2019–20 Greene King IPA Championship
Countries	England Jersey
Date	11 October 2019 - 14 March 2020
Champions	Newcastle Falcons (3rd title)
Runners-up	Ealing Trailfinders
Relegated	Yorkshire Carnegie
Matches played	87
Attendance	139,760 (average 1,606 per match)
Highest attendance	6,315 Newcastle Falcons v Cornish Pirates 16 February 2020
Lowest attendance	300 Yorkshire Carnegie v Ampthill 22 February 2020
Tries scored	523 (average 6 per match)
Top point scorer	Louis Grimoldby (Ampthill) Rory Jennings (Coventry) Sam Olver (Doncaster Knights) 112 points each
Top try scorer	George McGuigan (Newcastle Falcons) Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons) 10 tries each
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

The2019–20 RFU Championship, known as the2019–20 Greene King IPA Championship for sponsorship reasons, was the eleventh season of theRFU Championship, the professional second tier of rugby union in England. It featured eleven English teams and one fromJersey. The competition was sponsored byGreene King for the seventh successive season.^[1]

Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the Rugby Football Union officially cancelled the season on 20 March 2020, after initially postponing all rugby in England including training from 17 March until 14 April 2020.^[2][3] As a result,Newcastle Falcons were declared champions for the season, and promoted to thePremiership on 2 April 2020 on the basis of abest playing record formula, having been undefeated and top of the table when the league was suspended, whileYorkshire Carnegie were relegated toNational League 1 at the bottom.^[4][5]

The team that finished first waspromoted toPremiership Rugby as their ground met the RFU Minimum Standards Criteria. The team that finished last wasrelegated toNational League 1. Each club received £530,000 in funding from the RFU in the last year of a deal with the RFU.^[6]

Plans to expand Premiership Rugby from 12 to 13 teams for the 2019–20 season, which would have reprievedNewcastle Falcons from being relegated to the Championship, were blocked by the RFU.^[7] Plans to abolish promotion and relegation were under discussion prior to the season,^[7] and drew complaints and threats of legal action from theCornish Pirates.^[8] There were also plans for the RFU Championship to have a delayed start until October due to the2019 Rugby World Cup.^[9]

The season began on 20 September 2019 with theChampionship Rugby Cup after which the first round of matches started on 11 October 2019 and the final round of matches were scheduled to be played on 9 May 2020.

Ampthill

Bedford

Cornish Pirates

Coventry

Doncaster

Ealing

Hartpury

Jersey Reds

London Scottish

Newcastle

Nottingham

Yorkshire Carnegie

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Locations of the 2019–20 RFU Championship teams

Richmond were relegated to National League 1 after finishing bottom of the2018-19 RFU Championship.^[10] They are replaced byAmpthill who were promoted from2018-19 National League 1 in their fifth promotion in twelve years, playing in the Championship for the first time.^[11][12]London Irish were promoted back to Premiership Rugby at the first attempt.^[6] They are replaced in the RFU Championship by Newcastle Falcons who were relegated after finishing last in2018-19 Premiership Rugby.^[13]

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• Game postponed due to bad weather (storm). Game to be rescheduled to 22 February 2020.^[27][28]

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• Game rescheduled from 9 February 2020.

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• Cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

• Cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

• Cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

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• Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included).

Top points scorers [edit] Rank Player Team Points 1 Louis Grimoldby Ampthill 112 Rory Jennings Coventry 112 Sam Olver Doncaster Knights 112 2 Javier Rojas Alvarez Cornish Pirates 108 3 Craig Willis Ealing Trailfinders 82 4 Josh Bragman Hartpury College 77 5 Steven Shingler Ealing Trailfinders 70 6 Shane O'Leary Nottingham 65 7 Brendan Cope Jersey Reds 60 [33]

Top try scorers [edit] Rank Player Team Tries 1 George McGuigan Newcastle Falcons 10 Adam Radwan Newcastle Falcons 10 2 Callum Patterson Cornish Pirates 9 Jack Spittle Nottingham 9 3 Antonio Harris Jersey Reds 8 Ryan Hutler Bedford Blues 8 David Williams Nottingham 8 4 Sam Baker Ampthill 7 Matt Cornish Ealing Trailfinders 7 Luke Frost London Scottish 7 Reon Joseph Ealing Trailfinders 7 [33]

• 2019–20 RFU Championship
• Champ Rugby seasons
• 2019–20 in English rugby union leagues
• Sports events curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic

• CS1: unfit URL