The 2024 RFL Championship, (officially known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons), is a professional rugby league club competition. The second tier of the British rugby league system comprises 14 clubs – 13 from England and one from France.

The season comprises 26 rounds in the regular season with the top six teams taking part in the play-offs to determine the champions.

Team changes

London Broncos won promotion to the Super League at the end of 2023 and are replaced by Wakefield Trinity who were relegated from Super League. Promoted from League 1 in 2023 are Dewsbury Rams and Doncaster who replace the 2023 relegated teams, Keighley Cougars and Newcastle Thunder.

Structure changes

There is no automatic promotion from the Championship to Super League at the end of the season. This is due to the introduction of the grading scheme where clubs are graded by a number of factors, not all based on on-field performance. ^[1]

The Summer Bash round which sees all the fixtures played at one location over a weekend has been dropped for 2024 following disappointing attendance figures for the 2022 and 2023 events which were played in Leeds and York respectively. ^[2]

Following a review of the league structure below Super League, the RFL announced that by the start of the 2026 season, the Championship and League 1 would be equalised in size at 12 teams each. The first step will be to reduce the Championship from 14 clubs to 13 at the end of the 2024 season. This will be achieved by the bottom two clubs being relegated to League 1 but only the League 1 champions being promoted. The team finishing third-bottom this season will play the team winning the League 1 play-offs for the 13th spot in the 2025 Championship. ^[3]

Rule changes

A number of changes have been introduced for 2024. ^[4]

The " six again" rule has been amended so that set restarts will only be awarded if the ball is in the defending team's half of the field. Infringements in the attacking team's half will result in a penalty to the attacking team.

The use of the 18th man will be allowed after two players (reduced from three) have failed head impact assessments or a player is unable to continue through injury (not just a head injury) resulting from foul play where the opposing player was sin-binned or sent-off. The use of the green card by the referee ordering injured players off the field for treatment will be discontinued in the Championship.

A team awarded a penalty at a scrum will have the option to reset the scrum instead of taking the penalty.

For disciplinary processes a category of "reckless tackle" has been introduced. ^[5]

On 26 February 2024, the RFL announced that changes would be made to the 'head on head contact' rule that was previously implemented to start the season. This came after Nu Brown of Super League club Hull FC was controversially shown a red card for a tackle during his sides match against Warrington Wolves. ^[6] The RFL stated that the rule will be amended, "emphasising that it applies only to initial contact". ^[7]

Clubs

West Yorkshire

Barrow

Doncaster

Sheffield

Swinton

Whitehaven

Widnes

York

class=notpageimage|

Locations of English teams competing in the 2024 Championship.

Bradford

Batley

Dewsbury

Wakefield

Featherstone

Halifax

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the 2024 RFL Championship teams in West Yorkshire

Toulouse

class=notpageimage|

Locations of 2024 RFL Championship teams in France

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Barrow Raiders	Barrow-in-Furness	Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium	6,000
Batley Bulldogs	Batley	Mount Pleasant	7,500
Bradford Bulls	Bradford	Odsal Stadium	22,000
Dewsbury Rams	Dewsbury	Crown Flatt	5,100
Doncaster	Doncaster	Eco-Power Stadium	15,231
Featherstone Rovers	Featherstone	Millennium Stadium	8,000
Halifax Panthers	Halifax	The Shay	10,401
Sheffield Eagles	Sheffield	Olympic Legacy Park	1,320
Swinton Lions	Sale	Heywood Road	3,387
Toulouse Olympique	Toulouse	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500
Wakefield Trinity	Wakefield	DIY Kitchens Stadium	9,333
Whitehaven	Whitehaven	Recreation Ground	7,500
Widnes Vikings	Widnes	DCBL Stadium	13,350
York Knights	York	York Community Stadium	8,005

