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Round 12[]

^[24]

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Round 13[]

^[25]

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Round 14[]

^[26]

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Round 15[]

^[27]

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Round 16[]

• Hartpury failed to gain a bonus point for the first time this season.^[28]

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Round 17[]

^[29]

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Round 18[]

^[30]

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Round 19[]

^[31]

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Round 20[]

^[32]

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Round 21[]

^[33]

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Round 22[]

^[34]

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Round 23[]

^[35]

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Rescheduled matches (from 14 January)[]

^[36]

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Round 24[]

^[37]

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Round 25[]

• With victory Hartpury College are champions.

^[38]

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Round 26[]

^[39]

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Round 27[]

• Macclesfield are relegated.^[3]

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Round 28[]

^[41]

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Round 29[]

^[42]

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Round 30[]

• Blaydon are relegated.^[4]

^[43]

Attendances[]

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Ampthill	15	6,221	415	823	303	14%
Birmingham Moseley	15	12,450	830	1,232	656	17%
Blackheath	15	11,075	738	1,187	401	45%
Blaydon	15	3,748	250	620	120	12%
Cambridge	15	7,320	488	750	380	39%
Coventry	15	18,963	1,264	2,712	939	32%
Darlington Mowden Park	15	13,270	885	1,407	622	4%
Esher	15	9,090	606	1,400	330	17%
Fylde	15	9,240	616	765	517	7%
Hartpury College	15	5,838	389	803	150	19%
Hull Ionians	15	3,450	230	355	151	15%
Loughborough Students	15	4,070	271	543	113	9%
Old Albanian	15	4,874	325	419	225	32%
Macclesfield	15	5,104	340	478	198	27%
Plymouth Albion	15	16,085	1,072	1,821	688	13%
Rosslyn Park	15	9,897	660	1,347	150	33%

Individual statistics[]

• Updated to matches played on 29 April 2017^[41][42][43]

Season records[]

• Updated to matches played on 29 April 2017

^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][21][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] [31][32][33][35][37][38][39][3][41][42][43]}

See also[]

• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

References[]

External links[]

• NCA Rugby