The 2019–20 RFU Championship Cup was the second season of the annual rugby union Championship Cup competition for second tier, professional English clubs playing in the RFU Championship.[1]
The competition ended without a winner after the quarter-final stage due to the premature end of the RFU Championship season due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom.
The competition format is a pool stage followed by a knockout stage. The pool stage consists of three pool of four teams each playing home and away matches. Pool matches ran from September through to December, on weekends when there is no RFU Championship league fixtures. In the inaugural season, the RFU had set out the pools in a regional format to encourage derby games, but this year's competition format was more loosely structured.
The top two sides in each pool, plus the two best third placed teams, progressed to the knockout stage, with the best ranked sides getting home advantage in the quarter-finals. The semi-finals and final were cancelled.[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
The eight qualifiers are seeded according to performance in the pool stage - with the 3 pool winners making the top 3 seeds along with the best runner up as seed number 4, and the next two runners up and two best 3rd place teams making up the other 4 seeds. The top 4 seeds host the quarter-finals against the lower seeds, in a 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5 format. However, if two teams qualify from the same pool they can not be drawn together.
Teams are ranked by:
[9]
[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
83 – 0 Nottingham at home to Yorkshire Carnegie on 20 September 2019
50 – 0 Nottingham away to Yorkshire Carnegie on 14 December 2019
Nottingham at home to Yorkshire Carnegie on 20 September 2019
Ealing Trailfinders at home to Bedford Blues on 30 November 2019
Hartpury at home to Doncaster Knights on 14 December 2019
Craig Willis for Ealing Trailfinders at home to Bedford Blues on 30 November 2019
Alex O'Meara for Cornish Pirates away to Nottingham on 4 October 2019
Josh Bragman for Hartpury at home to Doncaster Knights on 14 December 2019
Newcastle Falcons at home to Hartpury on 29 November 2019
Ampthill at home to Ealing Trailfinders on 7 December 2019
Newcastle Falcons
Yorkshire Carnegie