Results

Table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Wakefield Trinity	6	6	0	0	216	62	+154	12	League Leaders Shield and qualify for semi-finals
2	Sheffield Eagles	6	6	0	0	218	84	+134	12	Semi-finals
3	Widnes Vikings	6	5	0	1	174	83	+91	10	Eliminators
4	Featherstone Rovers	6	4	0	2	156	116	+40	8
5	Swinton Lions	6	3	0	3	124	94	+30	6
6	Bradford Bulls	6	3	0	3	111	117	−6	6
7	Doncaster	6	3	0	3	142	152	−10	6
8	Toulouse Olympique	6	2	0	4	120	109	+11	4
9	Batley Bulldogs	6	2	0	4	95	130	−35	4
10	Whitehaven	6	2	0	4	97	173	−76	4
11	Halifax Panthers	6	2	0	4	78	163	−85	4
12	Barrow Raiders	6	2	0	4	78	193	−115	4	Play-off v League 1 play-off winners
13	York Knights	6	1	0	5	97	157	−60	2	Relegation to League One
14	Dewsbury Rams	6	1	0	5	94	167	−73	2

Player statistics

Top 10 try scorers

Rank	Player (s)	Club	Tries
1	Lachlan Walmsley	Wakefield Trinity	10
2	Max Jowitt		6
	Ryan Ince	Widnes Vikings	6
4	James Glover	Sheffield Eagles	5
5	Josh Griffin	Wakefield Trinity
6	Kieran Gill	Bradford Bulls	4
	Pauli Pauli	Doncaster RLFC
	Connor Wynne	Featherstone Rovers
	Connor Jones
	Brad Day
	Danny Addy
	Louis Jouffret	Halifax Panthers
	Dale Morton	Sheffield Eagles
	Joe Burton
	Maxime Stefani	Toulouse Olympique
	Luke Gale	Wakefield Trinity
	Matty Fozard	Widnes Vikings
	Rhodri Lloyd

Top 10 goal scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Max Jowitt	Wakefield Trinity	31
	Cory Aston	Sheffield Eagles
3	Tom Gilmore	Widnes Vikings	26
4	Connor Robinson	Doncaster RLFC	20
5	Jordan Lilley	Bradford Bulls	18
6	Dec Patton	Swinton Lions	14
7	Louis Jouffret	Halifax Panthers	12
	Jake Shorrocks	Toulouse Olympique
	Jake Carter	Whitehaven
10	Louix Gorman	Featherstone Rovers	11

Top 10 point scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Max Jowitt	Wakefield Trinity	86
2	Cory Aston	Sheffield Eagles	74
3	Tom Gilmore	Widnes Vikings	58
4	Connor Robinson	Doncaster RLFC	52
5	Jordan Lilley	Bradford Bulls	43
6	Louis Jouffret	Halifax Panthers	40
	Lachlan Walmsley	Wakefield Trinity
8	Jake Carter	Whitehaven	29
10	Ryan Shaw	Barrow Raiders	28
	Dec Patton	Swinton Lions
	Jake Shorrocks	Toulouse Olympique

As of 29 April 2024: (Round 6)

Discipline

Red Cards

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Brad Walker	Barrow Raiders	1
	Sitaleki Akauola	Toulouse Olympique
	Harrison Hansen

Yellow Cards

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Adam Gledhill	Batley Bulldogs	2
	Ryan King	Whitehaven RLFC
	Mitchel Souter	Bradford Bulls
4	Ryan Johnston	Barrow Raiders	1
	Ryan Shaw
	Jarrad Stack
	Brad Walker
	Dane Manning	Batley Bulldogs
	Jorge Taufua	Bradford Bulls
	Ronan Dixon	Dewsbury Rams
	Kieran Rush
	Marcus Walker
	Yusuf Aydin	Featherstone Rovers
	Brad England
	Josh Hardcastle
	Ben Reynolds
	Jacob Fairbank	Halifax Panthers
	Kevin Larroyer
	Joshua Eaves	Swinton Lions
	Richard Lepori
	Dec Patton
	George Roby
	Lambert Belmas	Toulouse Olympique
	Robin Brochon
	Éloi Pélissier
	Dominique Peyroux
	Max Jowitt	Wakefield Trinity
	Derrell Olpherts
	Edene Gebbie	Whitehaven RLFC
	James Newton
	Matty Fleming	Widnes Vikings
	Ryan Ince
	Danny Langtree

As of 30 April 2024: (Round 6)

Broadcasting

The two-year deal with Viaplay expired at the end of the 2023 season. As of November 2023 no new deal has been arranged with any provider.

References