2022 RFL Championship

The 2022 Rugby Football League Championship is a rugby league football competition played in England. It is the second tier of the three tiers of professional rugby league in England, below Super League, and above League 1. The sponsors for the league are the bookmakers, Betfred and the league will continue to be known as the Betfred Championship.

Rule changes[]

The RFL approved three rules changes for 2022. On 20 January 2022, The RFL confirmed that scrums will return to all competitions, having been suspended as part of the game's COVID-19 response in 2020 and 2021.^[1] Scrums are only being reintroduced for errors (knock-on, forward pass or accidental offside) in the first four tackles of a set. Other cases, where previously a scrum would have been awarded, for example - ball into touch on the full, ball kicked or passed into touch, incorrect play the ball; will result in a handover.^[2]

The ball steal law will revert to the 2020 rule where the ball can only be stolen in a one-on-one tackle and not during a multi-person tackle where the additional tacklers have peeled off the tackle before the steal. Finally, injured players will be required to leave the pitch for treatment, if possible, following complaints that stoppages for injury spoil the speed and flow of the game.^[3]

Teams[]

The league comprises 14 teams. The regular season comprises 27 rounds, each teams will play each of the others twice (home and away) with the 21st round, the Summer Bash, seeing seven additional fixtures between the 14 teams played at the same venue.^[4]

West Yorkshire

Barrow

Leigh

London

Newcastle

Sheffield

Whitehaven

Widnes

Workington

York

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Locations of the 2022 RFL Championship teams

Bradford

Batley

Dewsbury

Featherstone

Halifax

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Locations of the 2021 RFL Championship teams in West Yorkshire

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Location
Barrow Raiders ()	Craven Park	3,000	Barrow in Furness, Cumbria
Batley Bulldogs ()	Mount Pleasant	7,500	Batley, West Yorkshire
Bradford Bulls (2022 season)	Odsal Stadium	22,000	Bradford, West Yorkshire
Dewsbury Rams ()	Crown Flatt	5,800	Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
Featherstone Rovers ()	Post Office Road	8,000	Featherstone, West Yorkshire
Halifax ()	The Shay	14,000	Halifax, West Yorkshire
Leigh Centurions ()	Leigh Sports Village	12,000	Leigh, Greater Manchester
London Broncos ()	Plough Lane	9,215	Wimbledon, London
Newcastle Thunder ()	Kingston Park	10,200	Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle
Sheffield Eagles ()	Olympic Legacy Park	3,900	Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Whitehaven ()	Recreation Ground	7,500	Whitehaven, Cumbria
Widnes Vikings ()	DCBL Stadium	13,350	Widnes, Cheshire
Workington Town ()	Derwent Park	10,000	Workington, Cumbria
York City Knights ()	York Community Stadium	8,005	York, North Yorkshire

Fixtures and results[]

Regular season table[]

Pos	Team v	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Featherstone Rovers	6	5	1	0	156	72	+84	11
2	Leigh Centurions	6	5	0	1	194	74	+120	10
3	Barrow Raiders	5	4	1	0	104	62	+42	9
4	Widnes Vikings	6	4	0	2	179	114	+65	8
5	York City Knights	6	4	0	2	114	106	+8	8
6	Sheffield Eagles	5	3	0	2	146	58	+88	6
7	Bradford Bulls	5	3	0	2	111	114	−3	6
8	Newcastle Thunder	6	3	0	3	122	130	−8	6
9	Batley Bulldogs	5	2	1	2	106	83	+23	5
10	Halifax Panthers	6	2	0	4	124	93	+31	4
11	Whitehaven	6	2	0	4	86	164	−78	4
12	Dewsbury Rams	6	1	0	5	74	186	−112	2
13	London Broncos	6	0	1	5	66	144	−78	1
14	Workington Town	6	0	0	6	56	238	−182	0

Broadcasting[]

The rights to show matches from the Championship was until November 2020 held by Sky TV but the RFL negotiated a new deal with Sky which removed Championship games from the existing contract, and instead the RFL signed a new deal with Premier Sports. This deal will result in one match from each round being broadcast live on a Monday evening.^[5]

References[]